Being Present with Your Food

Hello friends, 

I just recently wrapped up a cluster of cooking classes — from creating cauliflower BBQ bites and vegan blue cheese dip (going through two heads of cauliflower between four people) to making 27 cups’ worth of chickpea recipes between six people — we nailed it with some really splendid dishes. The most recent class was vegan cheese day, and we learned a lot about a certain ingredient called agar agar and how very particular it is to work with. It brings a new level to the saying about being present with your food, don't turn your head for a minute. You have to work quickly and know exactly what your next step is, or everything could go wrong.

There is an art to being present with your food — not only when you are cooking it, but also when you are consuming it. Too often we eat our food distracted, that is, in front of a computer, television, while driving, or while working. Nobody is exempt from being guilty of this, especially not me. I am certain I have mentioned this before but if there is one thing you do as an act of self-care Be thoughtful about a plant-based meal, you are choosing to put this in your body for nutrition and for satisfaction. Create this meal at home and eat at the table completely undistracted by anything. When you are eating each bite, feel the texture of your food, taste the flavors that enhance it, and, in between bites, set your utensil down. This practice may sound silly, but being present with your food is an amazing way to be more in tune with yourself. Your body has time to digest, send full signals to your brain, and allow you to consume exactly what you need to be satisfied. Not only will your food be more pleasurable to consume, but you will become more intuitive to your body's cues of satiation. We love food but how often do we take this kind of time to really, truly enjoy it? Life is a beautiful gift, and we have multiple senses that grant us the ability to enjoy nature's massive plethora of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. I know that we can't do it every meal, but if we could make a goal to try and be more present more often, I am almost certain that you can create a new relationship with the foods you eat and how you enjoy them. 

Knowing what I know about foods in relation to our health, it is astounding to me that it isn't a crime to serve the majority of the garbage that sells on the grocery store shelves and passes itself off as food. Change does not happen overnight, but each day that you choose plant-based whole foods is a day you give your body the opportunity to heal and restore itself. Allow the magic within yourself to be empowered by the foods you fuel it with, you will not regret making that choice later, I promise.  Let's normalize the association between plant-based whole foods and nutrition with good health and a form of disease prevention and a possible way to reverse disease. Inspire and heal the world in so many ways, all you have to do is start with you, because you are #1!