Exit
Mindful eating, the notion
of being more “present” during
mealtime, is one strategy to reconnect with the food we put in
our bodies. It sounds like my kind
of diet — one in which you can
concentrate on taste rather than
having to give up gluten, dairy,
sugar or whatever food group du
jour is terrible for you.
Nauman, the restaurant’s event
planner and managing chef, was
inspired to host these bi-monthly
dinners after having silent meals
at an Indian monastery.
My foray into spiritual evolution through eating didn’t start
out well. We were late and the
last people seated. I was not relaxed. In fact, I was pretty annoyed — the restaurant was hot,
I was frustrated about being late,
and just generally grumpy due to
the cloudy weather.
Nauman greeted the 24-person crowd and instructed everyone to turn off their cell phones
before the meal began. My boyfriend and I smiled at our dining
companions seated with us at
the communal table — two chemists from Harlem and two women
from the neighborhood — and
said nothing.
I was ready to be enlightened.
THE THIRD
METRIC
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
Would I eat less and/or slower since
I was more focused on the food and
not the people? Would I experience
a heightened sense of taste?
When the salad course arrived, I was extremely self-conscious. Perhaps I was chewing
too loudly and disturbing other
patrons. And my nose was running a bit — was my sniffling
ruining the mood? The salad
greens were really hard to cut;
I’d like to consider
myself a mindful eater,
but in reality, I probably
err more on the side of
a mindless eater.”
I was convinced everyone must
have thought I was a savage as I
gave up using my knife and shoveled large pieces of greens into
my mouth. I wasn’t experiencing
any sort of taste nirvana; I was
just trying to finish the course
without anyone noticing I was
a sniffling mess who may have
chewed with my mouth open a
couple of times.
While the salad was tasty
enough, it wasn’t anything special. But I was finally able to relax