Mindfulness and savoring 78 participants,‘ Now I want you to go and choose something rich for morning tea. You will find chocolate fudge brownies and biscuits to choose from. Then I want you to bring them back into the room with your tea or coffee AND DON’ T START EATING THEM UNTIL I TELL YOU’. People who have come along to learn about how to lose weight are often a little confused when they see the rich fattening food that I lay on for morning tea. Since you’ ve read this far, hopefully this is no surprise to you at all. And, of course, when I come back into the workshop room a good third of the attendees will have started eating their morning tea! So I have to threaten them with death to get them to desist. I don’ t think it is just that people are poor listeners. I think that for a long time many overweight people have been on seafood diets – once they see food, they eat it – immediately! Certainly if you grew up with my three brothers if you didn’ t eat it immediately you were lucky to eat, let alone get any good bits. Overweight people tell me that the other reason they can’ t leave yummy( yes, that’ s a medical term) food sitting is guilt – they know they’ re going to eat it and they have to hide the evidence! So when they see yummy food in front of them it gets shoveled down. It is as though, if it was left to sit there, someone might come along and take it( every chance in my family) or tell you not to eat it. Before we go any further I need you to go to your kitchen and get yourself some yummy food – the more decadent the better. As I go through this exercise I want you to go through it as well. Stop reading and do it now! The first thing you need to do with savoring food is to take it in with your eyes. [ As I write this sentence the waitress brings me my lemon meringue pie( day two of my writing retreat to finish this book) so excuse me while I stop typing and give this pie my full attention – and yes, it is lunchtime and this is my HSF for the day, pedometer reading 3,660.] So [ back again, and yes the lemon meringue pie was superb ] start by simply looking closely at your yummy food. Take it in with your