Marci called Thursday morning. “Can I bring a fear food tonight and practice eating it mindfully?” She’d been learning–to eat when hungry, choose exactly the food she wanted, stop eating when satiated. And, she was becoming more aware of which foods were triggers and which were simply foods she was afraid to eat. Occasionally she’d experimented with eating a food from her “bad” list on her own. She ate it quickly, didn’t let herself enjoy it, and before she even swallowed the last bite, she heard–OMG! I’m bad. Still, the desire for these “fear foods” persisted.
She arrived at my office at 6 PM with a flat white box. Inside: 2 slices of thin crust pizza. The aroma was amazing.
Why is pizza a bad food? I asked her before we started eating.
High fat, cheese, probably cholesterol. Stuff that’ll make you fat.
Even just one slice?
Marci leaned back in her chair. Maybe not one. But if you ate the whole thing.
I opened the box on the desk. We each closed our eyes, took a breath and then a bite. What does it taste like?
Fantastic. I want to gobble it up.
Take another bite. Notice the different tastes, textures, the sensations on different parts of your mouth, your teeth, your tongue. Try to make each bite last as long as possible.
But my whole body is tightening up. My mind is already upset. I shouldn’t be eating this.
That’s okay. Just label those thoughts, thinking, and keep chewing.
S-L-O-W-L-Y. Chewingchewingchewing. As you chew, imagine where this food came from. Can you picture the fields that grew the wheat? The sun, the rain, the farmer, the baker, the cheese-maker and the cow? The energy of a whole planet that went into each bite of this little piece of pizza. See if with each bite you can open more, let go more and appreciate the gift of this food. In letting go of judgment—-bad—good—and giving your attention to gratitude, you enter into the present moment and experience all food with all your senses, your body, and not your mind.
Marci laughed. As I say thank you in my mind, I see a cow chewing grass on a steep, sunny slope. He’s smiling! Marci’s shoulders dropped. She let herself enjoy eat bite a little bit longer. OMG! This is amazing. I’m really tasting. I don’t want to rush. It doesn’t feel scary.
GIVE THANKS.
About susan.weiss.berry
Susan Weiss Berry, MS, CNS, is a gifted Nutrition Counselor, Mindfulness Educator and Founding Director of Evolved Eating. She is also the creator of Fearless Eating Culinary Therapy Workshops.
Susan has helped hundreds of clients including university professors, physicians, CEO’s of Fortune 500 and 100 companies, actors, dancers, students and singers to recover from eating disorders, overeating, chronic dieting/restricting as well as weight and health issues. Using her decades of daily meditation experience, as well as her own recovery, she teaches clients to stop struggling with WHAT they EAT by teaching them HOW TO EAT. With her unique and exceptionally effective Mindfulness-based program, Evolved Eating, clients learn to free themselves from habitual behaviors and pre-conceived notions around food and weight and normalize weight without diets, restrictions, gimmicks or guilt trips. Her humorous, compassionate approach has been described as both practical and profound.
Innovative and always ahead of the curve, Susan was one of the first Nutritionists in America to establish a Private Practice and to create a Mindfulness-based approach to Eating Disorder recovery and Weight Management. Throughout her 25+year career she’s been in great demand as a lecturer, Program Design Specialist and Nutrition Consultant for both university and private organizations including: The University of Michigan, American Business Women's Association, Marriott Corporation, Nu-Skin International, The Center for Eating Disorders, Whole Foods Inc., and The NY Hotel Trades Council Health Centers, Inc.
Former Director of The Center for Nutrition and Wellness in Ann Arbor/Detroit, and the San Francisco Bay Area, she’s now based in NYC. Susan is a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) accredited through The American College of Nutrition and a Board Certified Holistic Health Counselor (CHHC) accredited through AADP. She received an MS in Food Science and Nutrition as well as post-graduate training in Bulimia and Anorexia from Susan C. Wooley, PhD at the University of Michigan and in Body Image and Psychodynamics with Anne Kearney-Cooke, PhD. For 15 years she served as staff Nutritionist and then Consulting Nutritionist for The Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor. Susan also received an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College near San Francisco.
Susan’s written for and been quoted by The Detroit Free Press, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, The NY Daily News, Big Apple Parent, Columbia University News Wire Service, singleedition.com and intent.com
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