Three Polite Bites ~~

“The way he treats his body, you’d think he was renting.”  ~ Robert Brault

With much attention being offered on "the menu", I wanted to include some reminders to my own old programming around this time of year.  It can be too easy for me to "forget mindfulness" when most of my decades, around the holidays, were about lists, tasks, deadlines, and doing doing doing.  I'm bringing out the toolbox and setting it ON THE PATH with the hope that I trip over it, if needed, to get my own attention ~ to mindfully choose. 

I know, I know... I've heard the protest in my own head, "But it's Thanksgiving!  It's once a year!  It's not like I eat like this EVERY day!" 

I also know the pattern. 

The voice before justifies, protests, challenges. 

The voice during chatters happily over the flavors, the yummyness, the warmth, the soothe, the sharing. 

The voice after (throughout the day and night) shifts as the effects of what my mind chose, for my mouth, encounters the rest of me (my body). 

The voice(s) after AFTER... oh my. 

As I choose and honor gratitude & love for my life, for my loves, for my likes ~~ I am weaving into this list:  awareness, kindness, appreciation, and, responsibility to the amazing world of my body beyond my lips.  Especially, beyond my throat.  I am inviting the miraculous grace my digestive body, is called upon "to deal", to the table. I am inviting mindfulness.
 

Thanksgiving Meals:  We've laughed, groan, banter at how stuffed we feel.  We untuck shirts, loosen the belt, change into sweats.  Well, I have.  I've walked by the pies sitting out, taken another serving (or bite), knowing... I'm full and that something else is operating the show, but I've indulged it anyway (which is when the realities come more clearly into my consciousness).   Runaway Train... 

The three polite bites picture above is not how my plate will appear, but it's a pretty reminder for me to heighten my mindfulness and a certain level of kindness to what the rest of my body has to process to please my old programming. 

Last Thanksgiving, I enjoyed my plate and I enjoyed mindfully choosing what I placed upon it.  I hadn't eaten bread for weeks and I gave myself a slice and I buttered it and I enjoyed it without guilt, remorse, pressure, or my sky falling.  I savored the bites.  I didn't talk, I didn't rush, and (call me ridiculous)... I breathed and blessed while I chewed and swallowed.  At the end of the day, I wasn't stuffed, bloated, sugar-overloaded and triggered.  I was HAPPY all the way through.  WooHoo!   It CAN be done without deprivation, without counting anything, without making deals and without issues.

One of my internal voices snips a bit at what I'm writing.  "Good Grief, can't you just enjoy life?  Can't you just be present, in the moment, laughing, sharing, talking, eating, celebrating?" 

I can and I do.  I have had so much practice doing "it" that way and then beating myself up after.  You, who speaks, do you remember that residual part too?    (A not-so-jovial and carefree feeling now emerges and the cavalier voice mutes)

I seek my bigger picture, I seek altitude and I smile at what I "see".

“Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other.”  ~Henry David Thoreau

I will post my "Three Polite Bites" photo on the kitchen cabinet.  I will do so with a smile and with gratitude to and for my body and well-being.

I thank you for reading and considering ~ for breathing deeply, for opening, for making room in your belly, in your mind, and in your moments.

Happy Giving Thanks.