Bye Bye Thanksgiving

We’re in between two major holidays right now. Thanksgiving has come and gone. It’s amazing how quickly time passes! For our Fakesgiving two weeks prior, my Mother-in-law managed to pre-order a turkey. We also had salad, chips and dips, carrots, asparagus and mushroom stir-fry, Korean noodles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffings, rolls, jello, and two pumpkin pies and a berry pie! That was an enormous amount of food!

When there’re that much goodies on the table, it’s hard to resist. I wore pants with elastic bands and I went back for seconds and thirds. Most everyone left the table and came back with more food. On a normal day, we would’ve stopped eating sooner, but we just kept on grazing.

Now that’s just the beginning...

Hello Christmas (and everything else)

There’s holiday edition craft beer and baked goods and sweets, company and non-company holiday parties, year end get-togethers, Christmas and finally New Year’s! That can translate to A LOT of eating. Now that I think about it, it can seem like eating at The Capitol in The Hunger Games.

When there are so many meals to savor, it’s easy to remember the first bite and not the rest. Or, remember that it was good food and not what it tasted like. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, how would you like to take a moment with your food, like really savor it and see how it sits with your body?

Take it easy

Before I introduce three healthy eating tips that can be generalized to all meals, let me say that you don’t have to do this at every meal for the duration of the meal. That will take you forever to eat and you will miss out on great company! Rather, implement this in the first 5-10 minutes of every meal and your body might just thank you.

Healthy eating tips

1. Eat with your non-dominant hand

We’re creatures of habit. When we habitually eat with our usual hand, we don’t pay attention to the gesture of lifting a fork, aiming and poking at food, raising the food to our mouths, the opening of our mouths, our mouths salivating, our mouths closing, our hand lowering the fork, our teeth chumping down the food, our tongue pushing the food around, the food breaking into smaller pieces, and finally our swallowing.

Okay, perhaps that’s a lot to ask but imagine if you paid attention, what would you notice? A hidden ingredient? The color? A crunch? Could that help you appreciate and savor your food more?

2. One bite at a time

I don’t know about you but I tend to reach for my next bite of food while I’m still chewing. I seldom put down my fork because I’m still eating! Similar idea, if you took your time with each bite, you’re more likely to notice your food, pace your eating and feel the food in your body more. That peanut butter chocolate cookie did not sit well with you? You had WAY too much meat? Eating slower can help you know that sooner and change your course of action, if you want.

It’s okay to notice your tendency to pick up the fork while you’re still chewing. You can always put it down again. The fork is not going anywhere.

3. Feed and be fed

Yes, you heard me. It’s not just for babies or during wedding cake cutting. It’s also not the same as getting pied in the face. Here I’m encouraging you to intentionally feed each other with care. If you consider feeding to be a very nurturing gesture, what if you took a few moments to feed your partner, your family member, a friend? It takes care and attention to know how much food to scoop up per bite and where to aim the forkful so nobody gets hurt.

Since eating is a basic survival need and we do this independently, it also takes a lot of vulnerability to be fed. In feeding and being fed, what might show up for you and how might you notice the food differently?! You can always start with just a cookie.

Okay it’s not easy

“Can we go back to eating normally now?!” says my husband. We’ve fed each other twice now and while I’m having a lot of fun, he was feeling frustrated. Yes, this is strange and foreign and that’s exactly the point. Rather than breezing through your next holiday meal, let’s make what is familiar unfamiliar. Take the time to savor the deliciousness. Allow your body to take in everything this bite of food has to offer you: nutrition, energy, even love.

This is not easy. If anything, it’ll be hard. And, “Yes husband, we can stop.” The rest of our meal was still amazing but something else about it was memorable, for me.

Let me know if you need help slowing down not just with food, but life in general during this hectic holiday season. I'll be here!

Ada Pang is the proud owner of People Bloom Counseling, a Redmond psychotherapy practice in WA. She helps unhappy couples find safety and connection in their relationship. She also helps cancer thrivers and their caregivers integrate cancer into their life stories. Her favorite food across seasons is sushi and if attempting to eat that with her left hand, she’d need to trade in her chopsticks for a fork. As 2017 comes to an end, may you and yours savor much goodness this holiday season.