Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays

Jan Chozen Bays is a Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage (successors of Taizan Maezumi Roshi). She is a pediatrician specializing in child abuse, and author of numerous medical articles and two books, Jizo Bodhisattva: Guardian of Children, Travelers and Other Voyagers and Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering A Healthy and Joyful Relating…. She and her husband, Hogen Bays, serve as co-abbots of Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon.

Chozen writes:

Mindful eating is not reading about mindful eating. It is not reading while eating. It is doing the practice of mindful eating. Mindful eating is paying full attention to the events of the internal and external environment, without criticism or judgement, while eating and drinking. Because we are so used to multitasking and to going unconscious while we eat, it is difficult at first to pay full attention to what is happening, say, in the mouth, in a completely continuous manner.

Just like any other form of meditation, mindful eating involves bringing the mind’s attention to the sensations of eating, then discovering that the mind has wandered off. We find that we are eating while opening our e-mail or while fantasizing about the weekend. We notice this and once again bring the mind back to real time, to the actual sensations of eating. We practice this over and over, until it becomes a wholesome habit.

It helps to undertake mindful eating for a specific period of time. After reading the Mindful Eating book, one person undertook a month of mindful eating. You can read his blog here.
You might start modestly by undertaking a week or a month of mindful eating. Here are some suggested exercises. The Mindful Eating book contains a CD with all these exercises and more.

One important note. Please take on these practices with a sense of curiosity and good humor. Mindful eating is a meditation and an adventure (not a test). It can open a fascinating world that is hiding, quite literally, right under our noses.