You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” But according to Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, it doesn’t have to be that way. In their book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, they talk about how you can shape your life to get the goals you’re looking for. And I was struck by how well it ties in with mindful eating. After all, with mindful eating, you have to pay attention to more than the food itself. All areas of your life impact why, when, what, how, and how much you eat, and where you spend the energy you get from the food. With that in mind, here are 3 tips I’ve gotten so far from the book that you can apply to mindf
Note: I found the quotes in a BuzzFeed article. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the Netflix series Queer Eye. I’m nervous about shows that seem to focus on appearance and want to give people a makeover. (If you’re not familiar with Queer Eye, it’s a remake of the reality show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where five gay men give makeovers to people in all different situations.) But my nephew convinced me to watch it, starting with an episode where the Fab Five helped a trans man really come into his own, and I was hooked. They’ve helped so many people: gay and straight, single and married, abled and disabled, young and old, of different ethnicities and religions and backgrounds
One of the best parts about mindful eating is that it can free you up from fixating on food. Instead, you can direct the energy you used to spend on that food obsession to other areas of your life. This doesn’t mean you should never think about food. You still want to pay attention to your food choices and how you feel after eating. And of course you want to enjoy what you eat! Then how can you tell if you’re too food focused? When does it cross the line into more of an obsession? Here are 5 ways you can tell, inspired by observations of my new – and very food-focused – cat. You get more excited about eating than anything else I know I’ve been writing a lot about the cats this year, and I wa
Do you like getting messy? Or does it make you uncomfortable? I think many of us are taught that messiness is something to avoid, but I was recently reminded that it isn’t necessarily bad. This came up when I listened to an On Being podcast about bringing your whole self to work, and it included this quote from Jerry Colonna: “There’s nothing wrong with mess. It’s gorgeous. It’s like an art project. I defy you to paint a masterpiece without getting paint on the floor or in your hair. That’s the point. It’s actually fun to kind of be messy.” And even though he was talking about work, I couldn’t help thinking about mindful eating, and the contrast with diets. Diets don’t want you to be messy.
