Welcome to my third post in my Eliza Gets Real series.If you are new to this series and would like to start at the beginning here are the first two posts:
Eliza Gets Real About Her Health
Eliza Gets Real and Gets a Plan
In this post, I am going to talk about awareness.
At this point in my life, I live intuitively day by day, minute by minute. This means that my sixth sense, intuition, is as natural to me as my other four senses.
“Eliza, you made a mistake. Don’t you mean your other five senses?”
Sadly, no, four is correct. I do not have to think about sight, sound, smell, and touch. However, this week I figured out that taste was completely lacking. I have always claimed that food plays no part in my life. I could take it or leave it, but obviously I take it to stay alive. This week, I figured out why this is so.
While reading my book, Meals That Heal Inflammation
Holy crumpets! Food has taste!
I discovered the way I have been eating food for darn near fifty years is three or four chomps then swallow. When I paid attention to what I was doing and took the time to really chew the food, I realized my tongue got involved in the process to mash the food around and move it from molar to molar. Tongue … taste buds.
“Eliza, how on earth could you have gone almost fifty years and never used your tongue to eat your food?”
I have an answer!
As a child I had a severe overbite. And I do mean severe. With my jaws clamped together, I could stick my thumb between my bottom and top teeth. As well, my molars overlapped only a couple of millimeters. Millimeters! This meant I had no chomping and grinding ability. Chewing food was exhausting, because I had to swing my lower jaw sideways to eat. To reduce this effort, I did the minimal amount of chews to get food down my throat.
Seven years and thousands of dollars of braces fixed my overbite and lined up my molars. However, by this time I was in my teens and my eating habit was fully established.
It never once occurred to me to question how I was eating.
Until now. Holy crumpets! Food has taste!
I can now say with complete confidence that I live a completely in tune, fully aware life. All six senses working together.
To follow along on my journey, and not miss out on my posts, please join me on the Silver & Grace Facebook page by clicking here: Silver & Grace.
Let’s Talk!
In the comment section below, I would love to hear your answers to some or all of these questions:
- Do you have habits that do not serve you well that are in place because that is how you have always done it?
- What new awareness would enter your life if you took the time to really examine one of those habits?
- Specifically related to food, do you take the time to be aware of food, or is eating a bit mindless?
I believe that a lot of us fail to really taste our food as we're eating it. Believe it or not, one of the best ways to control your diet is to taste your food by taking a forkful, putting the fork down, and chewing several times as well as tasting before swallowing. You will get a fuller sensation quicker and your sense of taste and smell (the two are connected) will be heightened. You will also gain a better appreciation for flavors and spices that may surprise you. It's really interesting and I recommend that people give it a try.