A fun part of mindful eating is mindful cooking. Taking the time to shop for and prepare a meal can be a delight. There are millions of people who can’t get enough of the cooking channels. Are you one of them? In the nail salon I go to, the TV is almost always on the cooking channel. It doesn’t matter what day or time I show up, there is someone cooking something on the screen. In the past, these shows would just be noise to be in the background of an already noisy salon. But, as I was incorporating more mindfulness into my food and eating habits, I started to watch them. I paid attention to how carefully the chefs were weighing and measuring their ingredients. I listened as they described variations in spices and seasonings. I relished in the joy on their faces as a dish came out just right. These chefs, whether they knew it or not, were engaging in mindful cooking. They were present and attentive to what they were doing. They were not multi-tasking. Trying to make a soufflé while riding a unicycle. No, they just put all their attention on the soufflé. We can learn a lot from these cooking channel chefs, from how to make the perfect bouillabaisse to how to shop for zucchini. So, the next time you are surfing the channel. Settle on the cooking channel and watch mindful cooking it action. Adapted from Mindful Bites – Joyful Life: 365 Days of Mindful Eating. Available in bookstores everywhere.
The Cooking Channel
