I’ve come in last for three days in a row and I’m delighted. Dead chuffed. So proud of myself. And I know mam would be proud of me, too.
In fairness, on day 1, I started in second place out of five, but on days two and three, I started first and came in last.
What an achievement.
For as long as I can remember, my mother chastised me each and every mealtime for eating too quickly.
What’s the hurry, she’d ask.
Where are you off to?
What’s so important that you can’t take the time to eat.
I’ve always eaten quickly. And when on my own, I eat with a book. Or my phone.
But no more.
I’m reformed.
I’m eating slowly and concentrating on my food.
Back in the 1920s, Dr Franz Xaver Mayr posited that digestion begins in the mouth. He recommends chewing each bite 40-60 times. I only know this because one of the inmates last week alternates between a VIVAMAYR and a Panchakarma each year to maintain their post-cancer gut health.
Anyway, I haven’t the patience to go the full 60. Or even the 40. I can occasionally make it to 30, but it’s miles more than the 2 or 3 I was doing last month.
I also finally get why Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano insists on eating in silence – even if he’s in company.
About 10 years ago, there was a fad in New York called Silent Dining, spearheaded by Nicholas Nauman in his Eat Restaurant in Brooklyn. He’d had experience of eating in silence at a monastery and figured, why not introduce it to more people.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting around a table with friends, setting the world to rights over a nice meal and a good bottle of wine.
But on my own, I can certainly lose the Kindle and the phone and devote my attention to my food. If I do, I’ll be better able to hear the ‘getting full’ cues from my stomach and avoid leaving the table stuffed like a pork belly.
Silent dining is meditative.
I’m a fan.
Grateful to the Panchakarma experience for this piece of insight.
2 responses
Very interesting — and I for one, am very grateful for food of any kind, and enjoying every bit of it. I am not, however, ready to give up the joy of reading and eating at the same time, since 99% of the time I eat alone. Bliss. Without a book, I’d likely just eat at my desk. That’s the worst, right up there with standing at the kitchen counter. Good reflections. Thanks!
Try it – make the time. For a week. See if there’s a difference.