Looking for Pleasure in All the Wrong Places
I think I've figured out why we eat junk food and sugar. Obviously these foods are easy to grab, they taste good (to some people), and they can be eaten quickly without even chewing. This last quality is important because we live such fast-paced lives . . . who has time to chew. We can slam down a burger, fries, and monster drink in minutes while blasting through our email or voice mails. We can pretty easily eat fast food while driving to our next meeting - at least we think we can.
The bottom line is that junk food is portable and requires virtually no chewing. And because it's highly processed, we get a fast energy boost because the "nutrients" are mainlined in minutes.
The problem is, if you don't chew your food, you dramatically reduce the amount of pleasure the food provides. Whatever happened to savoring food? Food is savored when we sit down at the table, acknowledge gratitude for the food, and focus it (the color, smell, texture, taste). That's pleasure. When you chew your food and focus on the meal from beginning to end, a full satisfaction is the result - kind of like steeping a tea bag. The flavor has time to develop over time. Have you noticed that the longer you chew a slice of bread or other carbohydrate, the sweeter it tastes? Try it.
But we seldom sit down to a meal at the table. When we slam through our food while doing other activities, it doesn't register that we've eaten - hence we miss all that potential pleasure and continue eating well past being full. It takes about 20 minutes to register that we're full.
Later in the day when we're tired, bored, and looking for a little pleasure, we head down the hall to the vending machine for a sweet treat. Typically, we slam through the sweet treat too without savoring it. When we reach the last bite, we're bummed that it's all gone and we barely noticed we were eating it. Again, we lost the opportunity for pleasure.
When we're slamming through life, fast paced, mindless, barely conscious of our senses, we miss infinite opportunities to experience pleasure - simple ones that come from seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. So we turn to junk food and sugar because "we deserve a break today." We deserve some more pleasure in life. Right? And it's readily available.
Recently, I've been thinking about pleasure. Spring just says "pleasure." I've been reveling in the cool mornings, warm afternoons and enjoying beautiful fragrant flowers, new growth, and bird songs. In spring, we also get to enjoy chaotic weather and storms - lightning that lights up the sky in powerful designs, clouds that grow menacing and dark, rain that beats down with a vengeance. All these things are awe inspiring. The power of nature is something to behold. I enjoy this bold energy.
Spring invites us to enjoy our senses - sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. But many of us are missing these simple pleasures - speeding right past them. Our senses get dulled from lack of use. If they aren't called upon throughout the day to help us hunt, gather, and nagivate through life they grow numb. But we can change all that. We can consciously look for things all around us to give us pleasure - real pleasure. We won't need as much candy to make life sweet.
Ready to Double Your Pleasure?
Instead of blasting through life, regularly ask yourself the day, "what's the pleasure in this moment?" This simple reminder can help you double your pleasure. Wake up your senses by using them throughout the day - consciously. Before eating, get in the habit of smelling your food. Before getting in your car, listen for sounds all around you. When you step out of the house, office, or grocery store, scan the environment for pleasure. Maybe it'll be a child skipping while holding her mother's hand. Maybe it'll be an old woman crossing the street. Say hello to her. Find ways to connect. Experience simple things that are happening all around you at all times. Stop now and really tune in. What do you hear right now? What do you see?
Shift away from the harried mind set that says, "I don't have time to stop and smell the roses." That saying translates to "I don't have time to live." Take time for pleasure - a few minutes here and a few minutes there. The pleasure medium is the senses. Wake up your senses; they're powerful pleasure pathways just waiting for you to stop and pay attention. When we fill our lives with simple pleasures throughout the day, we have less need for junk food and sweets. Try it and see if I'm right.
Books I Love
Healthy Pleasures - Robert Ornstein & David Sobel
When I named my ezine "Healthy Pleasures," I'd forgotten about this book. I read it in 1989 and its message became my own. I loved the book so much that I lent it to several people. Finally, it got handed out of site and I never got it back.
Recently, I ordered another copy and am eager to read it again. The table of contents alone is awe inspiring. If you're not enjoying your life as much as you'd like, this book may be just what you need to reconnect with pleasure in life.
You can scan the table of contents if you click on the book graphic above or this link and click to "search inside."
This book is a classic. Not only will you learn about adding more pleasure to life, but you'll also learn that doing so will improve your health.
Upcoming Programs - Free Stuff
Do you live a wellness lifestyle, or does your lifestyle need a serious makeover?
Making lifestyle changes like losing weight, staying organized, and sticking with a fitness program is challenging for most people. It's easy to get started, but it's hard to sustain the changes.
Drawing on 20 years in the wellness field, I'm developing a FREE wellness foundation program called 6 Keys to a Wellness Lifestyle. You'll get a wellness IQ quiz, 6-part ecourse, and a mini workbook - all designed to help you build a strong wellness foundation that will help you sustain any lifestyle change you want to make. Look for it in June. I'm really enjoying creating it, and I think you're going to like it.
Not a subscriber yet?
Ready to live a healthy, happy life?
Subscribe right here, right now to receive the
monthly newsletter and FREE Wellness Pack
