Mindful eating

On Wednesday, June 8th, I drove to the Southwest Vipassana Meditation Center, just south of Dallas, for a ten-day silent meditation course. On Sunday, June 19th, my 39th birthday, I returned home a transformed woman.

I am trying to write down the high points of this intense, sometimes painful, very paradigm-shifting experience, but blogspot decided to eat up many of my words.

So in that vein, I'll share just a bit about what I ate at the retreat. :)

This ten-day sit was about meditation, not eating. Let me be clear on that point. But I found that our meals and food selections were an important part of the meditation boot camp. On the drive to the center, I visited a bit with Courtney and she happened to ask me if the retreat included lessons on "mindful eating."

"Oh, not that I know of,"I told her. "I think we spend most of our time meditating."

Which was true. We spent between 8-10 hours a day meditating. We were silent during the meditation hours and the other hours, whether walking, cleaning or sitting on benches under shady trees. However, all that silence ended up teaching me quite a bit about mindful eating! Something about eating in silence amplified my awareness of the clinks of forks and knives against plates, of metal ladles scraping the sides of serving bowls, the sounds of chewing and swallowing - and my awareness of how much I wanted to eat and needed to eat.

I quickly learned not to overestimate the portions I thought I would eat, but to instead start with a small bowl of whatever looked yummy and then return for seconds if I still needed food (which I did on the curry day and the taco soup day). I also enjoyed taking surreptitious glances at sit-mates' plates, just to see what they were eating and in what combinations. I smiled to myself during one lunch when I noticed that the woman sitting next to me - a 6'2" former volleyball player - was eating, in addition to her salad, soup and whatnot, an entire dinner plate full of steamed broccoli. Wow.

At the far end of the daily lunch buffet table was the salad station. Each day, we could create fresh salad combinations with neatly cut rectangles of deep green lettuce, bright beet shreds, chick peas, frozen peas, shredded cheese, sunflower seeds, raisins, plump squares of peeled cucumber, coarsely chopped bell peppers and quartered tomato wedges. In addition to bottles of olive oil, red wine vinegar and italian dressing, we could douse our salads with a homemade sesame dressing that knocked my socks off!

Most days we did not have dessert, though a surprise apple brown betty with whipped cream made an appearance toward the end of the week. Instead, there was a small bowl filled with Andes mints next to the cucumber canister. I really enjoyed the taste of chocolate and mint after each meal - something sweet, something creamy, but not heavy.

Although we were not supposed to read or write during the retreat, I accidentally brought my planner and a pen into the dorm room. Starting at bedtime on day 4, I wrote just a few words each night before falling asleep to help me remember the highlights of that particular day, especially the main meal selection! Here is what I ate for for the main meal each day (all of the food was vegetarian/vegan & I was in heaven!):

Wednesday dinner - soft tacos with spicy refried beans and brown rice
Thursday lunch - penne pasta with marinara sauce
Friday lunch - navy bean soup and brown rice
Saturday lunch - spinach lasagna and french bread
Sunday lunch - minestrone soup and tofu "steaks" (I only tried the soup... the gray rectangles drizzled with balsamic vinegar didn't quite do it for me)
Monday lunch -  curried chick peas with basmati rice
Tuesday lunch - split pea soup and french bread + oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!
Wednesday lunch - spicy taco soup with corn chips
Thursday lunch - corn chowder and curried eggplant with rice
Friday lunch - mung beans (served in a pea soup consistency) and spinach quesadillas
Saturday lunch -  delicious leftovers ... but I was so busy chatting with my tablemate, I barely touched the lasagna I had put on my plate
Saturday dinner - hummus & baba ganoush with vegetables + leftovers

Breakfast options were the same each morning ... and oh-so satisfying!: hot oatmeal, stewed prunes, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, fresh fruit, dried cereals and bread. I usually ate a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter, honey and a little milk, plus cottage cheese with fresh fruit and raisins.

We did not eat any kind of dinner Thursday evening - the following Friday. Instead, at 5 p.m. each day, fresh fruit and ginger tea (basically hot water with shreds of ginger boiled in) was served. The first few days I ate a grapefruit with a little brown sugar on the top, but before too long, I realized that I was not hungry in the afternoons. Two good-sized meals with adequate protein in them really filled me up. And the evening discourse was so tasty to my mind and heart that I didn't seem to crave food in the same way I do when I am at home.

And since I've been back home, I've only had two donuts total! :)

p.s. that's a joke! (Wait, I actually have eaten two donuts ... but you know what I mean! Right?)