Day 5 ~ TASTE & SEE!
“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So how are you doing on the 21-Day Nature Challenge? Are you finding it difficult staying on track and doing this challenge every day? If so, don’t be discouraged.
Life gets in the way, as they say. It’s a normal thing. And the whole point of the challenge is to be able to take an ordinary day and make it extraordinary by living in the moment, whatever the moment brings. Doing it in Nature gives an added benefit of beauty, peace and health & fitness by getting outdoor exercise, sunshine and fresh air – all good for the body, mind and spirit.
So if you miss a day or two, or aren’t able to do everything on the checklist, we just want to encourage you, and remind you that whether you’re seeing or noticing any immediate improvements in your mindfulness, weight loss or whatever other reason you’ve chosen to do this, the point is, just by doing a little more than you would normally do – making healthy choices and intentionally being present even for small bits of time – like anything, the more you do it, the better you will get at it. So just keep on making forward motion everyday. It will pay off in ways you may not even realize until much later.
Today we are focusing on a physical sense that sometimes gets us in trouble, and that we rarely think about in nature – the sense of Taste.
The average person has about 10,000 taste buds which are microvilli, or tiny hairs which send messages to the brain about how something tastes. We mentioned on Day 3 that our sense of smell really affects our sense of taste. While we can differentiate between thousands of odors, we can only taste salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. Working in conjunction with the tongue, the nose helps add variety and flavoring to the taste sensation. Cool!
The down side of this is that when we smell something irresistible, it can help outvote our brain in the decision-making process of when, what and how much to eat. We’re talking bacon, doughnuts, fried chicken, and cinnamon rolls… Ok time to stop drooling!
Introducing mindfulness eating. Perhaps you’ve heard of this concept.
Mindfulness eating involves slowing down, primarily choosing nutritionally healthy foods, not overloading your plate, truly enjoying each bite, not multi-tasking, but when eating, just eat, listening to your body and stopping when you are full, and finally considering where your food comes from.
We’re not saying you can’t eat a piece of chocolate cake or a bowl of ice-cream. If you’re choosing to do it mindfully, you are only going to eat probably half the amount, and enjoy it twice as much! If you’re really listening to your hunger cues and you are truly intentionally enjoying your food, it may only take a few bites to satisfy your hunger. The point is, you need to be listening to what your body needs and honoring that.
And while you’re listening, it really helps to consider where your food comes from in the first place.
In the good old days, before McDonald’s and Burger King, our ancestors knew where their food came from, how to hunt or grow it, and the whole process it took to procure and prepare it. It potentially added another dimension of appreciation and enjoyment to the meal.
How often do we stop to think about the whole process of where our food comes from? – From the person who plants it, cultivates it, harvests it, sells it, buys it, stocks it, brings it home, plans the meal, and prepares and puts it on the table.
So as you step outside today, we’re not going to make you pull a Euell Gibbons and eat pine nuts and dandelions, (although you can if you want to). But just open your mouth and imagine what the air and the day tastes like if it had a taste.
Do it, enjoying the present moment, whatever it brings, knowing that when you get home, the very next meal or snack you have, you will remember what we just talked about and choose to eat in a mindful way.
Oh and while you’re out getting fresh air and exercise, feel to free to put a pine needle, dandelion leaf or piece of clover in your mouth and see what it tastes like. Be sure you know what you are putting in your mouth though and definitely, no matter what, stay away from yellow snow!
Checklist for Day 5
☐ MEDITATION:Day 5 – “Taste & See!” (You can listen to this active meditation on iTunes or here at Mountain Zen.)
☐ NATURE WALK: 20 minutes enjoying the “taste” of the outdoors. – Practice Mindful Eating when you get home.
☐ JOURNAL: Note your observations about your outdoor tasting and your Mindful Eating experience.What are you grateful for?
☐ For extra credit you can try making this tasty “Zoodles & Chicken” dish, one of our favorite clean & green meals!
Here’s the recipe –
1. Spiralize zucchini into thin noodles using a spirlizer (makes noodles out of zucchini)
2. Heat 1 T. oil in a skillet
3. Sautee zoodles in oil, and add garlic powder, salt & pepper, OR add your own favorite seasoning for 4-6 minutes
That’s it for today’s 21-Day Nature Challenged. Now go in peace, knowing that you’ve got good taste!
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