I was on a silent retreat at Ignatius House in Sandy Springs, Georgia from 26 September through 4 October. One focus of the retreat was eating…

I am pretty sure that my wife and I have never eaten a meal at our dining room table without guests present. We eat in our great room on TV trays. I normally watch television at every meal.

Eating slowly at my house increases the danger of a big dog sticking his big nose in your plate. We don’t let dogs eat people food at our house, so I eat fast and return my plate to the kitchen as quickly as possible.

Given my habits, it was a big ask when the retreat leader instructed us in our first morning workshop to eat all our meals mindfully. Specifically, he told us to serve ourselves smaller portions than we thought we might want and to eat slowly, one bite at a time, and to notice our food. He said it was fine to keep going back to the buffet for additional servings until we were satisfied, but to take our time eating.

The newness of eating slowly kept my attention for a while and then I caught myself speeding up. I stopped being mindful. To enforce slow, thoughtful eating, I began to feed myself with my left (non-dominant) hand and kept that practice going for every meal. By the end of the week, I could feed myself pretty well left-handed and the habit of eating slowly was taking root.

Everything I ate tasted great. The kitchen at Ignatius House is outstanding, but I think eating slowly and thoughtfully made a difference. I cook eggs with a lot more spice than Ignatius House did, but I noticed nuances of egginess while eating mindfully that made their somewhat bland scrambled eggs satisfying.

The three elements of awareness that we practiced all week were 1) being present, 2) observing, and 3) suspending evaluation or judgment. Being present and observing at meals was easy and natural once I slowed down. However, I am not sure that I suspended evaluation or judgment at meals. I kept thinking, “Oh that’s good!” “Mmm. Oh yeah, that’s good.” “Oh I like that.”

The rule about suspending evaluation or judgment is clearly applicable to interactions with people. The idea is that we should pay close attention to behavior without categorizing what is happening as good or bad, right or wrong because judgment interferes with understanding and compassion.

Now I wish I had thought to ask the retreat leader about my evaluating the food positively at every meal. I am not sure I could have done anything differently, but I wonder.

These resource offer more ideas about eating mindfully: http://whole30.com/2016/10/mel-joulwan/ and http://summertomato.com/how-to-eat-more-mindfully-2