Food to go – convenience at a price
PRINT PAGE
Food to go – convenience at a price
Life can be pretty full on at times: projects to complete, study, work, home, chores, family, social life etc. Sometimes we end up juggling many of these all at once – getting ready for work with toast in one hand in the midst of a quick tidy up of the flat, whilst in our minds reminding ourselves that the laundry needs doing, food shopping needs to happen and the importance of getting in touch with our friends and family at some point.
Then we try and squeeze in that precious ‘me time’ at the end of the day. At what point does our food come into all of this? Or do we multitask and slot our meals into other activities?
We’ve been taught that we get energy to do all of this stuff from our food, but is that true? The Ageless Wisdom teaches that there are two different types of energy that we can be sourced or fuelled by, both vary greatly in their quality and that this is the quality that governs our relationship with life, including what and how we eat.
In multitask mode we are in a panic, a rush and a hurry to achieve everything all at once, or we simply don’t have the time to give our full attention to one task as we place something else as of higher importance. While in this state, often our focus is directed to everything outside of ourselves; self-consideration and self-care are often placed on the back-burner. This leaves us with tension in our bodies that exhausts and drains us – a tension that if we do not stop and take responsibility for is covered up with sugar, coffee, carbs and quick ready-made meals to keep us on the go.
In this multitasking and on the go meals, the quantity and quality of what we are eating is altered. When eating in front of the TV or a computer screen, or even lost in thoughts of the past or possible future, there is little to no awareness of being full or even if the body wants to be eating at that point in time.
Overworking ourselves and ignoring the body’s messages to stop can lead us to graze throughout the day. When eating on the go, often the choice of food is quick and easy with more focus on whatever we are doing or going to do rather than a consideration for what would best support the body at that moment. Sometimes we can relate to cooking and eating as something that gets in the way of the activities we would rather be doing; thinking about our preferred activity can have us grabbing a ready meal of microwaveable pizza pockets, sandwiches or other take-away to spend as little time with food while we put our focus on these more preferred activities. Our attraction to ready meals may also be as a result of having exhausted ourselves and thus the idea of preparing a meal from scratch can appear too tiring or too much work.
When we consider approaching life from a connection with our bodies first and foremost our inner environment highlights and brings awareness to how the quality that we hold ourselves in is reflected in the world around us, the relationships we have and the quality of foods we allow into our bodies.
Sitting down and making our focus one of connection to ourselves allows us to feel that it’s not just the quality of the food that makes a meal truly supportive and satisfying, but the quality within ourselves and the quality around us.
This takes on another aspect to nutrition and nourishment in that it’s not just about the vitamin or mineral content, but the quality of energy we have within our body that is expressed in all that we do, including our choices of food and how we are with our food. For example, throwing something in the microwave with no care compared to lovingly preparing a meal for ourselves. That quality then comes back to us to feed more of the same quality of energy.
Taking care to prepare ourselves, so that we have time to cook and eat our meals can make the whole process simpler and more enjoyable. The focus becomes more about the care we have brought to ourselves rather than a quick fix to fill a hole or grab a ready meal. Instead of focussing on everything going on around us or what may be coming our way it becomes a time to sit, celebrate ourselves and connect to the people we are sharing a meal with. If it’s a meal for one, it can be a time to pause and re-gather ourselves before jumping back into life’s demands. If we were to reflect on the quality of our meal time and take note of how it changes from day to day, we can start to learn that how we live affects how we eat that in turn affects how we move through life beyond the meal.
By taking a stop moment to listen and feel what is most supportive for us in that very moment, we may find that our whole being is supported by presence and quality far more than multitasking the many aspects of life, or food alone. In these stop moments the intention of the ready meals and food to go are felt more clearly in their design of keeping us on the go.
Connecting to our bodies and having a diet based on nurturing allows us to rest and support ourselves no matter what life presents to us.
Filed under
Awareness, Conscious presence, Healthy diet
