Boo! Tushkateers, Are you ready for the pre-Halloween edition of the Kick in the Tush Club e-letter? Are you ready to see how many calories are in candy corn?
We are but a few days away from Halloween. Are you ready? And I don’t mean do you have your Halloween costumes … And I don’t mean have you purchased candy to give to those adorable Trick or Treaters! I mean, did you buy a roll of real sticky electrician’s tape to tape your mouth shut?! Do you know the calorie count of those little sneaky snickering bars?
Are you ready to take Our Lady of Weight Loss’s Halloween Vow to Follow the Mindful Candy Diet?
Take the Halloween vow now of Our Lady of Weight Loss’s Mindful Candy Diet:
I, ___________________, Tushkateer in good-standing, promise to know the calorie count of what I am about to pop into my mouth before I pop it! I intend to say ‘no, thank you’ to the endless nibbling and tasting; the endless sugary calories. However … should I decide that one of those little bugger-bars are worth it, I will at the very least know what the calories and ingredients are and I will enjoy it! Yes, I will enjoy what I eat – no guilt – and I will eat it slowly; I will savor the flavor – in other words, I will practice Mindful Candy Eating. (Signed and Dated)
Good! Good! Good! That was fun, wasn’t it?! I’m ready to rock it!
Bonus Halloween Tip: Do NOT buy any candy until the very last minute and then buy something that you do NOT love. Seriously, if I were to buy certain little bars that shall remain nameless, lest I start salivating, I’d have no chance of making it through Halloween the same size as I am now much less making it through the Holiday Season.
Having the ‘right’ strategies in place combined with a mindful eating practice is your ticket to making it out of the holiday season without creating extra layers of adipose tissue.
Speaking of mindful eating …
… Em.S., Tushkateer extraordinaire, writes
Dear OLofWL ~ I know that mindful eating is an important aspect to permanent weight removal (you’ve said so many times). However … Mindful eating is truly a challenge in a job where you do not get any official meal breaks!
I bet I could squeeze it in though. It would certainly be nice to enjoy my food more, pay attention etc.
I think part of my gaining weight over the last year has to do with the fact that I get so busy working and don’t know when my next break is, so I stuff myself any chance I get just in case I may not get to eat for the rest of my shift.
I have been paying attention to this more in the last month or so, not really mindfully eating so much as paying attention to when I may have a break next, so I can space my meals and snacks a couple of hours apart. It would be nice to take 5 min at least to eat mindfully. ~ Em.S.
Dear Em.S. ~ Paying attention and being mindful are one in the same. You’ve taken your first ‘mindful’ steps, Em.S., to practicing mindful eating. Your first step: paying attention to ‘break time’ – creating ‘break time’ – eating during ‘break time.’ (Clap, Clap, Clap) What’s your next step??? A good question to ask ourselves as we journey toward “Sveltesville.”
Here follows a Mindful Eating Exercise: 7 Simple Steps to Mindful Eating!
Did you know that saliva and its resident enzymes are serving both to liquefy and break down the food in your mouth, those morsels that you’ve been chewing on?
It’s true and it’s a good thing. Because the longer you keep the food in your mouth, the longer you put off scoffing down, the more the saliva keeps flowing and flowing, and the mushier, squishier and squashier the food in ‘there’ gets. It not only aids digestion, but it also helps your mindful eating attempts, as well.
Here is an amazingly powerful and en’lite’ening Mindful Eating exercise that increases flow of saliva and mindfulness, at the same time!
Step One:
CHEW. Seriously. Resist all mindless impulses to chew fast and gulp down.
Step Two:
STOP CHEWING. Seriously. Chew and then STOP! Allow the food to rest on your tongue. Simply rest and allow the saliva to flow forward.
Step Three:
PRESS IT. Press the food that is resting on your tongue (you didn’t eat it yet, did you?) up onto your palate.
Step Four:
HOLD IT. Hold the food to your palate for at least 10 seconds. Whew … long time???
Step Five:
SHIFT IT. Move the food from tongue to palate and back again. Slowly please.
Step Six:
EXPERIENCE IT. Seriously. Did you know that your palate tasted, too?
Step Seven:
SWALLOW IT. Okay. Now that you have chewed and stopped; now that you have pressed it, held it, shifted it around your mouth and fully experienced it, you can swallow it.
I hope that helps Em.S. as well as all Tuskhateers throughout the land who are starting to salivate at the thought, sound, sight or smell of Halloween candy!!! ~ OLofWL
Remember: Mindful eating is based on the Zen principle of mindfulness and requires your being acutely aware and conscious of what you’re eating! Easy enough, no?
Spread the word … NOT the icing,
Janice
PS: What’s your beef? Got something you want to chew on with Our Lady of Weight Loss? Write her! [janice [at] ourladyofweightloss [dot] com – (Write “Chewing the Fat” in the subject line, so that she can find your emails.) She seriously lives and breathes for your missives!
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