Sensory Hot Spots

Yesterday a group of friends joined me for a book signing at Chocolate Springs, an amazing artisanal chocolate shop in Lenox, MA. Are you wondering if my book, The Food That Fits, has any place in a chocolate shop? There is a chapter in my book entitled Material Girl. The message inside the chapter is to embrace the sensory qualities of the foods you love and with regularity. Sounds like chocolate to me!
How much thought do you put into the fabric content of your clothes? What are your favorite fabrics? When you shop for clothes do you feel the fabric in your hands or against your skin? Just as I like to wear what feels good on my skin, I like to eat what fits my sensory ideals in food.

Think about how your mind travels along a menu when you go out to eat. Most of us have a conscious or unconscious method for narrowing down our choices. My mind files and remembers lemon, rosemary and thyme. I seek these flavors when I go out and I find ways to work them into what I am cooking and eating at home. Identify your sensory hot spots as these flavors, textures and characteristics are key to defining your satisfaction formula which helps you to define your food style. Can someone please pass me the lemon thyme chicken with the side of rosemary fingerling potatoes? Remember to save room for chocolate.

 

The Food That Fits

Giving Up

Have you given up anything for lent? While this tradition can be an effective approach for some to give up candy, alcohol or other vices, I find myself wanting the substance I vowed to give up even MORE. In fact, how you behave with the observation of lent might correlate highly with how well you follow a diet. Diets work for some but the “I want something MORE if it is forbidden” is the reason why others need a non-diet approach. Non-diet approaches don’t embrace food deprivation or restriction. If this sounds like you, consider giving up diets instead of candy and resist the urge to “give up” altogether.



The Food That Fits

Are You Eating in The Dark?

Even though daylight savings occurring over this past weekend may now mean having breakfast when it is dark outside, my title question to you is more about awareness and less about sunrise.

Are you paying attention to what you are eating? Do you have any idea how many calories you are consuming? Could you estimate your fiber intake? Or perhaps you are eating whatever your environment is serving up. And, for many, environments with tasty offerings are serving up calories. But, taste isn’t dependent upon calories alone….eating foods in season generally has more taste and knowing how to use herbs are two solutions sans excess calories.

But, this post is not intended to fixate on calories either. Pay attention. Turn the “light on”  your food choices. You might be amazed at how effective this switch can be.

The Food That Fits

Nine Inches

The nine inch zipper that adorns mom jeans is a fashion faux pas for sure (Saturday Night Live “mom jeans” commercial).  And, given the rising rates of obesity in the United States, the nine inch platter that we use to pile dinner onto is a food faux pas for many. The more room you have, the more likely you are to keep filling it no matter if we are talking sweat pants or the plates you eat from.

Size does matter. Brian Wansink is a researcher out of Cornell University that has done some pretty quirky and interesting food observation studies and some of his conclusions include:

• People ate 22% less food when they down-sized from a 12 inch to a 10 inch dinner plate.
• People consume 92% of the food they serve themselves.
• Half of the munchies bought in bulk from a warehouse type store are eaten within 6 days.

So, how about ridding your closet of any mom jeans and ridding your cupboard of plates that are causing you to serve and to eat more than you need. I can think of two more productive places to make the number 9 work in your favor – try eating 9 vegetables and fruit servings per day and/or eating 9 grams of fiber per meal to help you achieve the 25-30 grams that is suggested per day!

Here’s to wearing “9” wisely!

The Food That Fits