When Sally noticed that someone had brought a chocolate three-layer cake to work, she decided to have a piece of it at her break.
But when she took the first bite, she realized it was dry and crumbly. Just in case she was wrong, she took another bite, then another.
She kept hoping the taste would get better, but of course it didn’t.
When you are eating to appreciate flavors, make sure what you’re eating matches the taste you want. If a food doesn’t taste as good as you’d hoped, stop eating it!
And don’t reach for it again to see if it got any better!
Sometimes old childhood messages will sneak in, such as “finish what’s on your plate whether you like it or not.”
Let go of any old rules around eating all of your food, even when it doesn’t taste very good. If you don’t love it, leave it!
Today’s assignment (my answers are in blue)
1. Choose a favorite treat for this exercise. Take a small bite of food, then think about how it tastes. Is it good? Wonderful? Just fair? Is it the correct temperature or is it a little too warm or too cold? Describe this in great detail below.
I have two examples for this exercise. I recently made a new recipe for poached salmon with a light dill sauce. When I took the first bite, I knew that it was perfectly cooked, just the right temperature, and perfect flavor.
A few weeks ago, I drove to a bakery for a “cookie fix” but realized my cookie was dry and crumbly, not soft and chewy the way I wanted it.
2. Take another bite, and then decide whether or not this food meets your expectations. Is it truly awesome, or do you feel disappointed with it?
Salmon- truly awesome, met my expectation completely
Cookie- still dry, very disappointing
3. Now write down your response to the food you’re eating. If you decide it’s absolutely perfect, feel free to enjoy some more. But if you realize it’s not tasting very good, stop! Don’t keep hoping it’ll get better—because it won’t.
I ate all of the salmon, since it was also a carefully measured portion.
It was difficult to do, but I actually threw the rest of the cookie away. One of my rules is NEVER waste my calories on bad food.
Excerpted from Day 26 in the book, 100 Days of Weight Loss