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How to Practice Japanese Mindful Eating for More Joyful Meals
Overcoming the most confusing part of eating well
There are several standard principles to follow when managing weight and maintaining a healing and nourishing relationship with food, some principles which I have come to understand in Japanese ideas:
- Harahachi-bunme, or 8/10ths your stomach (moderation)
- Ichiju-sansai, or ‘one soup, three sides’ (variety)
- Plenty of vegetables and fruits
- and finally, mindful eating
Out of all these ideas, mindful eating is arguably the most important and also the most difficult — it’s definitely the one I struggled with the most.
Coming from a former background where food was a source of stress and also a source of temporary relief, I became to associate food with a sort of guilty curse. I felt bad so I would eat, and I would eat more because I felt worse for eating. In the most rational sense it was crazy because why couldn’t I just exercise self-control? But mindful eating is the most finicky thing in that it’s so intangible.
I could look at my plate and physically see whether it was a lot of food or not enough, as I could similarly count the number of vegetables on my plate and see the different…
