Ready for a Challenge!

June was a lovely, challenge-free month. It was nice to just plug away at some of the habits I'm trying to form, while watching my garden grow and try to keep up with the weeding and yard work. Summer isn't very long around here, but when it comes, things grow like crazy!

Anyway, it's now July, and I've signed up for two challenges, which nicely coincide. These challenges will help me develop a habit I've been trying to get better at for some time now, which is to eat mindfully, instead of just scarfing down something while surfing the internet, reading or watching TV. And with the delicious food I've been getting from the CSA farm and the farmer's markets, I really want to make sure I take the time to appreciate and enjoy the food I'm making and eating. I want to be sure and acknowledge everything that goes into my food, from the energy of the sun and the rainwater, to the care and attention of the farmers, to the fuel it takes to get my food here, to my own efforts in preparing the food to be eaten.

Heather at Simple-Green-Frugal is hosting the No Graze Days challenge, wherein she is challenging us to do one seemingly simple thing: sit down when you eat. In Heather's words, this means: "no nibbles while I'm cooking, no nibbles while standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out what to really eat for dinner, and no nibbles as I'm scraping leftovers into tupperware. Yep! No nibbles if I'm not sitting down." This will be harder than it sounds for me, because I have the habit of nibbling constantly while I am cooking or making my lunch or feeding our two guinea pigs their veggie bowls.

And then there is Chile's Quit Now Challenge, which encourages us to try and change some habits now, by choice, rather than later when they could be forced upon us, by virtue of peak oil/climate change/economic depression scenarios.

So in my case, I'm going to restrict my food intake at home so that not only am I sitting down when I'm eating, but I also make time to enjoy and appreciate what I have, rather than vegging out in front of some kind of screen, or with my nose buried in a book while I eat. I'm going to consiously see and taste and smell what I'm eating, and think about what went in to getting it from seed to my grateful plate.

I really want to break my habit of eating mindlessly. I want to get better at appreciating things for what they are - enough of this multitasking already! I have to multitask at work all day long, and I want to give my self a break from that at home, so I can re-sensitize myself to the simple and separate enjoyments of eating a good meal, or reading a good book, or having a nice cup of tea. Canceling the satellite TV again this summer will help, and so will having all this delicious food!