“Mindful eating is eating with intention, attention and awareness. The purpose of eating chocolate is pleasure. So when you are eating what you love, give it your full attention and love what you eat.”
- Become aware of any feelings of guilt. (If you dwell on guilt when it comes to chocolate please skip this meditation and see a therapist).
- Sit down to savor your chocolate choice without distractions.
- As you unwrap the chocolate, listen to the sounds and notice the aroma. (If you are an experienced meditator, buy a bag of unwrapped chocolate to go directly to the heart of the meditation)
- Take a small bite, then pause. Become aware of the textures and flavors on your tongue. (After the small bite, eat the entire bag and focus on the subtle differences between gourmet and gourmond).
- As you begin to chew, notice how the flavors, textures and aromas change.
- Notice pleasure.
- When you have fully experienced your bite, swallow, then pause to notice how long the flavor lingers. (If you’ve already swallowed in step #4 return to step #1.)
- Slowly repeat steps #4 through #7 until your treat is finished.
- (Next, make a batch of homemade dark chocolate for tomorrow – for optimal results meditate every day.)
Peta, a Green Global Trekker, shared her easy recipe for healthy chocolate.
www.greenglobaltrek.com“Add just enough coconut oil to get the cacao to being liquid. Approximately 2 tablespoons of oil to each cup of cacao, but as with the maple syrup it’s definitely trial and error and according to taste with the maple syrup. Can you tell I’m not the measuring type?”
- Raw cacao powder mixed with organic coconut oil. (approximately 2 tablespoons of oil to each cup of cacao)
- Add a pinch of salt.
- Add organic honey or maple syrup, to taste.
- Use freezer trays – put an almond, a piece of date, a cranberry, whatever you fancy, in your chocolate, then spread the liquid mix over the top.
- Freeze and pop chocolates out, “eat right away as they do melt quickly.”
Any questions . . . ask PETA!
Peta and Ben in Goa, India . Check out their travels. It’s a great blog
Ben and “not Peta”
Peta Kaplan
Peta was born in South Africa and Ben was born in France. After twenty plus years living in the U.S., when their four sons finished high school and left home for college, they quit their jobs, sold most of their possessions and launched Green Global Trek adventure.
Peta is a painter, yogini and animal activist. Ben is a strategist, personal and corporate “trajectory consultant” and sculptor. Both are both committed environmentalists and increasingly focused on discovering solutions and advocating for climate adaptation.
Judy what a LOVELY surprise! Thanks so much for the great shoutout!! I was about to write a response about mindful chocolate eating (what a perfect way to practice mindfulness) and then I just started smiling and chuckling out loud when I saw my name and recipe for homemade raw organic easy chocolate. I do love sharing this recipe as it so easy and also so good!
One thing to mention, either I wrote it wrong, or it got lost in translation, however, the measurements are:
2 tablespoons of oil to each cup of cacao. Otherwise it is going to be one oily mess haha.
Enjoy and thank you again for the lovely mention.. Happy to answer any questions: petakaplan@hotmail.com
xoxo
Peta
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OOOOOOO Peta. Thanks for the correction. I’m making the edit IMMEDIATELY. It’s a good thing I waited to make the recipe (bought all the ingredients). Going in for the edit NOW.
xxx jw
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Many favorites here: Judy and Peggy, Peta and Ben, and Chocolate. (I also like the spotted calf.)
I’ve tried this meditation technique with the raisin, OK for one try, but a bag of chocolate is too tempting and doesn’t last long enough for a complete mindful experience – not in my hands, anyway. 😀
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Sharon,
I guess you are stuck with raisins. It is good you are getting in your quota of chocolate, even if not mindfully.
peggy
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That’s exactly how I eat chocolate!! Every bite is a piece of heaven and should be enjoyed as much as possible. There’s no hurrying the pleasure, it just wouldn’t do. 😊
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Excellent!
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