Making sure you don’t skip meals—especially breakfast—is one of the key tenets of mindful eating. We’ve all heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” and recent research on breakfast gives us further good reasons for maintaining this habit. 

As I had the privilege of practicing mindful eating with Thay’s monks and nuns during his recent visit to Boston, I thought I would share with you the recipes of my lunch. This menu is planned around portability and incorporating a variety of flavors and textures that lend well to mindful eating—whether you practice at a retreat or in a park on your lunch break.

As a child, every food is finger food. Cereal, vegetables, pasta: if you can pick it up, it’s fair game. But at a certain point, your parents bring in the utensils. Forks, spoons, knives or chopsticks are introduced as the proper vehicles for food, and who are we to object? But even though we may finish our meals with less food on our hands and faces, we sacrifice something perhaps much more important than cleanliness. We are distancing ourselves from our food.

Hannah is a rising junior from Amherst College majoring in Anthropology and French. She is interning with me at Harvard School of Public Health this summer.

Most of us live in some area of summertime heat and we are heading to the beach to cool off. This doesn’t mean we have to leave our mindful eating habits at home. For inspiration, let’s look to countries that have a custom of healthy sea shore-snacks.

Chelsea is a senior from Emerson College majoring in Marketing and Health Communications.  She is interning with me at Harvard School of Public Health this summer.

“The More You See, The More You Know”  -Aldous Huxley

Spring is upon us. It’s time to come out of our winter sluggishness and get moving! Find your closest farm, farmer's market or CSA. What better way to shop mindfully than close to nature and the source? The adventure is an ideal family outing. Everyone can enjoy nutritious, beautiful produce that delights the senses while young ones learn how to shop mindfully and develop healthy eating habits.

I was so moved by this email I received from Peter Cutler, an Order of Interbeing Member with the Dharma Name True Sangha Virtue, that I requested his permission to share it with you. Peter is a member of Boston’s Old Path Sangha. He is a spiritual teacher, Zen artist and founding member of the Sacred Circle in Sedona, Arizona. 

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