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Slowing Down at Meals
For anyone who eats standing up, over a screen, or without noticing. Each day is one small way to make a meal a pause, so eating becomes a moment in your day instead of something that happens to you.
Body · Food · Mindfulness · one to-do a day · you choose how many days
The first seven days
- Day 1Sit down for every meal today, even a snack, even for two minutes. Notice which one you would normally have eaten standing.
- Day 2Set the table for yourself tonight: a plate, a real napkin, a glass of water, before the food is ready.
- Day 3Put your fork down between bites at dinner and pick it up again only after you have swallowed.
- Day 4Eat breakfast at a table this morning instead of at the counter or on the way out the door.
- Day 5Take your lunch to a different spot at work, a bench, a break room, a windowsill, and eat it there from start to finish.
- Day 6Before your first bite of any meal today, take one slow breath and look at what is on the plate.
- Day 7Notice the temperature of your coffee or tea with the first sip, and drink the whole cup while it is still warm.
Further into the year
The to-dos keep changing as the year goes on. A few from later in this theme:
- Day 30Stir a pot of something slow tonight, oatmeal, soup, a sauce, and stay in the kitchen while it cooks.
- Day 60Pour your drink into a real glass tonight, not a can or a bottle, and notice the difference.
- Day 120Set a small bowl of olives, nuts, or cut vegetables on the table before dinner and let people gather around it.
- Day 240Bring a homemade dish to a potluck this month and stay long enough to sit and eat with people.
- Day 365End tonight's dinner by asking each person what tasted best, and answer yourself.
How a challenge works
A Theraglee challenge is a theme with one small to-do for every day of a year. You choose how long yours runs, anywhere from a week to the full year, and each day you get the next to-do: something that takes a few minutes and fits inside an ordinary day. Tick it off when it is done. Nothing is scored and nothing is lost if you miss a day; the next to-do is simply waiting when you come back.
Challenges come with a free Theraglee account, which never asks for a card. Your progress stays private to you.