The anti-plan. It just smacked me in the face. Everything changes all of the time. Wake up this morning with a sick kid and your day (meetings, schedules, meals, errands) -- all out the window). Often, I use the phrase, "when life happens ..." as in -- I was doing great exercising and then life happened and that habit went out the window.

We plan. That is what we do in the West. It is very hard to be like bamboo and move with the wind. We value being the strong oak -- standing steadfast (until the wind snaps us off at the base of our trunk).

Mindful eating is moving you in the direction of the bamboo mentality. Recognize where you are and what you feel. Hungry? Eat. Satisfied? Stop. Not so hard.

Unless you have been taught and taught and taught again to put a huge value on planning -- by everyone from your parents (Lord knows I work and work to get my girls to plan), to your teachers, bosses, significant others. There are very few of us that fly by the seat of our pants for any amount of time and still remain:

a. headed in the direction we are meaning to go
b. fly with any sort of grace -- no matter which direction we are heading.

My word of advice is balance. Work on balancing your plans for eating and the flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants/go-with-your-gut sensibility.

If you have the opportunity to have a day where you have no eating obligations -- wait until you are hungry to eat. See how long it takes you. If you have the curiosity -- wait a bit beyond that to see how the hunger increases. Then eat. Taste the food and when it ceases to be a pleasure, stop.

If you practice this skill, it becomes one of the tools in your tool box when life happens. It becomes a go-to-option that can serve you very well.