Savor the FLAVOR

Calorie counting opened my eyes to a lot more than just the sheer volume of food I was consuming each day. It gave me a new appreciation for the little things in life that are so often overlooked in the rush of each day and the constant pressure to get things done.

A friend’s comment about a diet tracking app she was using stirred my interest at a time when my ever-increasing weight was becoming a concern.  Once downloaded on my phone it made the job of recording the calories in the food I ate easy and even somewhat fun, and by the time the novelty wore off, the weight loss I was experiencing convinced me to continue, so excited and encouraged was I with the initial success. Four months farther down the road I had reached my weight goal as well as the conclusion that I would be a calorie counter forever!

One thing I loved about this method of dieting was that I was still allowed to eat whatever I wanted, just not all on the same day! Based on personal data I entered initially, the program determined how many calories I should consume each day to lose weight at the pace I desired; the allotment of those calories was up to me. I loved the freedom of choice involved, and the feeling that I was the one in control.

The initial allotment was alarmingly small, however, and portion sizes were so greatly reduced from what I was used to that in order to make the mealtime last long enough to satisfy me emotionally, I ate what was before me in ridiculously small bites. And perhaps because I was eating so much less, I appreciated every morsel more; everything I ate seemed to be packed with flavor that I had never noticed before. Dining became more of a delight than ever before.

The process applies to the way we live life, as well. We are each given the same number of minutes per day, and how we spend them is up to us. We are in control. The problem is that we don’t know how many days we have; all we know is that we have less of them today than we did a day ago.  And so it’s good when something stops us from rushing through the moments that fill them and reminds us to slice them up into tiny bites of joy that we savor for as long as we can before swallowing and moving on to the next one. Like small bites of food, little moments of time and the tiniest indications of God’s presence all make a huge difference in the enjoyment I find in each day.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good…”
(Psalms 34:8 NIV)