Your body continuously replaces olds cells with new ones.  We are talking about billions of new cells every day!  Isn’t it nice to know that many parts of you are forever young?  The food you consume today will be used to build those billions of new cells.  That is why you really are what you eat.  “Oh no!” you say, “You mean I am that bag of potato chips I just ate?”

Yes, it seems that we wage a continuous war with temptation in this age of excess. It might be the doughnuts we are offered by a coworker, the fast food we grab because “look at the time!”,  the chips we nibble while we watch TV, or the happy hour we “treat” ourselves to after a long day. As long as we are tempted, we will lose many of those battles, and as long as it is a war, the war can never be won.

But what if you weren’t even tempted by those doughnuts anymore? I can hear you snort with derision. Well, what if you weren’t tempted as often? Start by paying attention to the choices you make. Pretend you’ve been hired to spy on yourself. Just observe, don’t judge. Notice the impulsive grab for a cookie. Notice that you didn’t really enjoy it because you were reading your email while you ate it. Don’t berate yourself, because that puts you back in the state of war. Become aware of eating when you’re not hungry, of eating empty calories, of eating food because it is there. You can gradually become more mindful of what you put in your mouth, and that awareness can lead you to make healthier choices. And when you choose to go ahead and eat that cookie, and you eat it mindfully, you will truly enjoy it.

“When we are mindful, we recognize what we are picking up. When we put it into our mouth, we know what we are putting into our mouth. When we chew it, we know what we are chewing. It’s very simple.

Some of us, while looking at a piece of carrot, can see the whole cosmos in it, can see the sunshine in it, can see the earth in it. It has come from the whole cosmos for our nourishment.

You may like to smile to it before you put it in your mouth. When you chew it, you are aware that you are chewing a piece of carrot. Don’t put anything else into your mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in.

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.”    – Thich Nhat Hanh