The Four-Minute Cracker

Last night I awoke with tummy growlings. I needed something to stifle them. I had consumed only 1390 calories during the day. On the headboard/bookcase I keep a package of crackers that I open when I get these growlings. I don't want to eat the crackers suddenly. Frankly, I could put a cracker in my mouth and give it a couple of gnashes, destroying it in seconds and swallowing it. I would barely taste it AND it would not give me much satisfaction. I would probably dig a handful out of the package and might eat 15-20 crackers that way before I'd no longer feel the hunger pangs. 

I awake hungry during the night about three times a week. Rather than wolf down the crackers, I eat one tiny bit at a time. I practice "mindful eating" (after the book by the same name, authored by Jan Chozen Bays, MD) while I eat the cracker. With each bite, 

• I control my impulse to quickly swallow it; 
• I feel the crunch;
• I roll the cracker between my tongue and my upper palate while thinking of the texture;
• I taste the saltiness;
• I feel the crunchy texture slowly moistening and softening;
• I think about the reason I am eating the cracker;
• I feel the hunger slowly subsiding with each bit of cracker;
• I think about the process of making a cracker (and about the recipe for crackers that I found on a website--maybe I'll begin making  my own herbed crackers when I finish my current box of crackers);
• I think about the people who made the cracker;
• I think about the little bit of nutrition I get with each bite;
• I wonder about the fat and sugar that may be in the cracker, and I remind myself to check the box next day;
• I think about why I am eating in bed at 3 AM; and
• I wonder how many tiny bites I'll take before the cracker is finished.

During this process, little Betsey, my son's 7-pound adult Manx cat, is posted at my right shoulder, staring at my eyes quietly. She's asking for a piece of cracker. She's a silly little thing. I'll give her the next tiny bit and she'll eat it much more quickly than I ate mine. She does not practice mindful eating.

By the time we finish just one cracker, four minutes have elapsed. I wait a moment, then begin my next four-minute cracker. I may challenge myself, trying for a five-minute cracker, but I fail. By the time I am finished, I've eaten 2 1/2 crackers and Betsey has eaten 1/2 cracker. I remind myself to count the calories in 2 1/2 crackers in my next calorie total. I hope that the cat-lovers of the world will not berate me for giving a cat crackers.

I practice mindful eating during my meals too, but not to this extent. If I did so, meals would all go cold after the first half-hour of such mindfulness. By the time I would finish one meal, it would be time for the next.