How many of us here, keep an absolutely empty plate into the sink after eating food every time?
I would say very few because we just don’t have the time for it anymore. Squeezing out time for meals between our tough schedules is hard and while we are at it, we can’t wait to be done with one task to move onto the next.
That is what taking proper meals has become for us — A task.
One day I saw a person on the road and he had nothing to eat, I was stunned, completely in shock and that is when i realised eating three complete meals per day is not a task or something you just have to do every day, its a privilege.
It's a luxury that only a few could afford. So instead of taking it for granted, let's show how grateful we are by savoring and appreciating every last grain of food left in the plate.
And once I started doing that, it changed my life. And here are some of the lessons i learned along the way:
Taking out time for your food is like Meditation.
Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash
Say you have an exam the next day, you're stressed out and barely have time for anything let alone food. But you know you have to have food to stay alive. So what do you do? Run to the kitchen grab a quick bite and throw the plate in the dishwasher running back to your room? — that's what most of us would do.
But no matter how busy you are, taking out time for food is like a mini-meditation. Take a deep breath, sit down, eat your food, clean your plate to the very last piece of finely cut vegetables.
When you get up, you will feel rejuvenated, relaxed and refreshed. Its the perfect kind of break that you needed, before putting your head back in the race.
It's not all about the big things, even the tiniest things count.
Photo by Oscar Chevillard on Unsplash
If you are eating a plate of rice, just finishing the rice is enough right?
Or when you are having a bowl of noodles, once you're done with the noodles themselves, you should be done right?
One thing that the habit of cleaning my plate has taught me is that it is not all about the superficial, or visually obvious things in life. A supporting actor's role is just as important as the leads role.
Rice without salt, herbs, vegetables would not be the rice that we usually have for our meals. It would be un-eatable.
Hence when you are finishing your food, you pick up the tiniest of particles off your plates — the herbs, the vegetables or the meat and you appreciate the complexity of a dish that you thought was so simple.
You appreciate the efforts of the chef and you appreciate the different flavors that make up the dish.
It may seem impossible at first, but with time everything can be accomplished with patience.
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash
Cleaning your plate to the very last grain may seem like a lot of work. There are on average 5000 grains of rice on a plate. Picking up each one off of the plate can take a long while. But even if it does take a lot of time so be it.
Once I started finishing my food until my plate was perfectly clean, I had learned patience. Yes, the easy thing would be to throw the plate in the sink with some remaining food still in it and go about my routine.
However, just sitting there, picking those tiny particles which are stuck to the plate one by one and eating them can teach anyone patience.
It might seem impossible at first, but once you clean your first plate, you will never be able to leave food on your plate again.
Even if you can't help the poor all over the world, you are doing your part by not wasting what you been given.
Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash
There is widespread hunger, poverty, and homelessness all around the world. There are people working 24/7 just to be able to get a one time meal for their families.
We may not be able to help all the poor and homeless all over the globe, but that does not mean we can't play our part.
Wasting food is the most dishonorable thing one can do, knowing that there is someone sleeping hungry tonight.
Hence finishing your food, appreciating what you have been given is the first step in playing your part to be a responsible human.
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