The Slow Kitchen Podcast

Episode 17 - The Lost Art of Eating (And How to Find It Again)

• Cat Dillon • Season 1 • Episode 17

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0:00 | 15:09

5 Key Takeaways

1. Presence matters as much as the plate
"The state you bring to the meal matters just as much as what’s on the plate."

2. Rhythm stabilizes your body and energy
"Metabolism loves rhythm more than perfection."

3. Pleasure is part of nourishment
"When pleasure disappears from eating, cravings usually take its place."

4. Fear sabotages health
"You cannot build a healthy relationship with food while being afraid of it."

5. Eating reflects your relationship with yourself
"Food is often used as a pause button… when what we really need is permission to pause."


🍽️ Simple Practices Mentioned

  • Pause for three slow breaths before eating
  • Sit down and eat without distractions when possible
  • Aim for regular meals including protein, healthy fats, and fiber
  • Allow a few hours between meals so digestion can complete
  • Focus on satisfaction, not restriction
  • Notice how foods make you feel, not just their nutrition profile


📚 Resources & Inspiration

Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindful eating reminder: “When you eat, eat.”

Wendell Berry
"People who know how to eat well are among the happiest people in the world."

These teachers deeply influence the philosophy of mindful and conscious eating.


💛 Work With Cat

If eating has started to feel complicated or stressful, Cat helps midlife women rebuild a calmer, more trusting relationship with food and their bodies.

✨ 1:1 Coaching Waitlist opens in April — Sign up here

Or

🌿 Join the Mood & Metabolism Collective — Learn more & join here
Inside you’ll find:

  • Quick, blood-sugar-steady recipes
  • Drag-and-drop meal planner with smart grocery lists (Instacart included)
  • Monthly cooking classes
  • Calm community space to build a grounded relationship with food

More Resources for You:

Connect with Me:

SPEAKER_00

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Slow Kitchen Podcast, your 15-minute space to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with nourishment that actually fits your real life. I'm Kat Dylan, registered holistic nutritionist, former chef, and a lover of beautiful yet unfussy meals that make you feel supported, satisfied, and steady from the inside out. If you're a woman in midlife, juggling work, family hormones, cravings, mood shifts, and a world that never slows down, this podcast is for you. Here we take the pressure out of cooking and bring the pleasure back in. I believe food is more than fuel. It's connection, regulation, sensory, emotional, mental, and even spiritual nourishment. When we prepare food with intention, even just for a couple of minutes, everything shifts. Digestion improves, cravings ease, energy steadies, and your nervous system finally feels supported. In this podcast, I bring my kitchen to you through simple tips, health-building ingredients, tiny habits that save you from evening overwhelm, and practical, real-life ways to cook and eat more mindfully. Because how you eat is how you live. And when you slow down in a kitchen, even just a little, it changes what happens everywhere else. Let's take this journey together, one intentional, nourishing bite at a time. So last week, something interesting happened. I seemed to attract food conversations everywhere I went. I was sitting at a restaurant and overheard someone say, I shouldn't eat this bread. I'm trying hard to avoid carbs. And later that same day, I was standing at the grocery line when I overheard two women comparing the calories in their favorite almond milks. And it struck me how common this has become. Definitely not the first time. And after all, I do live in San Diego where wellness is a huge focus. We've become incredibly skilled at analyzing foods, the carbs, calories, the glycemic index, ingredients, the macros. But somewhere along the way, we may have forgotten the art of eating. And sometimes I think we've become such experts at analyzing food, but beginners at truly experiencing it. Today I want to talk about the art of eating, something that goes far beyond what's on your plate. Because eating well isn't just about what we eat, it's also about how we eat. And I see this so much in North American culture. Food has become something we do while doing something else. We rush through meals, multitask, and barely notice the experience, which is why the art of eating actually begins somewhere much simpler. The art of eating begins with presence. And most people eat unconsciously, eating while watching TV, eating while scrolling, in the car between appointments, or standing at the counter. I do it too. I've been known to eat breakfast at the computer while starting a creative workday. Not rushed, but not fully present either. And here's the thing: when we eat rushed or distracted, digestion slows. Your fullness signals get muted and bloating or constipation can follow. The state you bring to the meal matters just as much as what is on the plate. Ticknot Han said it beautifully. Try something simple. Pause. Just take a breath, then another, and another, feel your feet on the ground, and then feel your hands. Suddenly the body knows it's safe to receive food. And then something else begins to happen naturally. Rhythm returns. The art of eating honors rhythm. Our bodies love rhythm, but modern eating often looks like this: skipping meals, grabbing bars or smoothies, grazing all day, or eating late at night when no one is around. Irregular eating confuses your system. A few simple ways are with your blood sugar. When meals are irregular, your blood sugar can spike and drop much easier, leaving you tired and reaching for something sweet. Your hunger hormones. Skipping or delaying meals disrupts ghrelin and leptin, your hunger and your fullness hormones, making it harder to recognize true hunger and fullness. Energy regulation. Inconsistent meals make it harder to maintain steady energy through the day, causing swings between wired, tired, or ravenous. Your digestion, the digestive system works best on rhythm. So irregular eating can lead to bloating, sluggish digestion, and discomfort. One thing I always remind my clients: consistency often matters more than perfection. So don't stress out about it all. A simple rhythm might look like this: having real meals, meals that actually nourish protein, healthy fats, fiber, and enough substance to keep you satisfied. Enough food. Undereating often leads to cravings or overeating later, and we know this. Some time between meals. Allowing more time between meals lets your digestion complete and your hunger signals reset. Honoring hunger and satisfaction. Hunger is simply a signal that your body needs nourishment. And responding to it calmly helps to rebuild trust with your body. A little hunger is actually a good thing. It means your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. And then eating until you feel comfortably satisfied most of the time, supports smoother digestion, steady and more stable energy. When you haven't eaten for a few hours, your digestive system activates the migrating motor complex, or MMC. And this is a housekeeping wave that moves through the stomach and small intestines, sweeping leftover food particles, bacteria, and debris. Those little stomach growls, often the MMC is at work. This process helps digestion stay efficient and supports a healthy microbiome. When meals happen at a fairly consistent time, you reinforce your internal clock. Your body begins to anticipate meals, and then your enzymes are released efficiently, and energy regulation becomes more stable. And when rhythm returns to eating, something else often returns as well. The art of eating includes sensory pleasure. Food is not just fuel, it involves all five senses. The smell, aroma, texture, color, the temperature, satisfaction. I'm sure you've ordered your favorite dish at a restaurant and it's arrived cold, or they left out the most delicious ingredient, or cooking yourself at home and you forgot to, let's say, get garlic or that bunch of asparagus and that ended up being dry and wilted, or maybe that leftover chicken was just a little too leftover, you just didn't get what you expected, right? And when pleasure is removed, cravings often increase because the brain is still searching for completion. I tell my clients, when pleasure disappears from eating, cravings usually come and take its place. And this principle is called satisfaction. When a meal is satisfying, the brain registered that the experience is complete. And think about the difference between, let's say, a bowl of mixed greens or plain steamed vegetables and a chicken breast versus a nourishing meal with enough protein, healthy fat, flavor, and texture. Satisfaction isn't indulgence, it's biological closure. Wendell Berry once said, people who know how to eat well are amongst the happiest people in the world. Part of that happiness comes from allowing food to be sensory and enjoyable. But for many people today, enjoyment has been replaced with something else. Fear. Which brings us to another important part in the art of eating. Hey, if any part of this conversation is resonating with you and eating has started to feel a bit complicated, stressful, or even a little confusing, I want you to know this is exactly the work I do. I work with women in midlife who feel like their relationship with food and their bodies has become tense, unpredictable, or exhausting, often after years of trying to get it right. Together we focus on rebuilding something much calmer, trust in the body, steadier energy, and a more peaceful way of eating that actually works in real life. I'll be opening up my wait list in April for a few one-on-one clients. And if you prefer learning in community, I also have my group program and the Mood and Metabolism Collective, where we explore these ideas more deeply together. If you're curious, you can find all of that in the show notes. Which brings us to another important part of the art of eating. The art of eating is free from food fear. I've heard endless commentary around food. Bad food, cheating, and these are all in air quotes. I shouldn't, I was bad today, I'll be good tomorrow. The art around food activates stress physiology, and that affects digestion, blood sugar, cravings, inflammation. Stress slows digestion because your body thinks its survival is more important than breaking down your meal. Stress hormones spike blood sugar, making it harder to keep energy steady. The stress often triggers cravings for quick energy, even if you're not hungry. And stress also impacts the enteric nervous system. It's that second brain in your gut. This can lead to bloating, discomfort, and even affect nutrient absorption, which sends signals to the brain that influence cravings, mood, and energy regulation. I believe deeply you cannot build a healthy relationship with food while at the same time being afraid of it. Food quality matters, but fear does not create health. My point is not to eat everything you want, but to be present enough to notice how you feel after you eat. If the desire is still there after pausing, then decide to enjoy it fully. Everything is like this, with presence and without guilt. Because over time, these small moments of awareness start to build something deeper, a relationship with yourself. And this ties directly to emotional eating. Food often becomes a pause button when we're overwhelmed, tired, lonely, anxious, in that procrastination mode, or transitioning from work to evening. And sometimes what we really need isn't food, it's rest, connection, movement, creativity, maybe just a bit of quiet. I often say food is often used as the pause button, but what we really need is permission to pause in the first place. Eating can be comforting, but it really shouldn't be the only comfort available to us. For decades we've been perfecting the science of eating. Calories, macros, ingredients, food labels, but something else matters just as much. The art of eating, which includes presence, rhythm, pleasure, freedom from fear, and self-awareness, allowing the body to experience hunger and fullness without fear. When eating becomes an art instead of a calculation, nourishment becomes possible again. And I find myself wondering about you, the listener, what's your relationship with food right now? Does it feel structured, unstructured, rushed, complicated? I'd truly love to hear what resonated with you in this conversation or what your own experience with the art of eating has been. Because these conversations about food are never just about food. They're about how we live and how we care for ourselves, how we celebrate and reconnect with our bodies. You can always drop me an email, find my address in the show notes. And if this conversation resonated, make sure you share it and you're subscribed so you don't miss the next episode, where we'll keep exploring simple ways to bring more ease, nourishment, and trust into how we eat and live. Until next time, slow down, listen in, and take good care of yourself. Bye for now.