Eating like French Women

Over the last few weeks, then, I have been trying to live more like a French woman and I am feeling good. It really comes down to eating mindfully - to be in the moment with all your senses. I love how in the book, French Women Don't Get Fat, the author describes the process of eating from going to the market (which French women do every 2 or 3 days) to select the ingredients right to the presentation of the food on a beautifully made up table. 

For the last while I have been buying an organic vegetable box from a project, Harvest of Hope, that supports people in the township. It was quite a mindset change to be presented with vegetables which were in season and to learn what to do with what was in the box. I was forced to look up recipes in which I could use the vegetables that I did not normally use; this in itself was a learning curve. We so easily take over-wrapped fruit and vegetables off the shelf with little regard to whether or not they are in season, have been in cold-storage or have created huge carbon footprints by being imported from New Zealand or Norway. 

I bought a vegetable brush and to the strains of Edith Piaf (well, sometimes, when my daughter is indulging her French appetite) scrub the veggies and make pots of soup or sauces for pasta, or simply roast veggies. I now look forward  to the challenge of unpacking the box  and thinking up a recipe for the week's yield.

To come back to French women, putting your food on a plate and sitting at the table makes food a conscious occasion. When you eat in front of the television or on the run (as I sometimes do), you lose focus and fail to register when you have had enough. It takes a little bit more effort and planning to get everyone in the same place at the same time but sitting at the table allows us to catch up with each other at the end of a busy day and it certainly has been a pleasure.

• French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano