More than just the food.

Part 1. How to create a fantastic eating experience?

We love food. It gives us the energy to fuel our daily adventures. But is it more than just feeding.

Cooking and eating together is one of the closest things you can share with another human being. It is a ritual, sincere admiration of nature and another person.

It starts with planning. You either have a taste for something you had in the past, and you know that you like it or, more adventurously, you open the book and search for the perfect recipe.

Then you hunt for the products. Sometimes it is as easy as popping down to your local store. Sometimes you need to be more thoughtful, as not all the products are always available.

Back to the kitchen, bags full of fresh products, the next stage begins; washing, cutting, preparing, chopping, boiling, cooking.

Stay focus, or you may lose the tip of the finger or worse, you might overcook the pasta.

I have found food preparation as a perfect mindfulness exercise, it’s only now and here, arm up and down, knife chop, chop, chop on the chopping board.

In the meantime, it is time for the table, the main stage. There is something magical about the well-set table, with white plates and shining silverware, spotless glasses and ready to open the wine. Pay attention to the details, make it spotless, tidy, everything in the right place. In a few minutes, it is going to be the backdrop for the show you have just prepared.

Food is boiling hot and ready to be served.

It’s time.

Amazing aroma finds its way to your nostrils, making your saliva thinner and mouth eager to taste.

Not too fast.

Place the food on the plate; make it look beautiful. Longer you wait, hungrier you get, and the meal will taste better. You will appreciate it more.

Pour the wine.

When eating, enjoy every bite. Don’t rush; there is no medal for the first finisher. Be grateful for the food you have prepared, for the atmosphere you have created, for the other person’s presence.

And for the dishwasher, which saves your time and effort, so you can focus on other, more romantic activities.

Part 2. How not to ruin the romantic evening.

We have just finished dinner. It was lovely to eat together, to chat, to flirt. Good wine helped us to unwind and relax. We were in a good mood, happy to be together and excited to discover what next the night unfolds.

When you are with someone for many years, moments like this are precious. You need to cultivate them, make them count. The mundane, everyday little problems and worries kill intimacy and romantic moments better then soy and plastic kill the sex drive.

I know this now, and I wish I could take better steps then.

Enough said, that night didn’t finish with a happy ending. And it was all my fault.

When we finished eating, she went to take a quick shower.

”5 minutes” she said.

My role was simple; to put on relaxing music, bring remaining wine to the lunge and light the candles, and wait.

Instead, I reached for my mobile. There was a message light blinking, and I only wanted to turn ON the plane mode. Deep into the rabbit hole I went.

I watched someone climbing the snowy peak wearing only t-shirts then funny goat chasing the rabbit, I reply to my mum, she asked if I remembered about my dad’s birthday tomorrow, then I saw that this famous comedian had the show in my town, so I went to check for the tickets, the show was sold out, but they had another band I liked next week. I went to Youtube to review their new material.

Then I realised I’ve just wanted to play some music.

Music…

Wine…

Candles…

Her…

Shit!

The shower has stopped ages ago. I haven’t even noticed. Damn.

She was already in bed, but reading, in comfy pyjamas, with a hint of disappointment on her face.

As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep well that night, and I didn’t wake up refreshed either.

I have not only destroyed our romantic evening, but I also put my rest and recovery in jeopardy.

The research shows that staring at the bright screen just before the bed make your night rest less effective. It takes your body much longer to dive into deep, restorative part of the sleep. You might have closed your eyes, but your brain still works on the high frequency, trying to mule over all the pieces of information you loaded in.

What’s the best solution? Just turn off your phone as soon as possible, allow at least 1h before hitting the sack. And keep it out of sight, having the mobile in your vision field, even if it is turn off and screen down, has been proved to make you distracted.

Part 3. How to recover well?

As expected, I didn’t sleep well last night. The combination of the wine and late social media session has made me groggy and tired this morning.

I didn’t even have to check, I knew that my HR and HRV scores will show the damage to the body. I take readings every morning, and I follow them religiously. They help me to understand the impact on the daily training, how hard should I push on the next session, or should I just take the day off.

It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but still, the scores were way of the chart. My regular morning heart rate is around 47 beats per minute, today it was 55. The HRV, which measures the impact of the stress on your nervous system, was way to low.

My body was was in full recovery mode.

”No hard session for me today” I thought. Instead, I decided to help my body get back on the track. There are many things you can do guide the recovery; relaxation, gentle cardio session, swimming, cold water dip, sauna, relaxing massage, meditation to name few.

The idea is that you completely relax. You should avoid any stressful situation too; if you decide to watch the movie, choose comedy over the horror, try to limit the TV time and spend a lot of time outdoors, ideally away from traffic, cars, people, mobile phone reception and fast food joints. Woods, lake, mountains they are all good destinations, go for a wander, with no particular goal in mind, just enjoy nature.

Treat your self with a portion of good food. Something nourishing and fresh. You need to feed well, and more antioxidants, vitamins and minerals you can give your body, the better. I found the large green salad, with lots of different vegetables and a good cut of the organic meat does the trick for me.

Coming back to your full strength depends on many factors. I found that after a couple of hours of taking care of myself, I feel much better; give it a day if you have been exhausted.

Sometimes, especially after a long race, like Ironman Triathlon, recovery takes me not hours, not days but weeks.

But this topic for the next chapter.

Leszek

Disclaimer.

It’s just a fiction.

Even though the story is written in the first person, and you might think I am writing about myself and my private life.