Reflections on diet and unconscious meditation

It is fair to say I am overwhelmed with life right now.  Not in a bad way, but I definitely have not found myself with many spare moments to stop and meditate, let alone to write about it.  I gave myself a pass on the meditation part until Shevat because of the raw foods thing, which I would say is a real success.  I am learning about food, thinking about food, talking about food, preparing my own food, spending a lot of time on food, resisting food.  I deserve a frigging medal for abstaining from the pizza at band rehearsal last night.  Still, the blog and the experiment itself are pointless if I can't actually manage to put effort into the reflection part.

And I am committed to the effort of challenging myself during these months and writing about it.  Even a month in it seems I'm starting from below ground zero.  I think to myself dozens of times a day how unmindful I am right now and yet have not really gone the extra step from that conclusion to attempt to achieve a more mindful mental state.  I suppose I am allowing myself this time to observe and make a TON of mindless mistakes?  These past weeks have been a major losing-shit spree, during which I unburdened myself of items such as my wallet and a several-hundred-dollar pair of prescription sunglasses.

To "watch and not judge" myself in this is a struggle.  I want to beat myself over the head and spend all day agonizing over my lost items and thinking about what an idiot I am.  But largely, I have managed to stop myself.
 
And the raw food rule has at least ensured that every day, I spend time focused consciously on taking care of myself.  When I am pouring Brazil nut powder into a food processor full of raw broccoli, I have to focus a good percentage of my mental energy on it.  And as such, I am pretty much as far from work, synagogue commitments, other activities, as I ever get.  It feels good to do this.

Highly disappointing cashew cheese of my labor.
And everything else in my fridge.

One of my favorite behavioral economics authors Dan Ariely writes about a phenomenon he calls the "IKEA effect" - basically, you get enjoyment out of making something yourself and you value it higher as a result.  Now... I'm not sure the latter proposition applies in this case, as I timed an entire Sunday around a batch of cashew cheese and I find it rather useless and one of the grosser things I've eaten on the raw food diet.    I would not price it above $1.  But one of Ariely's premises is that laboring is essential to well-being.  And I wonder if that is not just the act of creating something - productivity, often goal-oriented and in some ways anti-mindful--but the act of some focused attention.

So when I make my raw food, plan my meals, and put them together, am I in any way touching on mindfulness?  Or am I just being productive?

I like to think there is some meditation in my food preparation, albeit not of the mindful sort.  I am not consciously meditating through chopping or blending, and yet I am in a quasi-meditative state.  The tasks are simple and attainable, with but they do not come naturally to me.  My attention is focused on the recipe, measuring the oil, operating the device.  And there is enough opportunity to be creative in the process to keep me engaged.