Owner and founder of Brown Dog Yoga Katrina Mailloux shared the importance of eating mindfully during her presentation at Huntington’s Kitchen.

“The Yoga of Eating” draws on research done by Susan Albers, Cleveland Clinic Family Health Center psychologist, “The Mindful Eating Marathon.” They both express the importance of slow paced eating and savoring every bite of your food.

“Mindful eating is not a diet,” Albers said on her website. “There are no menus or recipes. It is being more aware of your eating habits, the sensations you experience when you eat, and the thoughts and emotions that you have about food. It is more about how you eat than what you eat.”

Mailloux said mindful eating is about being aware.

“Mindful eating is about eating with awareness and with regard to what your doing and what your thinking while you’re eating,” Mailloux said.

Mailloux’s 12-year yoga background has helped her discover pairing a slow paced appetite with a slow paced life.

“Obviously, eating healthy is going to help us be more, its going to help us physiologically with our numbers with our blood pressure, cholesterol, and all those important numbers that physicians want to remain at a certain baseline,” Mailloux said. “But, you know, yoga helps us make conscious decisions about the foods that were choosing. So, if we just slow down a little bit and breathe we may decide that ‘my body really needs that apple, opposed to that bag of chips’ and again I’m not saying that you can’t ever have that bag of chips, but just eat in a balanced way. This time you had the bag of chips, next time, have the apple.”

Huntington’s Kitchen, located in the heart of Huntington was established by Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution in 2009 and is now run by the Cabell Huntington Hospital.

Recently appointed manager of Huntington’s Kitchen Veronica Hordubay has enlisted the help of community educators to bring a new array of classes to the kitchen.

“We’re trying to get the community involved in the kitchen,” Hordubay said. “So, the more that we can reach out to our educators who are in the community not just in the hospital system, I think we’re going to get a rounder broader array of people coming in.”

The kitchen is a place where community members can take classes learning how to cook with fresh ingredients, classes with local health professionals and other community educators.

“I think it is such a benefit in terms of education, support, community out reach and really giving individuals an opportunity to learn ways to make a healthier life, preparing foods at home using fresh ingredients,” Mailloux said. “Learning the tools in the kitchen, learning the difference between gas heat and electric stove. I feel so honored and blessed that we have this resource in downtown Huntington.”

Huntington’s Kitchen is beginning to mix traditional cooking classes with a wide variety of other lectures about the importance of eating healthy.

“Right now, I have a full month of classes, I’m running probably anywhere from 2-3 classes a week depending,” Hordubay said. “A lot of them are sold out and they’re going really quickly so I’m in the process of recruiting more volunteers and more instructors.”

The kitchen is located across from Pullman Square and provides a wide range of classes with varying prices.

Kelsie Lively can be contacted at [email protected].