Today’s Refresh challenge was to THINK about FOOD. Finally!  Something I’m good at. (Because Day 2’s whole cleaning thing was not my forte.)   Just like any other previously chubby teenager with body dysmorphia and North American food issues, I think about food all the time. What I ate, what I want to eat, what I’m going to eat, what I’m NOT going to eat.  However, that’s not what the authors of the 21 Days to a New You had in mind. Theirs was a bit more mentally healthy.

The challenge said to: “really think about food (sic).  Take one meal and eat with awareness. Shut down your computer, switch off the TV, and savour every bite.

Today, was the perfect day for Day 3.  My husband and I decided to take a hooky day and have a weekday lunch date downtown.  This was the perfect opportunity to be mindful of my food, because we went to a restaurant for lunch that I have been dying to try, called Pizzeria Libretto.  We haven’t been to this restaurant as of yet, first because usually I’m too lazy to go downtown, but also because normally it has a two hour line up.  In fact, our waiter Tony (who was excellent by the way;  KUDOS to the owners for hiring him), told us that at the original location, he’s known people to wait THREE hours.  Well, my husband doesn’t stand in no line, so that was why we’d never tried this amazing spot.  I found out, though, that they’d opened a second location, which was larger, and takes reservations.  While we didn’t do the latter for lunch, its good to know its an option.

What’s so special about Pizzeria Libretto? Well, this isn’t a restaurant review , so you can go on their site to find out (all I’ll say, is that they are a certified Neopolitan Pizza place). However, this is a post about my savouring every bite. Which is what I did with my pizza, which was cooked in their special wood oven.

Pizza Libretto's wood ovens

As today’s task requested, I totally THOUGHT ABOUT MY FOOD, and I ate it with full awareness of how fantastic it was!  I oohed, I ahhhhed, I yummmmed.  This pie was laden with grilled eggplant, homemade tomato sauce, basil, chili, and grated ricotta salata.  HEAVEN!  And, just so you know, the crust was even above heaven, wherever that is.

Pizza Libretto Eggplant Pizza

The husband had the sausage pizza with fresh Mozzarella di Bufalo on it.  It was supposed to be a white pizza, but he’s a bit old school, so they added tomato sauce.  I don’t think he was as mindful with his as I was with mine, as he inhaled it in about 3 minutes. After the massacre, when he stopped to take a breath, he pronounced it the best pizza he’d ever eaten, and asked me why we’d never eaten at this restaurant before (obviously I rolled my eyes at that question, it being his fault that he’d never had that sausage pizza before.)  Since I couldn’t finish, he took over and finished the eggplant one, pronouncing his own to have been at least two, maybe three times better than mine.

Pizzeria Libretto Sausage Pizza

What I learned from today’s Day 3 task was that its important to think about your food. But, not as your enemy.  Instead, choose foods that you love, focus on the enjoyment and ceremony of eating them. Make the meal count.  Make it special.  And so we did.

PS:  After we finished eating, we had a great conversation with Tony (our waiter, remember?) about Libretto’s sister restaurant Enoteco Sociale. So, guess where we’re off to next for another mindful meal.