Friday Question #124
Where do you eat your meals – at a table, at your work desk, on the couch, in a restaurant, etc.? Do you think where you eat your food affects how much you enjoy it (or how much you pay attention to it)?
What I am hoping is that I am not the only one who seems to have given up on the dining room table. We eat almost every meal on the couch now – except for salads, because I spill them all over myself. And at work, I eat breakfast and lunch at my desk (unless I am meeting a friend for lunch). Yikes. I am really setting myself up to enjoy my meals…
We have a perfectly fine dining room table at home. AND you can even see the TV from the table (although I hate to sit there and watch television – it feels like if we are at the table, we should be engaged in conversation). We just don’t seem to use the table.
One thing that makes me WANT to eat at the dining room table is having a nice flower arrangement on it – it’s so inviting! Like this one that Courtney sent me for my birthday:
But wait! Look at the cute lid for the vase container:
Aww. Now, if I only had fresh flowers ALL the time!
Themocracy
We tend to eat dinner at the coffee table in front of the TV. I eat my breakfast and lunch at my desk at work unless I go out with coworkers (usually once a week). At some point after I have kids I intend to implement dining room table dinners but until then I think we’ll continue on at the coffee table.
Oh I love that vase! SOO cute! I love to have nice stuff for centerpieces on the table. It just adds something to the space! I usually eat at the table, only once in a while on the couch.
We always eat dinner at the dining table…no tv, just catching up on the day. I like that. But other meals could be had anywhere!
Yup, we at at the table all the time! A few times we’ll sit on the couch and eat but most times dinner AND lunch are at the table. Sometimes we don’t even talk all that much but just knowing that we are sharing that meal together and it’s quite moment, is enough. 🙂 I actually did a whole post about why it’s important to eat at the table! 🙂
I bought a table recently, too- and it’s not used nearly as much as I thought it would be. Kinda makes me sad. Seriously- why did I buy it?!?!
The dining room seems like one of the more antiquated rooms in the house, especially because most people don’t do as much formal entertaining these days. Even though I grew up with my mom hosting dinners, I still don’t think I’d use a dining room that much. I think I’d prefer a “great room” style house because I kind of don’t like to sit at the table. Our kitchen is somewhat boring, plus Bodger gives us sad eyes from his bed on the floor.
Then again, I hear that eating at the table forces you to eat slowly and mindfully and listen to your satiety signals. Instead, I just chow down in front of the TV and probably eat too much. Sad times.
we are SO WEIRD when it comes to where we eat. we have a dining area, and we have a countertop with bar stool seats around a gigantic island. t eats lounging on the couch, and i eat standing up at the island. ridiculous
Did I ever tell you I love Friday Questions? They’re always so thought provoking.
I eat my meals usually at a table. For breakfast, I typically have my computer in front of me. But all th other meals are just me and my food (and sometimes company). I think where I eat my meals definitely affects my happiness and enjoyment of the food. I hate eating on the go because I love to eat slow and savoir each bite. When I don’t get to, this usually leaves me feeling unsatisfied/unhappy and then as a result eating more later.
Aww, thanks 🙂
I need to try to be more like you – and just focus on my food. I would probably not be snacking later, like you said 🙂
When I am at home, almost always at the couch. I’m pretty unapologetic about it too. I mean, that IS how I enjoy myself…hanging out on the couch w/ the wife and some mindless TV.
BTW – I’m with boston runner, love the friday questions
Thanks 🙂
When we do eat at home dinner is at the dining table only because it is right next to the tv. Lunch and breakfast at the counter or the couch. Dessert is always eaten while watching tv on the couch 🙂
Our place in Springfield has a lounge/front room out front (lol, duh!), and a “dining” area waaaaay back by the kitchen, separated by a loooong hallway. The hubs always wants to eat while watching tv (or wants to watch tv while eating), so we’re always eating on the couch out front.
It would be nice to not have the tv as the attention-riveter, but that’s his preferred de-stressor, and he works 80-hr weeks, so what can I say? :p
On my own, however, it’s a 50:50 mix between the couch&tv, or my ‘puter desk while doing something online that requires only one hand .. like playing bejewelled blitz on FB, checking twitter, or catching up on blog-reading.
… one huge factor in losing weight is eating less by being mindful of what you eat, and not mindlessly shove stuff down your gullet while doing other stuff. I’m still a huge fail at that. No wonder the weight isn’t budging! :p
I know, I keep thinking if I would pay more attention to my food, I would lose more weight. Tonight I ate room service pasta while responding to emails.
i only use my dining room table when we have guests 😛 chris and i eat 100% of our meals in front of the tv when it’s just us. so sad!
Most of the time we eat dinner on the couch in front of the TV, although once in a while we eat at the kitchen counter. We have a dining room, but it hardly ever gets used. If we have kids, I’d like to make sure we eat at a table at least three or four nights a week. That’s how it was in my family and my husband’s family, and I think it’s a good way to keep the family unit more cohesive.
breakfast and lunch during the week are typically at my desk. dinner—sofa with the husband. We use the table for breakfasts on the weekends and holidays. Its sad too, because we have a new beautiful dinning room table 🙁
In my new apartment, I no longer have a dining room table! It was quite a drastic switch for me, because I always made it a rule, that even though I’m single, that I should sit down and eat dinner at the table. I usually would turn the radio on low and then read while I enjoyed my food. I found this helped me to just focus on that moment, instead of consuming unconsciously in front of the t.v.
Now I have 4 bar stools at my kitchen counter. I try to apply the same rule, but it’s a little bit more difficult, because I still feel like I am in the kitchen!
At work I eat at my desk. At home when the little one is home we try to make sure we have the family “sit at the table” meals. When she’s not at home, my g/f and I just sit wherever we like.
It’s interesting that you do two different things depending on whether the little one is there! A few other people said if they had kids they would like to eat at the table 🙂
I usually eat my meals in front of the computer or while standing up at work. It’s definitely not ideal and I know that eating like I do is causing me to inhale my food without really noticing it. I’ve been trying to put more effort into sitting at the table without doing anything except for eating and.. it’s nice! Very peaceful and I feel like I’m able to connect with my food more.
What a lovely dining room you have. Love the colors and accessories.
At work I eat breakfast and lunch at my desk as well; sometimes I’ll go out to the veranda and eat lunch (with a book in hand) which is a super treat. Dinner is enjoyed either on the patio by the pool or in the dining area (we have one in the kitchen, and a formal dining room). All depends on the mood! And yes, it definitely affects how fast I eat, what I think about the food, etc. Outside, I tend to eat slower and it’s lovely.
That vase is so cute and right up my alley…love it!
Since I eat 99% of my meals alone, I usually eat sitting on the couch watching tv/playing on the computer or at the dining room table with my computer still in front of me. At work, I sometimes eat standing up, with my dinner in my lap, sometimes sitting at a table…but it’s usually inhaled in about eight minutes or less sooo it doesn’t matter what I’m doing. 🙂
At the kitchen table, for the most part. Scott would prefer to sit on the couch, but I grew up eating dinner with my family at the kitchen table – tv off! – EVERY NIGHT so I think that’s normal. My dad was a cop, and even if he had to work the night shift he would always come home and have dinner with us.
My roommate and I mostly just eat in the living room on the couch/chairs. If I’m home and visiting my family we’ll at the table but here, it’s very casual. We never use the table. LOL!
We eat dinner on the couch in front of the TV. At work, I can’t eat in my office so I have lunch at a big table with the same group of friends every day. It’s a lot of fun!
I eat on the couch a lot, even if the TV is off (which usually it is). I’m trying to be better about sitting at our dining table since it’s so nice, but I get so lazy…
We eat 95% of our dinners on the couch. If it’s something really messy then I might suggest the table in the kitchen. Our kitchen table is always covered in crap so it’s a pain to clean it off to eat.
I eat my lunch at my desk at work (I actually miss having a break room and a rule that said we had to eat there and not at our desks. It forced me to leave my computer alone for an hour!). Breakfast is either eaten while walking around gathering up things I need for the day or at my computer desk at home.