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7 Tips for Mindful Eating

How often do you “gulp” down your food without realizing what you are doing, knowing your mind is occupied by something else? Have you ever eaten a plate full of food without even being aware of what you have eaten or how it tasted? Have you ever been eating some snacks such as popcorn or a packet of crisps, started reaching for more, only to realize you have reached the bottom of the packet in no time?

Due to work and family responsibilities, we eat when we can, often fast, not at a table, mindlessly, squeezing it in between tasks or while “hurrying off” to do what may seem more important.

As we are often distracted by the television, work, driving, or the computer while we eat, many of us do not attend to our satiety signals and feel overfull by the time we have stopped eating.

Currently, almost everyone across the globe is in some sort of a lockdown situation. This may be leading people to eat out of boredom. Previously, we have been too busy and preoccupied with the stress of every day life. Now, there may still be stress or anxiety, but of a slightly different nature. Mindful eating can be a great tool to assist us during these unsettling times.

 

Why should we change?

Eating is one of the most enjoyable experiences we engage in. If we eat mindfully it can make the experience even more enjoyable, plus it has numerous health benefits.

Simply put, mindful eating is about learning to pay attention to why, when, what and how we eat. As the co-founder of The Centre for Mindful Eating Jean L. Keller said, “mindful eating is about enjoying the taste of food, the environment, the conversation while obeying listening to hunger, fullness and taste satiety cues.”

The benefits of mindful eating are numerous, and some of them include:

  • It reduces the frequency of overeating and binge eating
  • It can contribute to weight loss and reduced body mass index (BMI)
  • It can reduce the episodes of emotional eating
  • Coping with chronic eating problems such as anorexia and bulimia
  • Reduced negative, anxious thoughts about food and your body

As you practice mindful eating, you learn to pay attention to the action of eating. Some of the things you may become more aware of include:

  • What you’re eating.
  • The look, smell, taste and texture of the food you’re eating.
  • How hungry you are before and how full you become during and are after eating.
  • Why you are eating at that moment.
  • Your emotions during and after eating.
  • What emotions might be triggering the desire to eat.

Here are 7 tips which you can use to start implementing mindful eating:

  1. Stop, take a breath. We often move from one task right to the next without pausing or taking a breath.  By pausing, we slow down and allow for a feeling of calm transition to our meals. Bring your attention to the meal which you are about to eat. Pay attention to what you are about to eat, such as the smell, taste and texture of your food.
  2. Listen to your body. After breathing, bring your awareness to the physical sensations in your belly. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being that you don’t feel any physical sensation of hunger and 10 being that you feel very hungry, ask yourself “How hungry am I?” What physical sensations tell you that you are hungry or not hungry (emptiness in stomach, shakiness, no desire to eat, stomach growling, etc.)? Try not to think about when you last ate or what time it is, and really listen to your body at the time and not your thoughts.
  3. Eat according to your hunger. Now that you are more in touch with how hungry you are, you can more mindfully choose what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. This simple practice can help you tune in to your real physical needs.
  4. Practice slow eating. At your next meal, slow down the pace of eating. This includes chewing your food slowly and putting your knife and fork down in between mouthfuls. Taking a sip of water in between meals and taking part in a conversation are strategies that can help to slow you down. The mealtime experience, taking time to acknowledge what and how much you are enjoying should ideally take 20 minutes.
  5. Remove all distractions. Don’t eat in front of the television, your laptop, or while driving your car. Set aside some time at each meal to eat without distractions and to fully appreciate the meal which you are eating.
  6. If you don’t love it, don’t eat it. Take your first three bites mindfully, experience the taste, flavours, textures, and how much enjoyment you are receiving from a certain food. Make a mindful choice about what to eat based on what you really enjoy. Healthy foods such as meat chicken, fish and vegetables need to be prepared in a tasty way using spices, herbs and sauces.
  7. Meditate. By just practicing a form of meditation each day (even for 10 minutes a day) we learn to pay attention to the emotions which we are feeling at that moment, in a non-judgemental way. This practice will help us not to use food to alleviate negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration, aggravation etc with food. This can have a positive effect on ‘why’ we eat and will encourage us to eat more mindfully.

 

Try implement one or two of these strategies at your next meal 🙂