This empowering mind technique is not limited to one task or activity but can be employed successfully in all aspects of our lives, including our eating habits.
As an offspring of mindfulness, mindful eating is a practice that puts full attention on our eating habits, helping us to manage them better. It promotes weight loss; puts focus on binge eating/cravings and helps to identify other physical cues like true hunger.
Mindful eating involves:
Paying attention to and identifying true hunger signs/triggers.
Eating with intention – slowly and without distraction.
Stopping when full.
Engaging all the senses – an awareness of flavor, aroma, colour, sound and texture as we eat.
Gratefulness for the food we eat and a focus on the effects it has on our emotional and mental stability.
Eating consciously to boost health and well-being.
Mindful eating also requires that we break any preconceived ideas we have about food. The guilt and anxieties that previously dictated our eating habits must go.
As a society, we should be healthier than ever with access to food choices from around the world. But we aren’t. Why? Because eating has become a mindless act for so many. The attention that should be focused on what we are eating is now focused on a multitude of distractions demanding our attention - smart devices, computers and TV.
Eating needs to be an intentional act, not an automatic one done quickly without thought so that our brains can register when we are full. That means slowing down and paying attention to our body’s cues. Without that “full” cue, we end up eating too much too fast.
Looking to lose weight? Look no further than mindful eating. Dieting doesn’t work in the long run and most people regain at least half of the weight they lost after just two years and 80 per cent after five years! Frustrating for sure. Feeling deprived of some of our favourite foods when dieting can be the initial cause for emotional eating to take hold.
However, the good news is, studies done in the field of mindfulness found that mindful eating was as effective for losing weight as any conventional diet. It retrains our eating habits to healthier ones and brings us face to face with our cravings, emotional eating and BED – binge eating disorder.
BED is an extreme form of overeating and a bit different from emotional eating. “A person with BED will experience a sense of lack of control and will eat a large amount of food within a relatively short period of time.” Repeating it over and over.
Emotional eating is a bigger issue affecting many more people. Do you find yourself eating when stressed, depressed, angry or hurt? Do you eat as a reaction to situations or conditions? Can individuals or certain places or times trigger food cravings?
That’s emotional eating.
The problem is, when our emotions run rampant, bad foods suddenly become appealing. Foods filled with sugar and those high in bad fats or salt taste better when we feel bad/sad, are in a nasty mood or stressed out.
Soothing ourselves and our emotions with junk food creates a real problem. It won’t solve anything now, and it makes it harder to say no to unhealthy choices whenever those emotions kick up again in the future.
BED, emotional eating or eating in response to cravings is a weight crusher and mindful eating helps us eliminate and or avoid them.
Rather than turning to food for therapy, try and come up with ways to manage your feelings/emotions in a positive way. Go for a walk to clear your head, talk to a close friend, channel your energy into something creative – puzzles, books and other hobbies that ease your emotional state without adding unnecessary, unhealthy, calories.
Mindful eating tips for success:
Stock your kitchen with healthy food choices, eliminate eating in front of the TV, put your fork down in between bites (slow down and enjoy your food), engage your senses – for example, taste and feel the texture of your food before swallowing, limit portion sizes and avoid distractions.
Mindful eating is just what it says, being present and aware of what we are eating, why we are eating (are we truly hungry or coddling an emotion) and when we are eating.
Carolyn Hansen, co-owner Anytime Fitness
