Mindful Eating
Experimenting with some mindful eating strategies may be beneficial to identify hunger cues, manage boredom eating, or may even make the foods we eat taste better!
What is Mindful Eating?
Oftentimes, we can find ourselves eating mindlessly. This can occur for a variety of reasons such as: eating meals while working, checking our smartphones, watching TV, or eating on the go. If we’re distracted while eating, it can be easy to eat more than we realize (or we need to feel satiated) because when we’re distracted, it is harder to understand our hunger cues. Evidence shows that it may take our body about 20 minutes to realize that it’s full. If we’re looking at our computer while eating a meal, not only are we likely to eat more quickly, but it can be even harder for our bodies to register those feelings of fullness!
Eating while distracted can also minimize the pleasure we get from eating. It’s harder to notice the texture, taste, or smell of foods if our attention is focused on something else.
That’s where mindful eating comes in. Mindful eating is the idea of being in a state of full attention when it comes to our experiences, cravings, and physical cues while eating.
How to Experiment with Mindful Eating?
If you are interested in experimenting with some mindful eating strategies to see if they have any positive impact for you, here are a few ideas you could try:
- Eat slowly and without any distractions. Turn off the TV, computer or tablet to enjoy your meal, eating alone, try putting on some background music to create your own home bistro experience!
- Focus on your hunger cues while eating and only eat until you feel satisfied or comfortably full.
- Work on identifying true hunger from cravings, emotional eating, or ‘head hunger’ (this may take time and we can discuss more strategies to do so!)
- Engaging our senses while eating: focus on the taste, smell, texture, colour and sounds of your food, and appreciating it! Take a look at the mindful bite experiment if you want to give this a try!
- Not having any food restrictions (restricting certain foods, such as sugar, can make it difficult to eat mindfully).
- Reminding oneself that eating should be about nourishment, maintenance of our health and pleasure.
- Focus on the impact food has on your body or feelings. Does eating certain foods impact your energy, sleep or mood?
The main goal of mindful eating is not weight loss, but to learn to address and alter feelings of guilt and anxiety surrounding food, and achieve a healthier relationship with food in the process!
The Mindful Bite Experiment
Pick a snack, it could be anything! Go to a distraction free environment (put away that phone!). For this example we are going to use an apple.
Take a moment to check in with your body and see if you’re hungry.
Engage all your senses, notice how the apple looks, is it shiny or dull, what colour is the skin? How does it feel? Does it have a rough or smooth texture? Is it cold or room temperature? Does it smell of anything?
Take a bite. Appreciate the food while eating it. Notice how the food feels and tastes in your mouth: Is it soft or crunchy? Juicy or dry? Sweet or a little sour?
Continue to take small bites. Chew thoroughly and eat slowly. Reflect on feelings and thoughts that came up while eating the apple.
Additional Tips about Mindful Eating
- Mindful eating starts in the grocery store. Consider the ‘value’ of each item you buy - is it a food that is going to be satiating or nourishing? Do you enjoy the flavour of the food?
- Before you start eating, take a moment to ask yourself a few questions- ‘Why am I eating?’. “Is this going to satisfy me?” Consider if it’s hunger that’s driving the decision, or is it driven by your emotions.
- Consider portion sizes of food. If you are hungry, are you more likely to take a larger serving? If you notice you feel overly full or bloated after meals could you try taking a smaller serving and waiting 20 minutes after eating to decide if you need to go back for seconds? If you are eating a more indulgent food or snack consider “what is the least amount I could take to feel satisfied?” remember this does not mean the least amount possible!
- Location: try to sit down rather than eat on the go and with minimal distractions.
- Eat with friends and family when you can. Eating with others is a way to build connection, and add enjoyment to your life! Eating with others can also expose you to new foods, and food traditions.
- Consider what strategies work for you and what times you would like to use them. How will you remember to do this and what obstacles might get in your way?
Remember it is completely normal to eat to not always eat mindfully but if you do find some of these strategies helpful let us know!