Mindful eating is the foundation to long term healthy eating. It does not matter how lean you can get, or how much muscle you can gain, if you have not taken the time to practice mindful eating you may slip back into unhealthy eating patterns. You must spend the time and energy required to build the right connection between food and your body. To practice mindful eating pay attention and be fully present while eating, without distraction or judgement. Sounds easy right?
Hunger and Fullness
When you eat mindfully you can listen to your body. Your body communicates to the mind. It tells you when you are hungry and when are you full. The problem is we neglect to validate these hormonal cues. When you are eating fast you bypass the ability to sense when you are satiated. If you over eat that suppresses leptin. Leptin is the hormone responsible for telling your mind to stop eating.
On the other hand, the hormone ghrelin communicates hunger levels. When we become really hunger, we may become ravenous. This may cause us to make rash food decisions. On the contrary, when we eat most people never really pay attention to when we become no longer hunger. The ability to acknowledge when we have eaten just enough to be no longer hunger can help sharpen and regulate this hormone.
Eating regularly throughout the day and paying attention to these bodily signals allows these hormones to communicate efficiently to the brain. The erratic hunger spikes and uncomfortably full eating episodes will dampen out over time. This happens because eating mindfully allows the body to better absorb ingested nutrients, stabilizing your blood sugar levels and makes your body’s energy system more efficient and robust. And we tend to make better food planning decisions.
Another perk of listening to your body it this is helps you become accountable to yourself. Here are some questions that begin to pop up…
- Am really I hungry?
- Will eating this entire amount make me feel yucky later?
- Why do I feel like I have to eat the entire amount?
- Am I eating because I had a long day?
- I am full should I stop eating now?
- Why am I so ravenous? Did I miss a meal or am I stressed?
- Is food a reward?
- How can I better prepare next week for success?
Improves Digestion
When you eat mindfully you are eating slowing. This calms down the nervous system an put us in a rest and digest state. Chewing more allows you to “predigest” food before it enters the stomach. The smaller particles in the stomach help to reduce bloating. And due to calmness and awareness during the chewing phase the stomach secretes more acid and digestive enzymes. Getting the body ready to better absorption nutrients.
Making “Less Pained” Decisions
Eating mindfully allows you to identify foods that do not work well with us. For example, if you always have cheese with a meal and your stomach hurts afterwards or during the meal, try the same meal without cheese and see how you feel. Do you get the same symptoms?
There may also be a case where smaller quantities work.
For Example: I found out that I can only have green beans in small quantities. Previously I had been eating them in large quantities, this happened for several years. I noticed stomach pain but ignored it. I only acted after I decided to eat mindfully. This brought attention to how this food made me feel so I decided to act against it. I concluded that if I have less than 3oz of green beans per serving my stomach feels fine!
How to Practice Mindful Eating
Set a timer – Each day pick a distraction less meal that you can eat and sit quietly for. Set a timer (5 or 10 minutes) and slowly eat your food. Set the fork down and breathe in between bites. Do not watch TV, do not listen to a podcast, do not do this while standing, walking or driving. You need to be fully present for the experience. That is how to eat mindfully!
After the habit is created keep a “food mindfulness journal”. This should include…
- Descriptions of the food’s taste, texture, smell and bodily sensations you experience.
- Hunger levels before and fullness levels after the meal.
- Be aware that random thoughts will pop up just gently acknowledge them and get back to paying attention to your body and food.
- Make connections. You may have thoughts that are tied into your food, jot ‘em down. I discovered I like ketchup because when I was younger, my I ate a lot for hamburgers and hot dogs. Because those foods were hot and hard to swallow, I used ketchup to cool the food and aid in the swallowing. So, every time I had ketchup, I justified the superfluous amount of ketchup with those two reasons. Now I portion out my ketchup with my meals to prevent over eating this condiment.
Simple 8-week Mindfulness Practice Plan
Week 1 – Set timer and eat 1 meal slowly. Limit distractions. Do nothing else but eat and be present.
Week 2 – Start a mindful journal. Describe the food using taste, texture, smell, and any bodily observations (I personally like to describe each bite before I take the next bite).
Week 3 – When finished eating identify fullness level (1-10, 10 being 100% full).
Week 4 – Before eating identify hunger level (1-10, 10 being ravenous).
Week 5 – Before eating identify hunger level (1-10). While eating identify when you are no longer hungry. During eating identify when you are at 80% full. When you are done identify your fullness level (1-10).
Week 6 – Stop eating at 80% full.
Week 7 – Stop eating when you are no longer hungry.
Week 8 – Try this practice with a different meal.
The Pursuit of Mastery Never Ends
Learning to pay attention is not hard especially when you are trying your best each day and you have an easy progression to follow. When we listen to our bodies, we become our own accountability partners. We are more truthful to ourself when we understand why we make the decisions we are making. Being mindful gives us an opportunity to rewrite our core beliefs around food, giving us more self-respect and allowing us to accomplish the long-term goal of having a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.