How to Eat More Mindfully
Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash
I'd love to talk a bit about the concept of mindful eating, as I think it is a super helpful topic when changing your diet.
These ideas are taken from Susan Albers’ book, “Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship With Food." It is a fantastic resource for changing your mindset about food.
Mindful eating is about having awareness, being present in the moment, listening to your body, being nonjudgmental toward yourself, and accepting the way things are.
I love the idea of mindful eating for a number of reasons. First of all, I don't believe in restrictive diets because they are not sustainable in the longterm. One of my all time favorite foods is ice cream. If you told me that in order to be healthy I should never eat ice cream, I would be miserable! Eating mindfully allows me to eat ice cream occasionally and in moderation. When I eat it, I pay attention and savor it and appreciate it for what it is. I also don't feel guilty about indulging in my favorite food. Conversely, I know from experience (and mindfulness) that if I eat too much ice cream too often, I don't feel good physically, and that's a good incentive to not eat it every day.
If you pay attention to how foods make your body feel, you'll notice the foods that don't make you feel good (like sweets and junk food), but you'll also notice the foods that give you energy and make you feel alive (like vegetables and fruits and lean protein). You might notice that when you eat a carb-heavy breakfast, you're ravenously hungry again in an hour, whereas you feel satisfied until lunch after a breakfast that's high in protein and healthy fats.
Learning to pay attention to your body's signals and feel the difference inside your body is the best way to make longterm, sustainable change in your diet. It's a lot easier to eat healthy foods when you start feeling the direct benefits from within.
Our culture is also wired to go-go-go and do multiple things at one time; sitting down to meals is not usually prioritized. Eating mindfully is a good reminder to slow down, listen to your body, and savor what you're doing in the moment.
I could go on and on about the many benefits of practicing mindful eating, but here are a few highlights:
MINDFUL eating involves:
Understanding your hunger and fullness cues
Savoring, sensing, and fully experiencing your food
Knowing your emotional triggers that urge you to eat (or not eat)
Paying attention to how certain foods make your body feel
Being curious and mindful of your habits, but not judgmental
Practicing compassion and acceptance for yourself and others
MINDLESS eating can look like:
Multitasking while eating
Eating routinely and habitually
Eating based on emotions rather than physical hunger
Ignoring hunger cues (i.e. rumbling stomach, low energy, feelings of fullness)
Cleaning your plate, regardless of fullness and portion size
Allowing "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" to dictate what you eat (i.e. "I should eat this" or "I shouldn't eat that")
I don't say any of this for you to judge yourself or your eating habits. Mindfulness is about recognizing and accepting the way things are, not judging them. We could all stand to have a little more self-compassion in our lives, especially when it comes to changing habits that we've had for perhaps our entire lives.
If any of this resonates with you, I would highly recommend this book, "Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship With Food" by Susan Albers. It has a ton of practical tips for how to eat more mindfully that are easy to implement and can make a huge difference in your daily eating habits.
References
Albers, S. (2010). Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship With Food (Second Edition). New Harbinger Publications, Inc.