Mindfulness, along with yoga, meditation, and other techniques designed to slow down the modern lifestyle are taking the world by storm. And this is a rare case when something remarkably popular is truly worth the hype. Mindful eating, in particular, is said to help you finally take control of your eating patterns, ease the weight loss process, and yield a plethora of other health benefits. But sometimes the descriptions are quite vague, and after scrolling through a bunch of articles you might still wonder what mindful eating means in practice. This article provides you with mindful eating exercises used in specialized courses dedicated to this approach. As it often happens, it is not that difficult to do it at home and can save your wallet from a beating.
Mindful eating is based on mindfulness – a Buddhist concept.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that helps you recognize and cope with emotions and physical sensations you’re overwhelmed by during your daily activities. Essentially, it is being fully present in your body and in the moment. It is about being fully aware of where you are, what’s happening, and what your role is in the experience , while not being distressed and frazzled by the events unfolding here and now.
It is something innate to a human being, you just need to find the keys to unlock this ability in yourself. There are various proven techniques aimed at cultivating mindfulness, yoga and meditation are among them.
Mindful eating is a form of mindfulness – an approach that allows you to process mental and physical cues during a meal. It involves nurturing your sensitivity to hunger cues, enriching your perception of flavors and textures, and regaining control over your eating patterns (10, 5, 12).
Mindful eating is used as a treatment for a wide spectrum of health conditions including food-related behaviors like binge eating and emotional eating, as well as anxiety and depression (8, 6, 5). It was also proven to be notably helpful in weight loss (9, 11, 3).
In essence, mindful eating involves:
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There are a couple of mindful eating exercises involving various foods, from raisins to chocolates or apples. Yet structurally they are very similar. Consider this mindful eating script developed by an expert from VHA Office of Patient-Centered Care & Cultural Transformation (2). Practicing professional exercises will require some time. If you’re looking for tips more suitable for daily rush, read further.
Start by connecting to your breath and body, feel your feet on the ground and notice your experience of the moment. With your awareness in this moment, notice any thoughts, sensations or emotions you are experiencing right now.
Now, tune into the awareness or sensation that you have in your body. Maybe you feel hungry, thirsty, or even full? If you were planning to eat or drink something right now, what is your body hungry for? What is it thirsty for? Just pay attention and notice with awareness the sensations that give you this information.
bring your attention to the food item in your hand and imagine that you are seeing it for the first time. Observe with curiosity as you concentrate on color, shape, texture, and size. Is there anything else that you notice, sense or feel?
Now, imagine what it took for this food item to get to your hands: sunshine, water, time, processing, and shipping. You may choose to be aware of gratitude for everyone involved in the cultivation and preparation of this food. You may choose to bring in your own gratitude or spiritual blessing.
place the food between your fingers and feel the texture, temperature and ridges. You may notice smoothness or stickiness. Again, notice if you have any thoughts, sensations or emotions right now. Continue to breathe and be fully present in this moment.
Now, take the piece of food and bring it toward your nose and smell with your full awareness. Notice if you have any memories, sensations or reactions in your body connected to the smell. Even before you eat it, you may notice that you begin to feel a digestive response in your body just by noticing and smelling.
With full awareness of your hand moving toward your mouth, place the food into your mouth without chewing or swallowing it. Simply allow it to be in your mouth, roll it around to different parts of your mouth and tongue. Pay attention to the flavor and texture, as well as physical sensations within your body, especially your mouth and your gut. Continue to breathe as you explore the sensation of having this item in your mouth.
Now, take only one bite and notice the flavor, as well as the change of texture. Then very slowly begin chewing this piece of food, and think about the parts of your mouth that are involved in chewing. Feel the sound and movement of chewing, as you continue experiencing the sensations and flavor.
When you are ready, swallow this food and notice the path that it follows from your mouth and throat into your stomach. Notice the sensation and taste that may linger in your mouth. Connect again to your body and your breath and feel through your experience of the moment.
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The two plate approach, which was suggested by a dietitian Megrette Fletcher and Frederick Burggraf in their book Discover Mindful Eating: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using 51 Mindful Eating Activities with Your Clients, (411) is claimed to be the best one to use when you’re not able to control how much food is served to you on a plate. Most of the time when you resort to this approach, you will be at a restaurant, but you can also practice at a buffet, putting food on one plate and then carrying a second plate back to the table with you. This method makes potential stopping points by using two plates instead of one. The space between the two plates creates the space where, in a sense, the mindfulness of the two plate approach is located.
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If contemplating a piece of food for 10 minutes feels like too much, you can still make your daily food consumption more mindful following these tips (1).
Because our brain takes about 20 minutes to register fullness, many of us overeat. Slowing down lets your body catch up to your mind. Sitting down at the table to eat instead of inhaling your food, chewing each bite thoroughly , or putting your fork down between bites is a great start.
Planning your meals ahead might prevent you from developing toxic habits like eating a carb-heavy snack to quell your hunger pangs during lunchtime. You can also organize your kitchen according to the principle of mindful eating. For instance, you can consider the location of various foods, and detect which ones are available at hand, and which are lost in the darkness of the cabinets.
You should stop scrolling through the Facebook feed or Instagram photos of your friends while having a meal. That’s it, plain and simple. Remember going to the cinema and wondering about the magical disappearance of your big popcorn bag? This is the exact opposite of mindful eating – consuming food while you’re not even paying attention to what you’re doing. Being distracted during the meal is a direct road to overeating.
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To sum up, mindful eating is a great tactic for regaining control over your eating patterns, as well as a way to enhance your sensitivity to the flavors and textures of food, thus improving the overall sense of enjoyment from consuming a meal. Mindfulness along with a nutritious diet is a great combo for healthy weight loss. While some mindful eating exercises are time-consuming practicing them at home on a daily basis is still possible even if you work at the office for 8 hours per day. What is needed here is just a bit of time management skills and dedication.
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