Starting a Mindful Eating Practice

Mindfulness implies intention. This is my favorite part of mindfulness. It suggests that with this new found attention that we act with intention. Have you ever struggled with being present or mentally devoted to the task in front of you?

We encounter this struggle all day long with our thoughts and default to thinking patterns that don't serve us. We get frustrated that we have to stop our routines to eat and create time to take care of ourselves. You make the time to eat but then forget to pause while eating and realize now you feel overfull and sick.

We may not have the practice or even learned to listen to what our bodies are telling us. Imagine how much better care we could give ourselves if we just started listening and responding to our basic biological signals.

Mindfulness is associated with psychological well-being. The fundamental element of awareness and non-judgmental acceptance is practicing this through observation. Picture a narrator in your head- or more like an anthropologist! This anthropologist observes what you do without making judgements and brings awareness to your thoughts and how your body feels.

Here are some things you can consider incorporating into your mindful practice.

Belly breath and belly check. Belly breathing activates the digestive system to prepare for eating food. When you belly-breathe, take your deep breath, place your hand on your belly and observe how it feels as the belly rises and falls. With this belly breath, do a belly check to see if you're hungry. When we are distracted we often eat when we are not hungry. So pausing to take these belly breaths and check-in, you can better decide what you need.

Assess your food. Does it look like something you want to eat? What kind of food is it? Does it serve you? Does it honor both your taste buds and your body? If it tastes great but gives you digestive discomfort, this is not likely the food you need. If it's something tolerable to eat but doesn't excite you, then it isn't what your body desires right now- Maybe it's a good time to stop eating this food and switch it out. The goal is figuring out what tastes AND feels good to you.

Slow down. By tuning into your meal, take time to slow this process down. Ask yourself, how often do you eat past fullness when you rush? One important part of mindfulness or any type of intentional mediation practice has to do with slowing down long enough to be present and change the mindset. Without slowing down, we can't catch up on how we feel internally. All the external things going around us tend to run the show. But you have the power to shift your attention and be present with your internal signals, thoughts and set new intentions for yourself. This includes observing your hunger and fullness and what comes up for you in the process of eating in this moment.

Focus. Eating is such a natural part of our lives, we can do it on autopilot. The easiest things usually get the least attention. We often resort to choices that do not meet our overall needs. Consider all five senses—smell, touch, sight, sound, and taste—to get the most from your eating experiences.

Investigate your food throughout your meal. The most pleasure we can get from a meal is in a hungry state. (Note that this is not true if you feel too hungry or feel starving- no pleasure comes from this, only some relief when you feel fed again.)

As we eat and we become more satisfied yet it's sometimes hard to stop eating. Often we finish our plate without checking-in with the body to listen and act accordingly. Many of us know about the law of diminishing returns: The first bite tends to taste the best, while every subsequent bite diminishes it's taste or appeal. It's easy to recall that first bite or imagine what it tastes like before we eat it, then eat so quickly and realize after it's finished, we didn't really like it the way we anticipated.

By being curious and somewhat critical of every bite, you can really experience all the senses- how appetizing it looks, the taste, aroma, touch (if we pick up our food), the mouthfeel before it's swallowed, the sounds as you chew and even the after-taste.

Not every meal can be this way of course. But what if we thought about our food while we ate it?

If we had more internal attention would we eat differently?

Would we eat more of this food, less of it or add something to truly enjoy it?

Chew thoroughly. It's not necessary to chew a certain amount of times before you swallow. That's not the point of mindful eating. But do you ever eat and bypass the part between bringing your food to your mouth and swallowing it?

I bring up this point because you don't want to miss out on one of the key pieces of eating, despite how basic it really sounds. I detailed this above with how many senses are really involved before food is swallowed.

Savor your food. This is the flavor! Have you ever eaten something you always eat, then you slowed down to savor this taste only to realize you don't like it? This happens all the time in the mindful eating process. If you've already had it many times before you may be unaware of what it actually tastes. Turning off the autopilot may help you discover you don't like it OR that you love it and need less.

Wait for hunger most of the time. Food tastes better when we’re hungry. Hunger is also the signal that it is time to eat. Just be sure not to wait too long. Getting too hungry is a set-up for unsupportive choices and overeating, none of which end up feeling good.

Think before you choose. Toss out nutrition rules and think instead about what will taste good and what will make you feel good too. We have built-in guidance systems that, if we trust them, work well to ensure that we get the foods we need. This is another part of that evolutionary system designed to keep us alive. Check-in before, during, and after a meal to get the full benefit of your body’s wisdom.

Eat intentionally. What is your intention? To enjoy, of course! Just remember to include feeling good now and later in your definition of enjoyment.