Nowadays, it seems like everything has a mindful option and there’s one that you certainly don’t want to miss out on: mindful eating. Unlike dieting, mindful eating uses the art of being present while you eat to provide you with the benefits you’re looking for. This unique process has been shown to lead to better psychological well-being, increased pleasure when eating, and body satisfaction, according to studies. It can even help you overcome emotional eating, lose weight and maintain a healthy weight… All without having to count calories! In this article, we teach you what you need to know to start adding some mindfulness onto your plate for incredible benefits without much effort at all.
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What is Mindful Eating?
The first step to eating mindfully is to understand what being mindful even means. Mindfulness is a term used to describe the practice of actively bringing your attention to the present moment. It’s a basic human ability, a form of meditation, that is commonly used in yoga to bring your attention inwards to your body and breathing and remove distractions. However, anything can be done mindfully, including eating.
Now that you know what mindfulness is, let’s talk about mindful eating. Mindful eating is a technique used that involves paying closer attention to the food you’re eating and how it makes you feel. So, instead of simply scooping a forkful of food into your mouth and chowing down mindlessly, mindful eating encourages you to pay attention to scooping up the food and how it feels entering your mouth, swishing and crunching in your mouth, and in your tummy.
By practising mindful eating, you can eliminate overeating, binge eating, and emotional eating, as well as all of the common effects of unhealthy eating habits, such as weight gain, indigestion, poor sleep, low energy, cravings, poor mental health and many more. The best part? Unlike traditional dieting, you don’t have to count calories or make any major food restrictions. You just have to pay attention to what’s on your plate right through to your tummy.
Benefits of Mindful Eating
Bringing mindfulness into the way you eat has been proven to offer a plethora of mental, physical and emotional health benefits. Research has even found that it can be an effective way to treat several conditions, including eating disorders, anxiety, depression and food-related behaviors, and the effects of such. And on top of that, mindfulness in general offers a variety of health advantages that are also worth mentioning.
To ensure a clear understanding of what mindful eating can do for you, here is a detailed look at the many benefits:
- Helps treat eating disorders, emotional eating, and binge eating
- Assists with the treatment of anxiety, depression, and many other
- Allows you to distinguish between emotional hunger and real physical hunger
- Slows down your eating to reduce overeating
- Encourages healthy and sustainable weight loss and weight management
- Reduces stress and anxiety, especially when associated with food
- Enables healthy, positive eating habits
- Trades in negative feelings associated with food for awareness
- Increases your self-control, body satisfaction, psychological wellness and pleasurable feelings about eating
In addition to the benefits of mindful eating mentioned, you also receive all of the benefits associated with mindfulness in general. This includes advantages for all aspects of your physical, mental and emotional health. For example, studies have confirmed that mindfulness can:
- Help relieve stress
- Reduce anxiety
- Lower blood pressure
- Reduce chronic pain
- Treat heart disease
- Improve sleep
- Alleviate gastrointestinal problems
- Improve mental health
- Reduce depression
- Help people cope with a serious illness
- Increase your ability to relax
- Boost self-esteem
- Lead to greater enthusiasm for life
- Improve memory
And that’s only grazing the surface.
How to Eat Mindfully?
Mindful eating is all about using mindfulness while you eat to bring your full attention to the experience. This allows you to hone in on the pleasure of food – from the taste to the texture, while also being aware of your physical body sensations and cues. The process is quite simple:
- Choose your foods with intention: Consider the nutritional value of each item you put on your plate, instead of just eating whatever is available.
- Take a minute to appreciate your food: Before diving into your plate of food, take a couple of minutes to truly appreciate it. Find gratitude for everyone it took to bring the meal to your dinner table – from the farmers who grew the produce to the cook who mixed it all together.
- Engage all of your senses: Mindfulness is all about bringing awareness to the present moment, which can easily be done by engaging all of your senses. So, instead of just eating the food, indulge in the color, aroma, texture, taste and even the sounds of each bite.
- Slow down: As you activate all of your senses, your chewing should naturally slow down but if it doesn’t, make an effort to chew thoroughly to truly enjoy – and to be aware – of every bite.
- Pay attention to how your body feels: The last step to eating mindfully is to pay close attention to your body’s physical sensations. Notice when you’re starting to feel satisfied. Overtime, you can also start to bring awareness to the effects your healthy food choices have on your body and emotions.
You can also add mindfulness into other aspects of eating to maximize the experience and benefits. For example, you can start your practice right at the grocery store; bringing mindfulness to the items you purchase. You can practice mindfulness while cooking, setting the table or even cleaning up the dishes.
Tips for Eating Mindfully
Eating mindfully can be done in the simple steps mentioned above but it can never hurt to have a few extra tips! Here are some things you can do to practice mindful eating more efficiently and effectively to further achieve your health and wellness goals:
- Start eating when you have an appetite (don’t wait until you’re starving): Being mindful of your body’s hunger cues will help you determine the right time to sit down for a snack or meal.
- Practice with a small portion: Eating smaller portions at each sitting will give you the space to hone in all of your senses for the experience.
- Take smaller bites: It’s easier to bring awareness to the colors, flavors, aromas and textures of food with smaller bites.
- Pay attention to internal and external cues that effect what you eat and how much you eat, and make adjustments accordingly.
- Avoid skipping meals: When you skip meals, you are more likely to be hungry and scarf down whatever you can get your lips on – and chances are, you won’t be very mindful while doing so because you’re simply trying to satisfy your hunger.
- Put your utensils down: If you’re struggling to slow down your eating, try to get in the habit of putting your utensil down in between each bite.
Eating comes to us like second nature: the body sends hunger cues and we eat food to satisfy the hunger. However, being more mindful of the foods you eat, how you eat them and how they make you feel can produce a plethora of physical, mental and emotional health benefits – from weight loss to stress relief, increased body positivity and much more.
