Eating Mindfully

Working as a dietitian is challenging.  Not only am I competing with food fads and crazy diets (including myriad recommendations from Dr. Oz), but I am competing with my patient’s emotional struggle with food. Some of these struggles are from their past (“my mother FORCED me to eat oatmeal—I will never touch it again”) and some are from their present and often linked to the state of their mental well-being (“I overeat when I am feeling sad.”).  These relationships often need to be addressed before the real education on making healthy food choices begins. One of the ways that I choose to address these emotional barriers is with the practice of mindfulness and intuitive eating. And to make sure we are all on the same page, here is mindfulness defined”: “intentionally paying attention, moment to moment, without judging what is happening internally in the body, mind, and heart and externally in the environment (Mindfulness and Diabetes: Working in Tandem, 2015).

How many of you ate a meal while watching television or sitting at your computer today? Guilty as charged. Do you feel like you were truly present to your dining experience? Do you remember the aroma? The taste of each bite of food? Perhaps you scarfed down your sandwich so quickly you don’t remember eating it at all. This is the issue for many of us and it can be harmful to our waistline and overall health.

When working with my patients on eating mindfully, I help them slow down and savor the foods that they are eating. This can be done with a variety of methods. Using the hunger scale (a way to rate your level of hunger before and after eating), putting down one’s eating utensil between bites of food and/or journaling to reflect on foods eaten and the eating experience overall. This is no easy task and one must be extremely motivated and honest with themselves to work on this.

A 2013 study published in Diabetes Spectrum  found that participants who completed a Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training Program , which included meditation, were able to cut back on the amount of calories they were eating daily and experienced improved blood sugar control and a reduction in blood pressure. This is hopeful news and only strengthens my belief that an overall lifestyle focusing on the present moment and mindfulness is essential for  both physical and mental health.

I have a challenge for you. The next time you sit down (or stand, which is less ideal but often the reality) to eat a sweet treat, I encourage you to try this. Start out by taking a bite of your treat and eating it as usual. Do you want another bite? Most likely. For your next bite, let the morsel linger in your mouth for one minute. Think about the taste that you are experiencing. Try to describe it to yourself. After you finish, tap into what you notice about how much you want another bite. Most likely you are more satisfied than when you took your first bite more hastily. Even if this exercise did not work for you this time, I encourage you to try again later.  The more difficult this is for you, the more often you will need to practice.

 
Mindful eating is important to teach our children too so they develop healthy relationships with food. You can practice mindful eating with the little ones by sharing in a snack experience. Before eating, describe how the food looks. Guide the kiddos through eating the snack slowly and chat about the taste and texture, as well as how their hunger level changed after eating.

And that my friends, is my food AND flow wisdom for the day!

 

“The more you eat, the less flavor, the less you eat, the more flavor” ~Chinese Proverb