Eating mindfully can change your life, and it’s actually super doable
Has this ever happened to you?
You wake up to the sound of your kids yelling for you. Wearily you get up, get the kids dressed, and throw together some breakfast. You scarf down some Cheerios (if you’re lucky) before preschool drop-off.
You drop off your preschooler and head out to run some errands with the baby. The errands take way longer than you anticipated and darn it you’re hungry so you snag some fast food for lunch or pick up a candy bar (hey peanut M&Ms have some protein in it after all, right?)
By now, it’s school pick-up time. You take the kids home and start tackling some chores. You’re feeling hazy as your blood sugar crashes so you snag a granola bar and a pouch of smiley-faced fruit snacks.
Maybe you actually get to make and enjoy dinner. You mop up the spills your toddler left behind and jump into the warfare of getting the kids to bed. Once that is done, you collapse on the couch and inhale a sleeve of Oreos and settle in for some Netflix cuz you need a pat on the back for the day you’ve had and if Oreos are what you need to be happy, so be it.
Can you relate?
I know I’ve lived this scenario many times, but for the most part, I don’t anymore! And I’m all the better for it.
As a part of my year-long healthy living project, I’ve been focusing on slowing down and eating mindfully and it has been a zen and transformative experience. Keep reading and I’ll help you get pumped about giving yourself the grace to slow down, as well as get actionable tactics to help you become a mindful eater. Side effects could include getting to and maintaining a healthy weight, enjoying life more, feeling better, and developing a more positive relationship with food.
Ready for some fun? Let’s dive in!
How eating mindfully & slowly can make your life better
Food punctuates the day & allows you to enjoy yourself more
In the docuseries Limitless, my celebrity boo Chris Hemsworth says that food “punctuates the day.” I love that, and not just because Chris Hemsworth said it. It’s so true!
Food is much more than fuel. It’s an experience, or at least it should be. Having dedicated time and space for meal chunks out the day, gives you breaks, and creates little moments to look forward to.
When you give yourself time and permission to eat mindfully, food stops becoming the thing you inhale and then feel guilty about. It stops becoming a means to keep you alive. Rather you start to wake up to your day, and ultimately to your life. It becomes a moment of connection, a time to check in with yourself.
If you think about it, it’s kind of funny that we scarf down delicious food in the first place.
Like when I get my hands on my all-time favorite treat, frozen M&Ms, my inclination is to throw it in my mouth by the handful. When I eat it this quickly, I barely even taste it!
Part of the reason for that is the food industry intentionally manufactures food so that you will go through food quickly and manipulate your taste buds to beg you to keep reaching for more. Like the Doritos slogan says, “Bet you can't eat just one.” Yep it’s true. And it’s because they made it that way. Kind of slimy, I know.
But also I think something in our brain thinks, hey I get a hit of dopamine from eating one of these m&m’s, so I must get an even bigger hit if I eat more at one time, even though it isn’t true. By slowing down, the tasty food stays in our mouths longer, which will give us even more enjoyment. One slice of cake eaten slowly can yield way more enjoyment than 3 eaten quickly.
Mindful eating helps you realize what, how, and why you’re eating
Eating slowly and mindfully can be initially painful. The reason is that often we (at least I know I do) eat as a coping mechanism for some need we are trying to bandaid with food.
Maybe we are overly tired, lonely, bored, or stressed. Maybe food feels like the one thing we can control. Sometimes we “blackout eat” where we don’t even realize what we’ve eaten until we see a pile of wrappers around us.
Mindfully eating has helped me learn that I pretty much always look for something sweet when I have to do focused work. If I’m writing or really need to think, I am often looking for some kind of sweet treat to incentivize me to do the mentally taxing task of creating content.
I also realized that at the end of the day, I am looking for a sweet treat to give me a little pat on the back for doing hard things - EVERY day is hard when you have small children. And sometimes I just feel trapped and it feels like an escape.
Confronting those realities helped me realize I need to find other coping mechanisms that allow me to ACTUALLY feel better and get what I need.
I can break up my focused work into small intervals and take breaks. I can prioritize a sitter in my budget or learn that I don’t need to constantly entertain my kids, or teach them to be more self-sufficient. I can take nights off and hand off bedtime to my husband some nights. Slowing down my food intake helped me confront and see these issues in more efficient and healthier ways.
Eating mindfully helps you tune into hunger and fullness cues which is critical for a healthy weight
It takes about 30 minutes for your brain to get the message from your belly that you are full. Before I started to slow down, I think I finished my food on average in 5-10 minutes, tops.
Can you see the problem?
When we scarf down food, we don’t realize that we are full until it’s too late and our bellies are bursting in pain.
Ergo we end up eating way more calories than we even wanted to… we literally just didn’t realize we were full. Plus we digest better when we slow down! For this reason, slow and mindful eating is foundational to getting to and maintaining a healthy weight.
And let me say, it can be really difficult to “waste” food, especially if you were brought up to “waste not want not.” If you have this mental block, which is a worthy one because it is a good thing to try not to waste, try to keep in mind that food is meant to serve you, not the other way around.
If you are going to overeat and make yourself uncomfortable, tired, or sick, you are defeating the purpose of food, which is to give you energy. Also, I LOVE candy. But candy isn’t even really food. So please never feel guilty about throwing out candy, deal?
Mindful eating helps you identify foods that are bothering you
When I started eating mindfully, I started to realize just how much certain foods were affecting me. I realized that cow’s milk hurts my stomach. I started drinking almond milk and my gut feels so much better. I’ve come to notice that I feel weird after eating some kinds of grains as well. So I will be looking further into that.
When we hurridly eat dinner and then immediately follow it with a snack or dessert, we don’t know WHAT might be causing discomfort, or maybe we are always in discomfort because we are always too full. By slowing down, we are able to identify food sensitivities a lot more easily.
So let’s talk about some strategies to actually help you eat more mindfully and slowly because it’s a lot harder than it seems.
Tactics to help you slow down and eat more mindfully
Stop eating when you feel about 80% full
When you feel about 80% full, you are likely actually 100% full but your brain hasn’t yet gotten the message from your belly. This can be easy to overthink, but basically, the goal is to feel like you could get up and go for a walk after eating.
If you think you might have hit the 80% full mark, but are worried you’re going to be hungry again in like 20 seconds, simply pause and wait a bit. You may feel full at that point, but if not, go ahead and keep eating.
Let your senses get in on the experience
Think about what you’re eating. Notice the tastes and textures. Do you like it? What do you like about it? Let your senses actually do their thing and be a part of the experience of eating.
Also, consider rediscovering the joys of the table. Make eating pleasant. If possible, set the table, or at least eat your food on a plate. Maybe light a candle, play music, or whatever sounds appealing to you. A little effort goes a long way here.
Food is meant to be enjoyed! I think it should be one of the best parts of life. So allow yourself to make it an experience. Learn how to create a food ritual here.
Set a timer
At first, don’t necessarily change anything. Just see how long it takes you to eat. Then stretch it out a bit longer. Maybe take 10 minutes to eat instead of 5. Little by little try to reasonably stretch the time out until eating becomes its own little appointment. Schedule it in your calendar if necessary, and allow yourself enough time so that it’s not always crunched.
Sit down while eating, and have water nearby
In my own life, I have found that I tend to stress eat while standing at my counter. It’s actually kind of comical. I don’t know why I gravitate to that spot, but after focusing on mindful eating, I now know that if I’m there, I’m either in a rush or trying to use food as a coping mechanism.
If you are sitting down while eating (and hopefully not at your desk if at all possible), you’re a lot more likely to be mindful and slow down.
If you’re making food at home, try to arrange all your food on your plate before you start eating, rather than eating a little bit of this and that as you make the food.
I also find that having water with me when I eat naturally forces me to slow down my eating (to take sips) and helps me be more hydrated with little effort.
The next phase of my healthy living project is eating until 80% full.
The purpose of this habit is to help me continue to fine-tune my hunger/fullness cues, help out my digestive tract, avoid overeating, lose fat, and frankly just feel better. When I overeat I feel sick, sluggish, and full of guilt.
Here’s my plan:
Make it obvious:
Create a sticker chart on the fridge with an associated reward (since it’s been so effective). I’m also going to print off this great infographic by Precision Nutrition and post it on my fridge as a reminder.
Make it attractive:
I’m going to read this article about eating until 80% full which will outline more benefits. Reading about a healthy habit always makes it more appealing to me.
Make it easy:
I’ll use smaller plates, or give myself a smaller portion than I normally eat with the permission to eat more if I’m still hungry.
I’ll plan on sharing if I go out to eat, or ask for a to-go box at the beginning and put half of it in the box before I even start.
Make it satisfying:
If I have stopped eating at 80% full for most meals of the day, at the end of each day, I will reward myself with a sticker. At the end of the two-week stint, I get a reward for hitting at least 90% compliance
