Mindful eating is one simple strategy for people with high blood sugar to get in control of excessive snacking, binging, and consuming junk food. Let’s take a closer look at this important lifestyle tweak that can make a big difference for you in your life and health — whether or not you are on a specific diet for weight loss or cleaner eating.
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is a type of awareness you have during the moment of eating your food. Similar to other forms of mindfulness, you enter a place of non-judgment, and instead appreciate the current moment, from what you are eating and whether you are enjoying it, to details like the taste and temperature of your food.
Is it the Same as Mindfulness?
Mindful eating is a type of mindfulness that uses the same principles. The main difference is that it is a specific task you perform where you are mindful, as opposed to more general mindfulness throughout the day. But as a definition, yes, mindful eating is using mindfulness tools and techniques.
Why Mindful Eating is so Beneficial
You are going to benefit in many different ways by becoming more mindful.
Heal your relationship with food – If you tend to feel guilty or try to control your food, you might not have a great relationship with food. Mindful eating is going to ease these stresses and help you allow all food and understand that it is not something o fear.
Learn to eat slower – Eating slower helps you focus more on your food and how it makes you feel, gives you time to notice when you are feeling full, and helps a lot with your digestion.
Have a better understanding of hunger and fullness – You will also start noticing your own body’s cues when it comes to when you are truly hungry or emotionally hungry, and when your body is full.
Know what food satisfies you and makes you feel good – Beyond neutralizing all food and putting a stop to the food labels, mindful eating also helps you figure out what foods your body does and doesn’t like. For some people, they discover a lactose intolerance they didn’t know they had, others just prefer certain foods at specific times of the day.
Easy Ways to Get Started
Not sure where to start? The easiest thing to do is choose one meal or snack a day when you tend to be alone without a lot of distractions. All you have to do is turn off the TV, minimize windows on your computer, or turn your phone to silent. Then, you just eat your meal without those distractions. This alone is often enough to help you start becoming more mindful.
What Mindful Eating Isn’t
Mindful eating is not meant to be a way to restrict food, diet, or intentionally lose weight. You are not trying to be mindful in order to eat as little as possible. While you might end up losing weight naturally from mindful eating, when it becomes your intention, it gets in the way of the other benefits of being more mindful when you eat.
What to Pay Attention to While Mindful Eating
As you begin to be more mindful during your meals, you might have a little difficulty with the silence and your mind wandering. If you can’t listen to anything or watch TV, what do you actually put your focus on? Here are some things you will pay attention to when you are mindful eating.
Think About Why You Chose the Food You Did
The first thing you can focus on is what you are eating and what made you choose that food. This is a great first step to mindful eating, and also combines some practices of intuitive eating as well. It is a way to remain neutral and not judge your choices, but at the same time, become aware of your intentions, understand if you were physically or emotionally hungry, and soon learn when you crave certain types of foods.
How Does it Smell?
Start using your senses by starting with smell. What aromas do you notice in the food, and how do they change between just sitting in front of your plate, and taking your first bite? Is the smell intriguing? Is it sweet smelling or tangy? Does it smell spicy because of all the garlic and peppers you used? Smell is an interesting sense to use while mindful eating, because unlike taste and sight, it isn’t one you think you use very often during meals.
Do You Enjoy the Flavors?
As you begin eating your meal, notice each of the flavors of your food and decide if they are satisfying or not. One thing to do during this time is to first imagine how it will taste, then describe how it does taste, and finally the best part of the flavors. Is it the slightly tangy sweetness of a piece of fruit? Or are you enjoying the freshness of the salad more than you thought you would? Again, a lot can come up with this very simple practice.
When Did You Start Experiencing Fullness?
When you get further into your meal, start eating slower and paying attention to your body’s signals. You are looking for signs that you might start getting full. This can be a little different for everyone, but here are some signs to keep an eye out for:
The food starts tasting different or less intriguing
You start playing with your food
Your stomach feels physically full or bloated
You lose interest in the food
Do You Feel Happy and Satisfied?
When your meal is over, do a summary about how you felt and if you are satisfied and happy with your food choices. Was it a satisfying meal? Would you eat it again? Would you prepare it differently next times?
Mindful Eating to Help Lose Weight
Whenever the topic of changing your eating habits comes up, it almost always leads to the discussion of weight loss. There is nothing wrong with intentional weight loss if that is something you feel is important to you and will improve your life, but is mindful eating a way to lose weight? Here are some things to know about the link between them.
Important: Mindful Eating is Not Meant as a Weight Loss Tool
While many people do discover that the pounds start shedding once they practice mindful eating, this shouldn’t be the main focus. If all you do is think about eating as little as possible in order to lose weight, mindful eating is not going to be effective for you.
We wanted to get this out of the way before talking about weight loss, as focusing on losing weight only will affect how well mindful eating works for you.
You Stop Overeating
One of the more common reasons mindful eating may help you to lose weight is because you tend to eat just until satisfaction, without overeating. Mindless eating is closely tied to overeating, since you eat so fast and without thinking, that you don’t even know you were full many bites ago.
Overeating is so easy to do, especially if you are used to more mindless eating. This means you have other things going on while eating and instead of putting normal portions out on a plate, you bring the entire bag or box with you. Just a little prep and mindfulness can help prevent this.
It Helps You Understand Your Cravings, Hunger and Fullness Cues
The more mindful you are throughout the day, the more you understand your body’s signals for hunger, fullness, and even cravings. Your body is incredibly smart, and constantly telling you what you need to know. The problem is that you might not be listening. These cues get crowded out by diet talk and body image problems. Put those aside for now and just try to pay attention to when your body is hungry or full.
Many People Find Their Emotional Eating is Reduced
If you struggle with emotional eating, mindful eating will help a lot with that. Emotional eating may cause you to eat foods that aren’t very nutrient-dense and often in higher quantities because they are overly processed and don’t really help you get full.
You Begin to Enjoy More Nutritious Foods
The more you listen to your body through being mindful, the more you notice how much better you feel when eating nutritious, nutrient-dense foods. You start understanding when you crave protein or vegetables, or when you crave something quick and satiating.
Benefits of Mindful Eating
Now that you know what mindful eating is and how it works, the next common question is: Why? There are actually many benefits to mindful eating, but here are some of the most important ones.
Change Your Relationship with Food
The first benefit you may notice when you start mindful eating is that you begin to improve your relationship with food. Having a bad relationship with food often comes from a history of dieting or restricting your food, whether it meant being a yo-yo dieter, or just constantly feeling guilty about the types of food you ate.
Mindful eating shifts the focus from the quality of your food or how much you are “supposed” to eat, and instead allows you to understand all food is food, all can be allowed, and there is no judgment.
Put a Stop to Emotional Eating
If you are someone that struggles with emotional eating, this can be a wonderful benefit for you. Mindful eating is often used by people who are dealing with overeating while being stressed, bored, or having any emotion other than actual hunger.
When you start eating more mindfully, you become more aware of why you chose each meal or snack, and whether or not it was from true hunger, a craving, or just because you were bored or sad.
Become Familiar with Your Fullness Cues
Through mindful eating, you pay more attention to how your body feels while eating, and can actually notice when you are starting to feel satisfied. People often eat so quickly and mindlessly, that they eat well past fullness without realizing it.
But when you eat mindfully, you are eating slower and paying much more attention to how you feel. Over time, you start noticing little signals that your body is just about ready to stop eating. This is hugely beneficial for a number of reasons, from preventing unnecessary weight gain and helping you to lose weight, to helping you feel better overall.
Improve Your Digestion
It may also help to improve your digestion, since you will be eating slower and with more intention. Digestive issues are not always about what you eat, but your eating habits. People who tend to scarf down their food, often while watching their latest Netflix marathon, are much more likely to have digestive issues than people who take their time both in choosing what to eat, and knowing when to stop.
