Mindful Eating

How many times have you finished a meal and then gone back for seconds without even thinking twice?

How many times have you finished a meal and ended up lying on the couch wishing you hadn’t eaten so much?

How many times have you got to the end of the day and forgotten what you had for breakfast or lunch?

Do you ever recall chewing your food or what it actually tastes like? You’d be pretty unique if you were able to sit, undisturbed, focusing solely on your meal, for every meal a day – if this is you, we admire you!

‘Mindfulness’ is a term that has been branded around a lot over the past 5 years or so and although people have mixed feelings about it, really it’s something that could benefit everyone. Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present moment. It’s about focusing your attention and being aware of the sensations in your body, your breath, your thoughts, your feelings and your actions. We all rush through life in autopilot, quite often not even realising that we’re distracted. The practice of mindfulness has been found to have massive health benefits; helping with stress, anxiety and depression as well as improving attention and memory.

‘Mindful eating’ is about paying attention to what you are eating and how you are eating it. It is about looking at your relationship with food like you never have before. It is about understanding that eating is not a race, food is not just fuel. Your meals are delicious and deserve to be tasted and enjoyed. Mindfulness is not necessarily about feeling anything in particular, it’s not about changing anything. It is simply about noticing the sensations in your body and feeling them in the present moment.

Mindful eating can be helpful for gut health in many ways. Firstly, being aware of chewing your food is vital for your gut. It is not the stomach’s job to break down large chunks of food, this is the job of the teeth and saliva. Chewing your food as much as you can, being aware of this action and what it is doing to your food is important for your gut to work properly. Secondly, as a way to control what we are eating: if we are eating to satisfy hunger and stopping when we’re full, we are in control of what is going into our bodies. We are then giving our bodies what they need and not more, reducing the chances of weight gain. This is not just control of portion size, but also control of what we are putting in our bodies. It allows us to think about our meals, are they as healthy as we want them to be? If not, that’s in your control to change it.

A few things we can change to help us eat more mindfully.

• First of all think about why you are eating:
  • Are you eating because you’re hungry or are you eating because it’s ‘lunch time’?
  • Perhaps you’re eating because you’re anxious or sad?
  • Are you thirsty instead of hungry?
• Before you start each meal, think about your surroundings.
  • Is the TV on?
  • Are you on the phone or checking your emails?
  • Are you actually able to focus on this meal?
  • Think about the ideal environment for this meal. Reduce your distractions significantly. That phone call and those emails can wait, the TV can be paused and your book can be read in 15 minutes. If you have family, enjoy sitting round the table as a family and make meal times enjoyable. Admittedly, family meal times aren’t the time to be trying to focus on your eating but try to encourage the family to spend a couple of minutes in silence focusing on their meal and then afterwards you can speak about your days.
• Start each meal by looking at what you have on your plate. Ask yourself some questions:
  • What is the portion size like?
  • Is it colourful?
  • Is the meal full of nutrients?
  • Did you make the meal? If not, who did?
  • What does it smell like?
• Pay attention to each mouthful. Be mindful of what you are putting in your mouth. Ask yourself some more questions:
  • What does the food on the fork smell like?
  • What does it look like?
  • What does it taste like? How would you describe it to someone who wasn’t eating it?
  • What is the texture of the food?
  • Is it hard or soft? Difficult or easy to chew?
• Chew each mouthful until it is like pulp. Our bodies use saliva to break down the food to digest. If we simply put our food to the back of our mouths and swallow we are making our stomach and intestine do much more work than they need to be doing. Ask yourself some more questions:
  • How many times did I chew that mouthful? Set yourself a goal of chewing at least 20-30 times per mouthful.
  • What consistency was the food when I swallowed it?
• Make a conscious decision to swallow each mouthful. Feel the ball of food move to the back of your throat before you swallow it.
• Notice whether or not you are getting more and more full after each mouthful. You don’t need to eat every bit of food on your plate if you are full. Stop eating when you are full and be aware of that. Notice that you are full and notice that you are stopping now. You can put the rest in the fridge and eat it again in a couple of hours when you have noticed that you are becoming hungry again.
• At the end of the meal, notice the sensations in your body. How do you feel?

We’re not saying do this for everything you eat,as we understand that’s not always realistic. If you can make a deal with yourself to start off by doing this for one thing you eat once a week – whether that’s a whole meal or just an apple. Then think of something realistic to work towards – is it realistic to do it once a day? Is it more realistic to do it every other day or keep it as once a week? Do whatever is right for you but try to do it as often as you can. The more you can practice mindful eating, the more in tune you will become with your body and the more satisfied you will feel when eating.