What is mindful eating? Mindful eating might be a key way to prevent (a) overeating and (b) underfueling. While there are variations on how it works, it’s essentially a practice that involves leaning into your physical and emotional senses to experience your food. If you are intentional about fully experiencing and feeling your food in your body, you may more easily stay in tune with your fueling needs.
I like to move through 8 steps when practicing mindful eating.
Mindful eating tips to try:
- Put away distractions.
- Reduce stress.
- Sit down.
- Take moderate bites and chew fully.
- Experience it all.
- Pause. Notice how the body feels. Release tension if needed.
- Take a moment to feel gratitude.
- Signal that the meal is complete.
Here’s how I walk myself through the practice.
Step 1: Put away distractions.
In order to be fully present with where I am and with what I’m doing, it helps to shut down everything else. Put my phone away. Put my computer away. Put containers of food away. I need all of my attention on the plate in front of me. I need to set my space up in a way that allows me to focus on this full, balanced meal.
Step 2: Reduce any stress.
As I set up my environment for mindful eating, I set up my body for mindful eating. It’s easy to rush into a meal with a lot on my mind, especially in the middle of the work day. I pause to take a few deep, cleansing breaths to slow down my heart rate and clear my headspace.
Breathe in through nose, open mouth, sigh it out.
Step 3: Sit down.
It doesn’t help to position my body like I’m ready to drop my plate and run to the next thing. I carry my plate to the dining table, sit down and give it the full attention it deserves.
Step 4: Take moderate bites and chew fully.
If you’ve struggled with binge eating like I have, you know there’s a clumsiness to it: rapidly choking down food without properly chewing. Eating mindfully smooths this out, it’s serene: taking manageable, small bites. Moderate forkfuls that fit comfortably in the mouth, and are easy to chew.
When you chew fully, you actually give your brain enough time to acknowledge that food intake and generate a enjoyable emotional response. I
Step 5: Experience it all.
After putting effort into building this balanced meal and into slowing down with the experience of it, I try to notice it all:
- The variety of food
- The variety of texture, temperature
- Each taste
- The space I’m in
- The conversation I’m in, or the silence I can sink into
I sit back, I slow down, I relish it.
Step 6: Pause. Notice how the body feels. Release tension if needed.
During my experience, I like to put down my utensil or food and pause. Take a sip of my beverage. Notice: Is there tension in my chest or in my headspace? Could this lead to overeating? I take a couple of cleansing breaths – in through the nose, out through the mouth. Let the heart rate slow down, let that tension dissolve.
Then, keep feeling. Notice: Is there hunger gurgling in the stomach? Continue practicing those moderate bites, that full chewing.
Notice: Is the stomach starting to feel pleasantly full, gently taut? Is now a comfortable time to stop eating?
Step 7: Take a moment to feel gratitude.
I find that one of the quickest ways to shift my immediate relationship with something from negative to positive is to be grateful for that thing. If I’m struggling with my body image, can I work to be grateful for all that my body does for me? If I’m struggling with food, can I be grateful that I can afford it, that it can provide me fuel and energy for everything I want to do today?
Step 8: Send a signal to my body that my meal is complete.
I find it easier to close the chapter on a meal and quiet any lingering food noise when I choose a drink or a treat or something to signal the end of a meal. Maybe it’s a hot cup of decaf coffee or tea to sip as I shift into my next activity. Maybe it’s a serving of chocolate. Maybe it’s a mint. Something to top off my experience and help me relax into everything that’s coming next.
