Mindful eating is a term used to describe awareness of the sensations you feel while eating, both physical and mental. If you’ve been living the fat loss lifestyle (FLL) for a while, you’ve undoubtedly experienced an example of this during a cheat meal. If you don’t typically eat fast food, for example, you’ll notice the greasy taste of low-quality fats and the chemicals they use for processing. Or if you eat a slice of birthday cake, you’ll be more sensitive to the extreme sweetness, and you may also feel sick to your stomach after these little indulgences. One of the reasons junk food tastes artificial to you is because you have become mindful of the food you choose to consume.
My first experience with mindless eating happened during Basic Training (boot camp) when I joined the Army. I’ll never forget the fear that catapulted me into a trance every time I ate. Not only did I become so used to speed eating, I also quickly reached a point to where I had no idea what I was eating or when I ate it. Mealtime was burdened with constant distractions: looking at the clock to make sure I finish everything within 6 minutes, soldiers running back and forth empting their trays, soldiers next to me on the ground doing pushups for punishment, drill sergeants screaming in my ear to hurry up, etc… you get the picture 
I often left the table in a lot of pain from the bloating as a result of eating too fast and eating too much, and I remember many times where a few minutes later I literally couldn’t even remember what I just ate. I didn’t know it back then, but I had developed a habit of mindless eating.
Can you relate to this in the context of your own eating habits?
Do you find yourself munching on snacks in front of the TV, completely zoned-out? Do you and your family eat at random times, with kids running in and out, or the TV going, or everyone texting as they eat? Do you often eat standing up or while multi-tasking, or when you’re stressed out?
In Dr. Susan Adler’s book “Eating Mindfully”, she addresses some of the ways that mindful eating will help keep your metabolism running efficiently, so that fat loss happens naturally and almost effortlessly:
Benefits of Mindful Eating:
- Teaches you to be less reactive to stress: We often say there are two primary ways to reach obesity: eat your way there, and stress your way there. Studies show time and time again that mindfulness promotes better mood, less stress, and healthy weight.
- Helps you to manage emotions better: Emotional eating is a huge issue in our society. When we resort to food- or avoid food- to cope with emotions, we have already lost our ability to handle stress in a healthy way.
- Helps recognize & stop automatic behaviors like grazing or picking at food
- Helps you get a handle on cravings: If you can learn where your cravings are coming from, what sparks them, what resolves them, and whether they’re true cravings or something else, will help you nurture the mind-body connection you make with food on a daily basis.
The mind-body connection to the food you eat is so important to recognize and nurture on a constant basis so that fat loss becomes natural, but it’s much more complex than this. Understanding why and how you eat, as well as the things/situations that make you start and stop eating will play a huge factor in your success.
So, how can you be more conscious of what is happening with your mind, so that fat loss is something you do with your body, and not to your body? Dr. Susan Adler says this:
How To Practice Mindful Eating:
- Be more aware of sensations (hear, touch, taste, smell, see)
- Notice whether you are mindlessly munching or tasting each and every bite
- Be aware of what your mind is doing (obsessing, worrying, craving, etc…)
- Be in the moment, focused on what is happening right now
- Pay attention to how your hunger and fullness change with each bite
- Break out of autopilot eating habits
These things take a lot of time to practice, so try not to get overwhelmed. I would recommend starting with just one bullet point at a time, and when you feel like you’ve mastered it, move onto the next one.
Remember, eating mindfully isn’t about eating whatever you want whenever you want it; it’s about finding that balance between your body, mind, thoughts, and feelings.
Be patient with yourself and remember that even the experts were once beginners! No one gets this down without practice, practice, and more practice!
For more information on mindful eating, and to help identify many scenarios you might encounter and how to respond to them, check out Dr Susan Adler’s book “Mindful Eating”.
Want to learn more about the Fat Loss Lifestyle? ME’s Lifestylers Club offers all the tools, resources and accountability necessary to lose fat, maintain that loss and never look back.