Eating mindfully
Eating mindfully
A key principle for a healthy relationship with food is feeling good about your choices -before, during, and after you eat. To achieve this, you first need to become more aware of what and how you’re eating.
Enter mindful eating. This practice involves bringing awareness to the thoughts, feelings, and sensations driving your food choices. It means noticing what’s happening before, during, and after eating - most importantly, without judgment.
Try to look at your interactions with food as though you’re an outside observer, someone kind, compassionate, and supportive - just as you would be if observing a close friend’s eating habits. You wouldn’t be critical toward them, so offer yourself that same kindness.
Mindful eating can ultimately help you make more intentional food choices, deepen your appreciation for your body and the food you eat, and make it easier to regulate your desire to eat. By turning inward and noticing the internal cues and sensations around eating, it becomes easier to manage binge eating, overeating, and eating in response to challenging emotions. This practice gives you back control, so food no longer feels like it has control over you.
But how do you eat mindfully? There are many ways, but here’s what I find most helpful:
Start by practicing mindful eating with a single piece of food, in a quiet space by yourself, so you can fully engage in the process. From there, gradually incorporate mindful eating into as many meals or snacks as is practical each day, until it becomes second nature.
Mindful eating practice
Choose a small piece of food for this exercise. It could be a single raisin, a slice of apple, a spoonful of yoghurt, a piece of cheese, a cracker - whatever you’d like to try. You can do this exercise repeatedly, so don’t overthink your choice. Anything will work.
First, close your eyes and turn your attention inward. Take a few slow, deep breaths to calm your body and mind. Reflect on how hungry you feel. Where do you sense hunger in your body? Are there physical sensations, like an empty feeling or a rumbling in your stomach? Now, rate your hunger from 1 to 5, with 1 being neutral or slightly hungry and 5 being intensely hungry.
Next, open your eyes and observe the food with curiosity, as if seeing it for the first time. Notice its appearance, shape, and color. Is it shiny? Steaming? Starting to melt?
Now, lift the food and feel its texture. Is it hard or soft, smooth or rough, firm or delicate?
Bring the food to your nose. What does it smell like? Is it sweet, salty, earthy, sour, spicy, or fragrant? Is the aroma strong or faint? If it has no smell, simply notice that. Observe any physical reactions - do you feel an urge to take a bite? Are you salivating?
Place the food in your mouth and notice how it feels. Chew slowly and mindfully, savouring the flavour, texture, and taste. How would you describe it? Is it crunchy, smooth, chewy, or creamy? Does the flavor change as you chew? Does it taste different on different parts of your tongue? And as you chew, is there any sound, like a crunch? Take as much time as you need.
When you’re ready, swallow the food. Notice the lingering taste and how your body feels afterwards.
This is mindful eating in action. Repeat this process with a single food as often as you like, then start incorporating it into some of your meals until it becomes a habit. It doesn’t need to be every bite - just the first few, then checking in midway through the meal, and again when you’re finished. The goal is to eat until you feel satisfied.
To eat mindfully, you don’t need to be alone or sit in total silence at every meal. Realistically, this isn’t always practical! However, removing distractions can help you tune in to your experience of eating. Turn off the TV, put away your phone, sit down, and commit to enjoying the moment. Eating on the go, at our desks, or while multitasking makes it difficult to honor our body’s natural hunger and fullness signals.
Becoming aware of how you feel before, during, and after eating takes time and practice. But when it becomes part of your routine, it can be a game-changer. It completely transformed my life and relationship with food! It may feel a little strange at first, but trust the process.
