Mindfulness: How it can transform your eating habits
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How present are you in your daily life? And how present are you while eating?
If you’re not familiar with Mindfulness, you might think those are strange questions. What does it mean to be present? And to be present while eating? But stick with me because I’m about to show you how mindfulness can have a positive impact not only on your eating habits but also on your life.
How not being mindful leads to emotional eating
First, we need to understand what mindfulness is. To put it simply, Mindfulness is about being in the present moment, in the here and now. It requires you to connect with yourself and your surroundings, meaning that your mind is not wandering in the past or the future, your mind and body are experiencing what’s happening NOW.
Not being present can bring uncomfortable emotions
You may wonder how not being mindful can affect your eating habits so here’s why: It turns out that when we’re not in the present moment we’re either in the past regretting choices, feeling sad for things we haven’t been able to let go of, angry for things that happened, overthinking about things we said or didn’t say or our reaction. Or we’re in the future worrying about things we can’t control but trying to control them, imagining worst-case scenarios, planning. How does it feel just reading it? Oftentimes, when our mind is in the past or the future, uncomfortable emotions like anxiety, sadness, anger, or frustration can arise.
It’s not easy to constantly be mindful, so when these emotions come up and we haven’t learned tools to cope with them (the big ones, and the ones behind) then we turn to food to help us cope and comfort ourselves. This can lead to overeating, which may bring feelings of guilt and shame, and after the temporary relief, our mind wanders again. And like this, the cycle can continue.
It’s important to highlight that I’m not saying that we should never think about the past or the future. Thinking about the past or the future can also help us learn from our mistakes or plan what we need to do to reach our goals and dreams. However, a lot of us tend to constantly be in the past or the present which oftentimes prevents us from truly enjoying our present, our here and now, and being grateful for what we have (and what we don’t).
When our thoughts are in the past and/or the future cause us distress, stress, anxiety and other uncomfortable emotions, those thoughts become unsupportive. And when this happens it’s important to come back to the present to let it go. We need to understand and accept that we can’t control or change the past, nor we can control what will happen in the future. We can act according to our values, needs, and desires, but we can’t control everything that will happen.
Lack of presence in the eating experience
Let’s be honest, most of us eat with distractions. In a fast-paced world where we’re constantly doing things and receiving all kinds of information all the time, we want to “not waste time” while we eat. And to “take advantage” of the time, we eat while watching TV, scrolling on Social Media, working, or planning. In the end, this means that we’re not present in the eating experience, we eat but our mind is somewhere else.
I’ve noticed that when I eat distracted (yes, although I make an effort to always eat mindfully and without distractions, we’re humans and it’s okay to not do everything perfectly) two things happen:
- One, I eat more than I need because I’m not listening to my body the same way as I’m concentrating on something else. There’s then a big chance that I’ll end up feeling uncomfortably full as I’ve eaten over my hunger level.
- Two, it’s like my brain doesn’t register the same way that I’ve been eating so I will feel hungry much quicker than when I’m present during my meal. There’s then a big chance that I might make poorer food choices as I haven’t felt satisfied with my meal due to the lack of presence.
Have you experienced this? How does it feel to you?
Why is eating mindfully important?
When we make the intention of being present during our eating experience, we open ourselves to connect with our bodies and listen to them. By bringing our minds to the here and now we can feel how hungry or full we are and decide when to stop eating so that we don’t feel uncomfortable afterwards. We practice gratitude for what we have in front of us and engage our senses so that we can enjoy our meal fully which will help us with feelings of satisfaction. Being present during our eating experiences helps us not only appreciate our food but also listen and respect our bodies. We can feel how food affects us and we learn which ones nourish our body, and which nourish our soul and mind.
Mindfulness helps you understand
Without awareness, there can’t be change. If you are not aware of what’s causing something, how can you take action to change it? Easy, you can’t. Now that you know the importance of being mindful, I hope you can see how it can help you bring awareness to your eating patterns. When we are in the present, you can reflect on what’s going on inside of you and what led to it.
This is why Mindful awareness is one of the three pillars in my program “Thrive Beyond Emotional Eating”. Before we can address our emotional eating habits and relationship with food, it’s essential to understand what are the triggers and habits that push us to seek comfort in food. It’s only when we understand these and accept them without judgment, that we can start taking action towards our goals.
To help you identify what your triggers are for turning to food for other purposes than nourishment, I created a free Emotional Eating Journaling Guide that you can download here.
How can you be more mindful?
I want to share with you two posts from my social media, where I explain how to be more mindful in your daily life, and how to incorporate mindful eating.
Gran a pen and paper to write down the steps, or save and share the posts!
To end
Being mindful has great benefits, not only around the eating experience but in our lives in general. The lack of it can perpetuate the emotional eating cycle when we are not aware of our triggers, when our minds get stuck in unhelpful thoughts or when we eat mindlessly.
By learning to be more mindful we are allowing ourselves to bring awareness to our eating habits. From this awareness, we can take action to change the patterns that are holding us back from feeling free around food while increasing our ability to truly enjoy life and food.
