Mindful eating is an eating style that encourages you to gain awareness of the present moment during your eating experiences.
Are you familiar with the term mindful eating? It is a way of eating that has risen in popularity in recent years for the benefits it can have on your mental, emotional, and physical health.
In today’s article, we will be diving into what mindful eating is and why it may be beneficial for you. We will also discuss our best tips for how to begin practicing mindful eating in your everyday life.
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What is Mindfulness?
The concept of mindfulness in other aspects of life has been greatly studied for the benefits it can have. The practice was originally derived from Zen Buddhists and focuses on creating a conscious awareness of what is going on around you.
The official definition of mindfulness is defined as, “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally”.
Mindfulness has helped so many people live more intentional and fulfilling lives. This includes people living with chronic pain, diseases, sleeping problems, mental health symptoms, and more.
What is Mindful Eating?
Fundamentally, mindful eating blossomed from the term mindfulness and is directly implied to eating and the eating experience. This includes eating-related thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and behaviors.
Mindful eating is a non-judgmental approach to eating that focuses on your internal awareness of the food you are eating. It does not focus on calories or nutrients like many other eating styles.
Instead, it encourages you to enjoy food, free of judgment, and isn’t concerned with restricting your intake. Even further, it teaches you how to savor the moment you are in and have an appreciation for the food on your plate.
The following attitudes are associated with a mindful eating approach:
- Patience while eating: let yourself be in the present and experience the sensations
- Non-judgment: awareness of your judgments is an essential element of mindfulness
- Trust: when you accept your true experience, you develop trust in yourself
- Letting go: let go of past expectations and attachments toward food
- Acceptance: notice what happens when you eat and accept it
- Child’s mind: approach your experiences as if you were a child, let them feel new and exciting
- Non-striving: you are not striving for a certain goal or outcome
These attitudes make up the foundation of mindful eating. Science is beginning to uncover the benefits that this way of eating can have on your eating behaviors, mental health, relationship with food, and more.
What are the Benefits of Mindful Eating?
As seen with mindfulness, mindful eating also has a ton of great benefits for your overall health.
These benefits include:
- Improvement in patterns or behaviors with food
- Reduction in anxiety & depression
- Increased awareness of the present moment
- Reduced stress
- Improved ability to taste the food you are eating
- Less likelihood of under or overeating
- Improvement in digestion
- Overall improved relationship with food
As with any eating style, the benefits will look different for every person. In general, we encourage mindful eating for people who are interested in improving their relationship with food and developing different eating behaviors.
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The Raisin Experiment Method of Mindfulness
The raisin experiment is a short mindfulness exercise that can be used to practice and assess your mindfulness. It involves eating a raisin very slowly and intentionally. The exercise helps you focus on moment-to-moment experiences.
Check out this website here that has audio that walks you through the raisin experiment and how to practice it yourself. There is also a step-by-step text version outlined here.
Tips for Practicing Mindful Eating Daily
Now that you know more about what mindful eating is and what the benefits are, you may be wondering how you can practice mindful eating in your day-to-day life.
Follow these tips/practices below as a great starting place:
- Periodically check in with yourself. Throughout your eating experience, take pauses and assess how you are feeling. Where is your hunger level at? How satisfied do you feel currently? This helps you tune into your present awareness and how the meal is feeling to you.
- Limit distractions while eating. Distractions such as watching TV and being on your phone can lead to a significant decrease in mindfulness while eating. You may find yourself eating past fullness or eating too fast. Try to limit the distractions around you. Start with eating one meal each day at your dining room table, with nothing else around.
- Before eating, consider this. When you go to reach for food, take a second to consider why you are grabbing it. Are you feeling hungry? Or are there other reasons why you may be reaching for food, such as boredom or feeling emotional? Ask these questions from a non-judgmental lens. The point is to tune into the idea that you should eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.
- Think about what it took to bring this food to you. A component of mindful eating is having an appreciation for the food on your plate. Taking a few minutes to think about how this food came to you heightens your awareness and reminds you about all the hard work it took for this food to get on your plate.
- Openly express gratitude. Going even further, we encourage you to openly express gratitude for your food before or after eating it. When eating with others, try going around the table and naming one food on the plate you are most thankful for.
- Slow down. Slowing down while you eat is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase your mindfulness. It allows you to better assess your hunger/fullness throughout the meal. There are also health benefits associated with slowing down and thoroughly chewing your food.
- Listen to your hunger/fullness cues. Your hunger and fullness cues are the internal cues that tell you where you are on the hunger/fullness scale. The goal is to stop eating when you are full before you get to the point of feeling overly stuffed and sick to your stomach. It can also help you to realize when you are eating due to hunger, or maybe because of other external reasons. We want to focus on the internal over external cues with mindful eating!
- Tune into physical sensations. Tune into the physical sensations of your eating experience. How does the food smell? How does the texture feel in your mouth? This can help to increase your satisfaction during the meal.
Other ways to practice general mindfulness in your daily life:
- Do a daily mindfulness meditation: here is an example of a guided one on Youtube you can try
- Mindful walking/walking in nature
- Yoga flows (at home or in a studio)
- Diaphragmatic breathing exercises: check out our full article on breathing exercises here
- Body-scan meditations
The Takeaway
Mindful eating is an eating style that we often encourage our patient’s to try because of its amazing benefits on eating behaviors and present awareness. We hope this article empowers you to have the tools you need to start eating more mindfully during your meal times.
Begin by adding one or two of the tips above to your day that feel supportive, and then increase from there. It may take some practice at first, but soon it will feel like second nature. Remember- the whole point is to offer no judgments and to build trust with yourself and your eating habits.
Self-care isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. With our Recovery in Bloom course, we empower you to implement self-care strategies for overcoming eating disorders. Our course is an eating disorder recovery program that provides you with the self-care toolkit you need for recovery.
Are you ready to get your life back and love the life that you choose? Let Bloom help you! Head over to our services page to learn more about our current offers. There is no better time to invest in your health!