Mindful Eating: Cultivating a Healthy Relationship With Food and Your Body

Sometimes, you eat without noticing your food or your feelings. You may overeat, rush, or feel guilty or anxious about food. This can harm your health and happiness. But there is a better way: mindful eating. This skill makes you enjoy food, boost your health, and protect the earth. Here are the essentials of mindful eating and how to practice it.
 

What Is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating comes from mindfulness, a type of meditation. Mindfulness means immediately noticing your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging them. Mindful eating is about applying mindfulness to your eating experiences. It means:
 

• Eating with attention and intention, not with distraction or habit.
• Listening to your body's hunger and fullness cues and eating only when you are hungry and until you are satisfied.
• Recognizing the distinction between emotional or environmental motivations for eating and actual hunger.
• Engaging all your senses when you eat, such as noticing your food's colors, smells, sounds, textures, and flavors.
• Appreciating your food, where it came from, who prepared it, and how it nourishes you.
• Coping with your emotions and stress without using food.
• Eating to support your health and well-being, not to punish or reward yourself.
• Reflecting on how your food choices affect yourself and the world around you.

Why Should You Try Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating can benefit your health and happiness in many ways. Research shows that it can help you eat less and better, digest well, enjoy your food more, stress and worry less about food, love and respect your body, and eat more sustainably and ethically. 
 

How to Practice Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is a skill, not a diet or a set of rules. You can learn and do it anytime. Here are some ways to begin:
 

Before Eating

Pause and breathe deeply. Check in with yourself: Why, how much, and what do you want to eat? Pick foods that nourish, satisfy, and delight you. Stay away from foods that hurt you or your health.
 

During the Meal

Serve yourself modest portions on a small plate. You can always have more if you are still hungry. Eat without distractions like a TV, phone, or computer. Pay attention to your food and your feelings. Eat slowly and chew well. Put down your utensils between bites and sip some water. 
 

Feel the temperature, texture, and taste of your food in your mouth. Pay attention to how the food affects your mood and energy level. Stop eating when you are about 80% full. Check in with your body and see if you are still hungry or satisfied. Express gratitude for your food, yourself, and anyone who helped prepare the meal.
 

After the Meal

Notice how your body feels. Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? Do you feel nourished or deprived? Do you feel happy or guilty? Learn from your experience. How did you like the meal? What did you discover about yourself? How would you change it next time?
 

Conclusion

Mindful eating is a simple and effective way to connect with your food and body. It can make you savor your food, boost your health, and care for your planet.
 

For more on mindful eating, visit Park Wellness at our Keaau, Hawaii office. Call (808) 333-3450 to schedule an appointment today.