Transform how you feel with this essential life skill
With the increased prevalence of adult and childhood obesity, eating disorders and countless questionable diets on offer, it’s important for us as adultas to set a healthy example in our attitude to food. Learning to eat mindfully, and sharing this skill with your students and children will equip them to develop healthy habits for life.
I first discovered mindful eating as a high school exchange student in France. After struggling with my weight due to mindlessly over-eating the delicious food, I found that by adopting the French attitude to food I effortlessly got back to a healthy weight, (a story you can read about in my latest book Real Food Less Fuss). The secret was not changing what I ate, but simply shifting my perspective to keep things in balance and to eat guilt-free.
When it comes to nutrition, there is a lot of focus on what to eat and even more on what not to. However what I have found through working with my clients over the last 16 years, is that before you address the what, it is much more important to focus on the how.
Addressing how you eat is the starting point for real nourishment and happiness. The number one thing you can do to improve your eating, and as a result boost your health and feel fantastic, is to eat mindfully.
Often our eating habits and attitudes to food are developed and ingrained in us as children. It’s much easier to nurture a positive relaxed relationship with food from a young age than it is to shift those behaviours later on. Role modelling mindful eating for the young people in your life will boost your health and happiness as well as theirs!
What is mindful eating?
Mindful eating means paying full attention to what you are eating while you are eating it, and to notice how it makes you feel. Sounds pretty simple right?
The challenge is that mindful eating requires us to focus and eliminate distractions. We are often so busy we feel pressed for time while eating. Many of us multi-task while eating, perhaps with TV, emails, social media, reading or even intense conversation, which means we rush through our meal hardly noticing what is passing our lips.
It’s strange really when you think about it. Why would you eat a meal without paying attention to it? Think about the last meal you ate. Where were you and what were you doing? Were you sitting down, did you eat it fast or slow? Do you recall what each mouthful tasted like and how it made you feel? Why did you eat the way you did and is this your typical pattern?
Mindless Habits
Because food is available in such abundance, many of us have lost touch with our natural hunger cues. Rather than eating to satisfy hunger and waiting until we are hungry again we often eat purely out of habit and can snack mindlessly right throughout the day. This is not ideal for either our digestive health or for maintaining a healthy weight and body shape.
Over time we can develop eating habits that don’t serve us, however we continue with them simply out of routine or because we’ve never tried a different way. For example, food might be associated with certain activities such as eating ice cream while watching TV, snacking on cheese and crackers while preparing dinner or eating chips on a long drive in the car. We might always finish our plate regardless of how full we feel or routinely have seconds even when we are no longer hungry. We might eat lunch standing, talking, walking, working or doing several other things because we feel rushed and overloaded.
All these habits affect our digestion, our satiety cues and the total amount of calories we consume. It is surprisingly easy to adjust your habits if you choose to do so. All it takes is a mindful approach which starts by being intentional about how you eat. One of the best things we can do for our tummies and waistlines is to slow down and focus when we eat.
When you eat mindfully you:
• Take your time and savour each mouthful
• Feel pleasure and satisfaction
• Have time to appreciate and be thankful for the food you have • Eat in a relaxed manner that leads to improved digestion
• Slow down as your hunger is curbed
• Easily stop eating when you are satisfied as you are aware of how that feels
• All of these things set us up to feel better, to eat in line with our bodies’ needs and ultimately lead to total health.
Not only does mindful eating improve your absorption of nutrients but it also ensures your brain sends the correct messages to your digestive system, reducing potential bloating and discomfort. You eat amounts in tune with what your body requires. You notice the quality of the food and how it makes you feel and you have time to experience gratitude, which is a key to happiness. Overall, you feel much more satisfied physically and emotionally from the meal you have eaten.
Imagine every meal you eat tomorrow is eaten without rushing , without distraction. Picture how different it would be and how different you would feel. I can’t emphasise enough what a HUGE impact this will have for you! The best way to see that difference is to try it out yourself and the best way to teach others is by role modelling it in your life.
How to eat mindfully:
Choose an appropriate place to eat. Sitting together around a dinner table has many benefits. It can create a positive association with coming together and helps you physically and mentally get ready to enjoy the meal.
• Sit down to eat (always, always!)
• Eat all meals and snacks off a plate and use cutlery (unless it is highly inappropriate for the meal, in which case emphasise the ‘fun’ aspect of eating things like tacos or wraps for example with your hands).
• Switch off all electronic devices large and small (or turn them to silent and put them out of sight).
• Look at each forkful or spoonful of food before you eat it.
• Savour each mouthful thinking about the different flavours you can taste. If you have children, invite them to guess what ingredients are in the meal. This is a fun start to food appreciation.
• Avoid starting the next mouthful until the previous one is finished. • If you are talking, take extra care to savour each mouthful and don’t feel you have to rush in order to speak.
• Focus on the textures of your food. Is it crisp, juicy, tender, creamy, crunchy?
• Be aware of your breathing. Breathe deeply and slowly from your belly.
• Pause a few times during the meal and put your cutlery down. If you are typically in a rushing mode you may find this a challenge. I invite you to persevere. You can adopt a new habit!
• Aim for the whole experience to be relaxing and nourishing. Once you adopt this mindful approach it will transform your eating and your life. When we slow down and eat more mindfully, we naturally regulate both the quality and quantity of our food intake. In short, it’s very hard to overeat or to enjoy poor quality food when you truly eat mindfully.
I invite you to try it for the next three days. Pay attention to how you feel and reflect on the difference it makes.
As you continue to focus on how you eat, what you eat will change too. You will pay attention and be much more aware of how your food makes you feel. If you eat processed foods you will most likely notice they leave you feeling flat, lethargic and under-nourished. You will notice your body and soul desires to eat more real food that leaves you feeling vital and vibrant.
It’s also important to be mindful of our language when we speak about food. Teach your students that certain foods are super nutritious and will help them become strong and healthy and this is why we mostly eat these foods. Rather than labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, simply reinforce that we always make sure we eat enough nutritious food to fuel our body well. Remind them that while treats are tasty that they won’t feel good after having too many of them.
These balanced, positive messages will avoid them seeing certain foods as bad, and therefore feeling that they themselves are bad for eating them, later in life.
If you can gift the young people in your life with the ability to truly appreciate their food and it will be a life-skill they will enjoy and pass on to the next generation.