How Mindful Eating Can Help You Lose Weight

Has this ever happened to you? You sit down with your family to watch a movie and by the time it ends you realize, to your horror and slight amazement, that you alone have eaten an entire bag of pretzel sticks. And you don’t even really remember doing it. But the empty bag is proof enough.

These days most people understand the process of weight loss and weight gain. Consume more energy than you burn, and you’ll gain weight, consume less energy than you burn, and you’ll lose weight. The problem is, even though we “get” this concept, far too many of us aren’t really paying attention to what or HOW MUCH we’re eating.

Whether we’re working on the computer, watching TV or driving, most of us multitask, eating while doing some other activity. And for many of us, this is how the pounds get packed on.

Mindful Eating – Because You Should be Paying Attention

Let me introduce the concept of mindfulness, which simply means being fully aware of something. You might be fully aware of your breath while meditating or fully aware of the sounds around you. Mindfulness techniques have been embraced by the medical community recently to help patients alleviate stress and issues like hypertension and chronic GI problems.

A body of research is now suggesting that mindfulness, when applied to eating, could help people eat smaller portions and more nutritious food. ¹ This would, potentially, decrease the cases of obesity, which would then decrease the incidences of other diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and stroke.

At its core, mindful eating means being aware of the food you eat, noticing the colors, smells, flavors and textures of your food and chewing slowly and with attention. Sounds simple enough. But if it were that simple, all of us would be doing it already!

Here are some ways you can begin practicing mindful eating to help you lose weight.

Take baby Steps

Like any other lifestyle change, it’s better to start small and build than dive in all at once. Try being more mindful of just one of your meal’s each week. Just one. From there you can try a couple of meals per week. Your goal is to obviously eat each and every meal mindfully.

Use a Timer

You can use a kitchen timer on your stove, an egg timer, or a timer on your smartphone. Set the timer to 20 minutes and commit to chewing thoroughly and really paying attention to your meal for that entire length of time. Many of us wolf down our meals in under 10 minutes so stretching the time to 20 minutes will feel weird, but try anyway.

You may also put on a favorite CD and try and make your meal last for the entire CD (Okay, or at least the first few songs).

Use Chopsticks

Using chopsticks is a really fun way to get your whole family to slow down and maybe have some laughs. Unless of course you are one of those families skilled in the art of chopstick handling, which I am not.

Use Your Non-Dominant Hand

Another trick for slowing down… eat with your non-dominant hand. If you are a righty – go left, if you’re a lefty – go right. Just using your other hand will force you to be more aware and present.

Give Thanks

Besides being aware of the taste, texture, temperature, smell, and flavor of the food you’re eating, think about what it took to produce that meal. Think about the sun and water involved, the time, the work of the farmers. Be thankful to everything and everyone (especially the animals) that helped you to eat the delicious meal you are eating.

Become Aware of Hunger and Satiety

How often do you eat when you’re bored, stressed, or angry? Many of us eat whether we are hungry or not. If we are hungry, many of us keep eating long after we’ve become physically satisfied.

It’s important to start becoming aware of feelings of hunger and satiety. Eat when you’re hungry – eat slowly – stop when you’re full. It’s important to eat slowly because, as you may have heard, it does take about 20 minutes (hence using a timer and setting it to 20) for your stomach to send the signal to your brain that you are full.

Stop Multitasking

Commit to only eating. No more eating in front of the TV or laptop. Sit down at a proper table and leave all technology in the other room. Have a conversation with your family. If you’re eating alone, just focus on savoring each bite.

Commit

As with any other change, becoming more mindful of eating can be difficult at first. Habits are hard to break, particularly eating habits. But if you don’t let yourself get too frustrated and just commit to being more mindful, even for just one month, you have a better shot at creating new, beneficial habits.

Final Thoughts

No one said losing weight is easy – but it is really important for your overall health and blood sugar. Becoming more mindful of your eating habits will help you to gain more control over yourself and finally lose that weight.

Keep at it!

Resources:

[1] Lauren MacKenzie Whetstone, PhD, Kathryn M. Kolasa, PhD, RD, LDN,corresponding author Carolyn Dunn, PhD, K. S. U. Jayaratne, PhD, Surabhi Aggarwal, MHSc, MPH, Sherée Vodicka, MA, RD, LDN, Lori Schneider, MA, PAPHS, Cathy Thomas, MAEd, Meg van Staveren, MPH, RD, and Carolyn Lackey, PhD. Effects of a Behavior-Based Weight Management Program Delivered Through a State Cooperative Extension and Local Public Health Department Network, North Carolina, 2008-2009. Prev Chronic Dis. 2011 Jul; 8(4): A81