I follow a woman on Facebook who just posted a request for people to try out her “Miracle Drink” that promises to deliver weight loss as much as 30 pounds in a month. She never said what the drink contained, whether or not it was approved by the FDA and where it was manufactured. She said anyone who was interested should privately message her and she would let them know how to participate in the “trial”. My first thought was, “Who would possible want to do that?” I checked back an hour later and 54 people had responded with a resounding: YES!!! Then I realized that my old self would have been #55. I wanted so badly to be thin I would have done everything except the right and patient thing to achieve my goals.
I am a different person today. I focus on my health and longevity. I don’t eat anything that I can’t justify supports both those objectives. That is the way I mindfully eat. I get pleasure from my food, but my food’s job is to fuel my health first and give me pleasure second.
What is the definition of Mindful Eating?
According to helpguide.org, Mindful Eating is defined as; “Maintaining an in-the-moment awareness of the food and drink you put into your body, observing rather than judging how the food makes you feel and the signals your body sends about the taste, satisfaction, and fullness.”
These are their recommendations from Healthline.com on how to Mindfully Eat:
1. Eat more slowly and don’t rush your meals.
2. Chew thoroughly.
3. Eliminate distractions. Turn off the TV, put down your phone.
4. Eat in silence.
5. Focus on how the food makes you feel.
6. Stop eating when you are full.
Well, that made sense in 1950 when Americans had one TV, no electronic devices and still believed that everyone should be at the table for mealtimes. Mom very often didn’t work, so meals were planned specifically based on how many people there were to serve and cooking from scratch was the norm. So those recommendations sound good but aren’t practical today.
According to a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American spends two-and-a-half hours a day eating, but more than half the time doing something else, too: Working, driving, reading, watching television, or fiddling with an electronic device.
Dr. Lillian Cheung, a nutritionist at Harvard University says, “This may be contributing to the national obesity epidemic and other health issues”.
I am not a nutritionist, but I would state it more strongly. Mindless and careless eating ARE contributing to the national obesity epidemic and other health issues. That and extremely clever marketing! Multitasking is how we live now, so the old mindful eating recommendations don’t apply anymore. We are going to eat what we are encouraged to buy, what we bring into our homes, what we are served at restaurants and what we crave. 67% of Americans are overweight or obese. It is predicted that soon 1 in 2 Americans will develop Type 2 Diabetes. When I was at my unhealthiest, I used food as my companion, my friend and my reward. Little did I know that the foods I was consuming were nutritionally vacant and simply encouraged me to eat more of it. I was never mindful of what I put into my body.
So how do we Mindfully Eat?
Mindfulness means focusing on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It also includes being aware of the foods you are choosing and whether they will contribute to your health or work against it. "The tenets of mindfulness apply to mindful eating as well, but the concept of mindful eating goes beyond the individual. It also encompasses how what you eat affects your present and future health. We should eat for total health," Dr. Cheung says. That's essentially the same concept that drove the development of the 2015 pro-posed U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which, for the first time, considered sustainability of food crops as well as the health benefits of the foods.
Dr. Cheung and her co-author, Buddhist spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh, suggests several practices that can help you get to mindful eating, including those listed below.
1. “Begin with your shopping list. Consider the health value of every item you add to your list and stick to it to avoid impulse buying when you're shopping. Fill most of your cart in the produce section and avoid the center aisles—which are heavy with processed foods—and the chips and candy at the check-out counter.”
I often hear the excuse that “my (insert relation here) eats a lot of junk food so I can’t keep it out of the house. If it is there, I will eat it.” After the inevitable eye roll, I challenge that excuse. “Who does the shopping in your home? You? Why are you buying it? If your partner, wants it – they are going to have to buy it themselves.” If you really want this to work, you cannot bring anything into the house that doesn’t serve YOU. If your partner buys it – that is their business, but section off the pantry. That food isn’t yours. The excuse of “my kids want it” doesn’t fly either. Look, no one wants to be “that mom”, the one who brings carrot sticks to the soccer field on her snack day, but neither should she be the Mom who brings home loads of junk foods because her kids won’t eat anything else. Or the Mom who buys the things she “can’t have on her diet” but wants them in the house. Once, my husband called me out for doing exactly that. He said, “Wait, don’t eat vicariously through me.” He was right. Bringing all that into the house was my way of keeping those junk foods near me.
2. “Come to the table with an appetite— but not when ravenously hungry. If you skip meals, you may be so eager to get anything in your stomach that your first priority is filling the void instead of making good choices.”
I am never impressed when I get the response “I am so busy I usually don’t eat until dinner. Often I just have snacks instead.” Well, in reality it probably goes like this, Up in the morning – Drive through Starbucks to get a fancy drink (up to 1100 calories), at noon, snack on some fruit, a bag of chips and maybe a candy or two from the snack bowl (Up to 500 calories), dinner at 7:00 after being void of nutrition all day….2000 calories. That “no eating all day” equals over 3500 calories or an average of 10 additional pounds per year.). And that is how it goes.
3. “Start with a small portion. It may be helpful to limit the size of your plate to nine inches or less.”
I say, place only the food on your plate that is yours to eat. What you have planned. Don’t load it up because “you are starving”. Your brain gets full up to 20 minutes after your body. Don’t serve yourself a smaller portion with extra standing by. Serve what you intended to serve yourself. Fast or slow, multitask or no – when the plate is empty, it is empty. Leftovers already placed into the fridge in portion-sized containers, not one big bowl. That big bowl encourages over-eating the next day. If you are still hungry and your meals are done – just go to bed. Get a good night’s sleep and start again in the morning.
4. “Appreciate your food. Pause for a minute or two before you begin eating to contemplate everything and everyone it took to bring the meal to your table. Silently express your gratitude for the opportunity to enjoy delicious food and the companions you're enjoying it with.”
Gratitude is important. Pride that you are honoring your body is just as important. Listening to your body is as important. Experiencing the moment of dining with friends is an important part of our culture and I prefer to do that rather than dining alone. But these social occasions should be appreciated for what they are: A chance to connect with others. How they got all muddled up with overindulgence, well I guess we can thank the Vikings for that. Back in the day, people did use food as celebration, but they also used it to stock their bodies before they headed out to make their way in the world with only a few provisions to hold them over. I come from an Italian family, and my parents loaded up our table and plates with food. They came from very meager beginnings and lived through the depression and a war. But food is plentiful now, and we have the luxury of caring about the food we eat. Each of my brothers and sisters has had to teach themselves new eating habits to overcome the habits we learned as children.
And finally…
For those of you who just finished the 30-Day Sugar Detox, I hope you have found your path to mindfulness. May you never stray. For those of you who are reflected in my comments above, I wish you the very best on your journey to good health. There is only one way and that is to stay mindful about what you eat and how you care for your beautiful body.
