Every January, my office is awash with some of the most phenomenal New Year’s resolutions. My patients come in all fired up to change their eating habits. With their voices full of determination, they swear they’ll never touch chocolate again; they vow to stop overeating; they promise to put a halt to late-night snacking.
As a nutritionist, I’m thrilled when someone is motivated to make a change, but I’m also aware of how difficult it can be to modify behavior—especially when it comes to food. Instead of setting all or nothing goals, I encourage patients to try techniques that will maximize their potential for success.
One of the first things I recommend is to slow down and practice eating mindfully. Rushed, unconscious eating is one of the underlying reasons that we eat when we’re not hungry or have a habitual late-night snack attack. As I tell my patients, if your next meal takes five minutes to prepare, five minutes to eat, you’ll likely be hungry again about five minutes later.
Mindful eating, the act of eating or drinking while being aware of each and every bite or sip, can help you reestablish awareness of how much you’re eating, how tasty the food is, and whether you’re really hungry at all. It is something you can do at any meal, whether you’re alone in your kitchen or with others in a crowded restaurant. As Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh acknowledges in his book Savor (2010), “So much of what and how people eat today is driven by external cues – the size of the bowl, the size of the plate, the portion size of the food itself.” By slowing down and eating mindfully, you’ll begin to tune into your own internal cues—for example, you’ll eat a portion that nourishes you instead of polishing off a huge meal that makes you feel sick afterward.
From a physiological standpoint, chewing and savoring each bite not only eases the digestive process, it also increases the likelihood that your brain will register leptin – the hormone responsible for appetite control. Essentially, it’s a win-win all around, and it doesn’t cost a thing.
Here are 5 tips for eating mindfully:
1. Take a Pre-Meal Pause
Take three deep breaths before you even lift your utensils. Breathe in for a count of four, hold for a count of four, and breathe out for a count of four. Repeat this three times.
2. Put Your Utensils Down
To reinforce a slow rhythm, put your utensils down between each bite. The more you practice this, the more natural it will become.
3. Reduce Distractions
Turn off the TV while you eat and sit at a table – the idea is to reduce multi-tasking and focus on the act of eating.
4. Chew Your Food!
Remember that your mouth is the only part of your 25-30 foot long digestive tract that has teeth!
5. Savor Every Bite
Take the time to notice how flavors play on your tongue, and observe how they make your mouth feel. Often something tastes delicious when you gulp it down, but when you eat the same food slowly, you notice that it’s too salty or has an unpleasant feeling in your mouth. The converse is true, too – when you eat quickly, you might not notice the delicious nuances or textures of the meal.
Try incorporating mindful eating into your life and let us know what you observe. Start by simply noticing what tends to happen at your most rushed meal of the day. Do you stop eating only after all the food is gone? Do you feel uncomfortably full after eating? Do you feel satiated or do you reach for more food shortly after eating? Do you suffer from indigestion and/or bloating and gas?
Next, try practicing mindful eating starting with dinner and observe any changes . Do you notice a difference in the way you experience your food or the way you feel after? Let us know.
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