If you’ve been following my blogs, my cooking programs on Youtube, or attended some of my healthy eating programs, you know I’m passionate about getting back to the basics when it comes to healthy eating. I can go on at length about the importance of adding in more fruits and veggies, making sure you are getting a variety of colors in your meals, avoiding processed foods, and making your meals with nutritious, seasonal, whole food ingredients.
But just as important as WHAT we eat, is HOW we eat. Sometimes, even more important. “WHAT?” you might be asking. How can that be?
It’s true. We can be eating the most nutritious foods, but if we’re not in an emotional state to receive these nutrients, we will be missing out on all the goodness they can provide. And, if we are going to all the trouble to prepare healthy foods for ourselves, don’t we owe it to ourselves to also eat these foods mindfully and truly appreciate them? When we do this, we are telling our bodies to switch from our stressed “fight or flight” state of mind, to our parasympathetic system which gets us ready to “rest and digest.”
Here are seven simple ideas to help you establish more mindful eating habits, and begin to calm our thoughts to reconnect our body and mind and focus on the business of nutritious eating.
1. Tune in to your body’s signals
Rather than just eating using emotional cues, take a moment to ask yourself what you’re really craving – this can be different for each of us. I find I tend to “go check out what’s in the fridge” when I need a break from work or I’m stressed. You may find you reach for food when you feel sad, angry, frustrated, lonely, or just bored. Tuning into our emotions can help us listen to our body’s actual hunger signals better. Maybe you don’t need that sweet, chocolatey snack and need to reenergize your battery and boost your mood by taking a quick walk outside in the sunshine.
If however, your stomach is growling, your energy is low, you’re feeling a little lightheaded, or even ‘hangry’, chances are pretty good you are hungry and should have a healthy snack or meal.
2. Put your food on a plate
This may seem too obvious. But eating out of a bag or box is not a very fulfilling way to eat. First of all, you can’t see what you’re eating nor can you smell it. Two things that help our bodies register that we are eating.
So, get into the habit of placing your meals or snacks on a plate before eating them. It doesn’t need to be a fancy presentation, but it does help you to take notice of exactly what and how much you’re actually eating. You will have a better idea of portion control and maybe appreciate it a little bit more. Take a moment to consider all the ingredients, preparation, and intention involved in getting the food from stove to plate!
3. Sit at a table
Now that you’re eating from a plate, continue “formalizing” your experience by sitting at a table. This helps to focus your attention on your food and to your eating habits. It has also been shown to dramatically reduce overeating - especially for those who tend to eat in front of the TV. Which leads to the next tip…
4. Shut down your electronics
Now that you’re sitting at a proper table, designating the first few minutes of a meal for quiet, mindful practice can be beneficial - for everyone at the table. This includes putting away the devices and turning off the TV and sharing some real-time conversation about your day!
How many times have you finished a meal while concentrating on some other task or watching a show, only to realize you had no recollection of what you just ate? Your brain wasn’t registering that you were eating and chances are you probably ate more than you needed.
5. Slow down and chew
Slowing down is one of the easiest, and most effective ways we can coordinate signals between our body and mind to give our brain time to register that it is getting food and signaling when we are full.
Did you know, the brain can register that we are full about 20 minutes before the stomach does? This is why we tend to overeat when eat quickly. When we slow down, we give our body a chance to catch up to our brain, receive the signals properly, and we eat the right amount.
Chewing more, and more slowly, is probably the simplest and most effective way to begin developing the habit of eating mindfully.
6. Put down your fork
Putting your fork down between bites of food reinforces your enhanced chewing habit, rather than mindlessly picking at your plate or preparing to shovel in your next bite. Allow yourself to fully chew and swallow before picking up your fork again for another bite. Yet another opportunity to really taste your food!
7. Make it more difficult to feed yourself
This might be one of the only times that making things more difficult for yourself is a good thing to do! It’s a great way to make yourself to pay more attention to the act of eating. It takes more time to eat with a chopstick for instance, you need to concentrate on every morsel. And when you do finally get some food, it is a much smaller amount than if you used a fork.
Another way to challenge yourself is to eat with your non-dominant hand. For 90% of us, that’s our left hand. While this may seem tedious to do at every meal, try it for breakfast or maybe just at snack time - or maybe at a dinner with friends for some entertainment value!
So, there you have it - seven super easy, but actionable ways you can start practicing mindfulness, especially when you’re eating. Your whole body will benefit from simply slowing down and being more intentional and present while eating.
If you want to learn more ways to tune into your body’s signals and calm the mental chatter that can causes stress in our day to day lives, join me for my upcoming event, A Women’s Circle: Restore and Nourish Your Mind, Body, and Spirit.
If you are in the Chicagoland area, this event is for you. It’s a special time for a small group of women to focus and quiet the mental chatter in a supportive setting. I’m working together with my friend, Paula Rosenfeld, an energy healer, who will guide us in some mindfulness activities and provide techniques to manage stress.
And because we are focusing on mind, body, and spirit, I will be leading a cooking demonstration using anti-inflammatory foods and discussing their benefits, followed by an outdoor luncheon (weather permitting.)
Find more information on the program and registration here.
Hope you can join us! See full details below!
Yours in Health,
Evey
