My Favorite Mindful Eating Tool
This post was sponsored by Endangered Species Chocolate. Thanks for supporting the brands I love that make this blog possible!
Mindful eating has become a bit of a buzzword in the years since I became a dietitian. Of course, mindfulness has been around much, much longer – it has deep roots in Buddhism and Hinduism – and to my knowledge, mindfulness was first applied to eating in the 1970s. Since then, hundreds and hundreds of studies have been published, showing benefits of mindful eating in the treatment of eating disorders, promoting better overall dietary quality, reducing binge eating, increasing pleasure, reducing symptoms of IBS, diabetes management, and more.
Unfortunately, as mindful eating has become “trendy,” its popularity has also bred a lot of myths and misconceptions about the practice. Mindful eating is a fairly simple premise – it’s eating with the intention of paying attention by non-judgmentally tuning into food your are eating, and your experience of eating it. But diet culture did its thing, grasping onto mindful eating and turning it into a practice full of complex and time consuming rules and practices.
In my experience, the biggest misconception about mindful eating is that it’s something you can do right or wrong. Remember, mindful eating is a practice, and it’s supposed to be a non-judgmental one! Many people think that if they’re not eating all their meals with zero distractions and meditating over every bite of food, then they’re not doing mindful eating “right.” That’s not exactly realistic! Real life means eating with distractions, whether it’s the TV, work, or talking with friends and family. Sometimes distractions are a necessity, and other times distractions make eating more enjoyable. It’s impossible to always be totally mentally present at your meals, but that doesn’t mean you can incorporate mindful eating tools.
In my practice, I like to talk about real life mindful eating – the simple tools you can incorporate to eat more mindfully, even when you’re eating a meal with distractions or have a lot going on.
On my insta-stories a few weeks ago, I partnered with Endangered Species Chocolate to share one of my favorite real life mindful eating skills that I teach my clients – the 3-point check-in. You guys loved it so much that I decided to turn it into a blog post, so you can have it as a resource to come back to. Plus, I’m always happy to have a reason to talk chocolate! Endangered Species has long been my favorite chocolate brand. It tastes amazing, it comes in lots of fun flavors, and they donate 10% of their annual net profits to conservation organizations – chocolate plus saving the elephants is a winning combination in my book!
Recently they launched an incredible new line of chocolate bars and chips made with creamy oat milk in lieu of dairy, and I’ll use that to demonstrate how to do a 3-point check-in. It’s a great option for those of you who are vegan or have dairy allergies, and just a delicious chocolate option for those who aren’t!
How to Do a 3-Point Check-In
The 3-point check-in is a quick check-in you can do while eating. To do a 3-point check-in, briefly tune in to three different areas of mindfulness: your brain (i.e. thoughts), body (i.e. hunger or fullness levels), and senses (i.e. taste, smell, mouthfeel, etc). You can do it once during a meal, or multiple times depending on how much time you have. It takes seconds, and it’s a simple way to build in more attunement while eating.
Below I’ll go through each of the three points using Endangered Species Chocolate’s Sea Salt Oat Milk Dark Chocolate Bar. It’s my favorite flavor of their new oat milk dark chocolates (mixed berries and coconut and almonds are the others and are also incredibly delicious!).
Brain/Thoughts
First, notice what thoughts are coming up around the food you’re eating. Thoughts influence behaviors, especially when those thoughts are rooted in diet mentality. Identifying those unhelpful thoughts gives you a chance to challenge or reframe them.
My Thought Check-In: The first time I tried the oat milk dark chocolate, my thoughts centered around curiosity! I hadn’t tried chocolate made with oat milk before, and even though I love the creamy mouth feel of oat milk, I was a little worried it would taste diety. Spoiler alert: it didn’t!
Body
Notice how your body feels, especially hunger and fullness levels. Noticing hunger and fullness levels can help you decide how much you want to eat, or what you might want to eat a food with.
My Body Check-In: When I did this chocolate 3-point check-in, I noticed that I was at a snack level of hunger. Chocolate is great for satisfying taste hunger, but I knew I would need a little more than chocolate to fuel me through an afternoon of seeing clients, so I paired it with a packet of walnuts.
Senses
The last part of the check-in is tuning in to the sensory experience of eating a food – taste, texture, smell, sound. I like to call this wine tasting a food! You don’t have to fully tune in through a whole meal, but try to take a few bites where you really savor what you’re eating.
My Sensory Check-In: The first thing I noticed taking a bite of my chocolate was that slight fruity flavor you get with really high quality chocolate. The next thing that hit me was the bit of sea salt. From there, I got to the sweetness, which was just the right amount – not the overpowering sweetness you get with some brands. Because this Endangered Species Chocolate is made with naturally sweet oat milk, it’s happens to have half the sugar of other dark chocolate brands, which is nice for those of you who might be mindful of sugar for medical reasons. The other thing I noticed was the extra creamy mouth feel – almost like milk chocolate but in a 75% cocoa bar!
The more often you use 3-point check-ins, you’ll notice yourself naturally eating more mindfully. It’s a tool you can keep in your practice and use when you remember to!
If you’d like to give Endangered Species Oat Milk Dark Chocolate a try, check out their product finder to catch it in a store near you!
If you like this blog post on my favorite mindful eating tool, follow my intuitive eating Pinterest board for more inspiration.
If you like this post on my favorite mindful eating tool, you might also like:
Mindful Eating 101
Five Mindful Eating Exercises
Intuitive Eating 101
