Mindful Eating 101: Tips for Eating with Mindfulness for Beginners
Mindful eating is a phrase that gets thrown around quite a bit, and as with intuitive eating, there can be quite a bit of confusion about what it is. This mindful eating 101 post gives a comprehensive overview of what mindful eating is, as well as tips for eating with mindfulness for beginners.
Along with intuitive eating, mindful eating is a tool I use frequently in my practice. As with intuitive eating, there’s a lot of misinformation about what mindful eating is, which can create confusion, a major barrier to eating more mindfully. Because of that, even though I’ve written about mindful eating quite a bit before, I wanted to create a sort of mindful eating 101, to break down the practice and provide tips for eating with mindfulness for beginners.
Mindful Eating 101: What Is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is eating with the intention of paying attention. It means deliberately tuning in, without judgement, to the thoughts and body cues that guide eating choices, as well as the sensory experience of eating (i.e. taste, smell, etc). Bringing nonjudgemental awareness to the process of eating can help you get curious, observe, and understand your eating choices and behaviors. To learn more about mindful eating, read the principles of mindful eating here.
Mindful eating stems from the practice of mindfulness, which is both a secular cultural and religious practice in Hinduism and Buddhism. Essentially, mindfulness is bringing nonjudgemental awareness to thoughts and experiences occurring in the present moment. Mindfulness became a part of Western science and psychology with mindfulness-based stress reduction, a stress reduction program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who studied mindfulness under several Buddhist teachers, including Thich Nhat Hanh. Since then, mindfulness has taken on a massive role in the field of psychology, and is integrated into several therapeutic paradigms, including positive psychology, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy, and there are thousands (tens of thousands?) of studies validating its use, and hundreds of different mindfulness techniques that have been developed.
Mindful Eating 101: Mindful Eating vs. Intuitive Eating
Mindful eating and intuitive eating are two tools that are frequently used by non-diet/Health at Every Size practitioners. The terms mindful eating and intuitive eating are often used interchangeably, especially by those who are less experienced in the practices. While there is quite a bit in common, mindful eating and intuitive eating are two different things.
Intuitive eating is a paradigm/framework, guided by 10 principles, with a goal of helping you make peace with food and kick the diet mentality. It goes beyond eating, with principles addressing movement, body image, and nutrition.
Mindful eating is a practice/skill that can be used within intuitive eating, or outside of intuitive eating. Within intuitive eating, mindful eating can help you put the 10 principles into action. For example, eating with mindfulness could help you better identify hunger and fullness cues, or notice what food you like, so you are able to discover the satisfaction factor. That said, part of intuitive eating is being OK with not eating mindfully! One of the goals (and joys!) of intuitive eating is not thinking about food all the time, and sometimes that means eating with distraction - because life! While mindful eating is a pretty essential skill within the broader application of intuitive eating, it doesn’t mean each and every meal should be eaten mindfully. Essentially, within an intuitive eating framework, mindful eating is consider a tool that can be used to help apply the 10 principles, but is not a rule.
You may also see mindful eating used outside of an intuitive eating framework, for a variety of eating and nutrition concerns. There are many therapists and dietitians trained in mindful eating techniques, who use this practice as their primary therapeutic approach, or in conjunction with other therapeutic approaches, to address things like binge eating, picky eating, disordered eating, general nutrition, and weight loss (the latter of which is a misuse of the practice, as I will get to).
Mindful Eating 101: Benefits of Mindful Eating
There are many benefits to applying the skill of mindfulness to eating:
Mindful eating can help you can back in touch with hunger and fullness cues, better understand your physical needs, and eat an amount of food that feels good for you.
It can help you identify maladaptive thoughts and beliefs about food that can create stress around food and eating, and may influence eating behaviors. Identifying these thoughts gives you a chance to investigate them, see if they’re really true, and/or reframe them.
Mindful eating can making eating more pleasurable, by helping you slow down and savor your food, and by helping you get back in touch with what foods and flavors are most satisfying for you.
Mindful eating may benefit digestion, by slowing down eating and reducing stress at mealtime. There’s also quite a bit of research examining the role of mindfulness for reducing symptoms of IBS.
Mindful eating can help improve dietary quality (i.e. variety, nutrient content, balance, etc).
Problems with Mindful Eating
My problems with mindful eating aren’t necessarily with mindful eating itself, but how it is often taught. Many times, I see it taught in a way that’s not very accessible for most people. Many mindful eating books make it sound like you should be meditating over every bite of food - not exactly realistic! Real life means multi-tasking and eating with distractions. Also, sometimes it’s more pleasurable to eat with distractions! One of my favorite ways to relax when my husband is out of town is by eating dinner and watching Netflix in bed! Yes, over our fancy white sheets - I live dangerously. While it might not be mindful eating, it is intuitive eating, and it is pleasurable and relaxing. However, because I have built up mindful eating skills, even with distractions I’m still able to notice what my food tastes like, eat an amount of food that feels comfortable, and not totally check out from my meal.
Also, although The Center for Mindful Eating clearly lists weight inclusivity as one of its guiding principles, mindful eating has been even more co-opted by diet culture than intuitive eating, and even supposed experts of the practice use it to promote intentional weight loss. This goes against the practice of mindfulness, as non-judgement is an essential component. It’s impossible to eat without judgement if you’re going into a meal expecting to eat less or eat the “right” things. Given that mindful eating is taken from an ancient and important practice in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, I think it’s extra disturbing to see it used that way. Kinda like if I saw someone promoting a kosher diet for weight loss!
Tips for Eating with Mindfulness for Beginners
If you’re a mindful eating beginner, here’s some tips for eating with mindfulness:
Pick a meal or snack to practice mindful eating skills with in more depth. For example, intentionally practicing mindful eating skills at breakfast doesn’t make a lot of sense in my schedule, since I’m usually running out the door, eating in the car or at the office in front of my computer. But for dinner, I can usually slow down a bit, and enjoy a more slowly paced meal. What’s cool about mindful eating is that by practicing it more intentionally at certain times, those skills will naturally infuse into other meals and snacks without even thinking about it.
Slow down! If you’re a naturally fast eater, it may be helpful to slow yourself down a bit. You could try putting your fork down in between bites, or just more frequently. Pause to take breaths. If you eat with someone who is a slower eater, see if you can match their pace. You could even set an alarm for 15 minutes to try to get a feel for what it’s like.
One skill I like to use for eating more mindfully is to imagine I’m “wine tasting” my food. Pretend that you’re a super snooty wine taster, a la Paul Giamatti in Sideways. Think of how they swirl their glass to observe the color, stick their nose in the glass to smell it, swish the wine in their mouth to notice the mouthfeel before tasting and picking apart each individual flavor (Pencil shavings? Leather?? Moss?? WTAF?). Now, you don’t have to make it quite that dramatic, but do try to engage your senses in a similar way. You don’t have to eat your entire meal like that - you might never leave the table! But can you “wine taste” with a few bites?
Remember that it’s OK for mindful eating to look different from meal-to-meal. Sometimes mindful eating looks like a slowly savored meal, tasting each bite of food. Other times it looks like taking a deep breath before eating. Still other times it may look like taking “mindful pauses” throughout your meal to tune in.
Remove or reduce distractions, if you can. Some distractions, like a screaming child having a breakdown over their food touching, may not be quite so amenable. But if you can, turn off the TV, shut down the work computer, and try to focus on your food, and conversation if you’re eating with someone else.
Mindful eating goes beyond paying attention to your food - it also includes observing any thoughts that arise, including judgmental thoughts. Can you notice and let go of thoughts about what or how much you should be eating? These “shoulds” often influence eating behaviors, taking you further away from your internal wisdom.
Most of all, remember that there’s no right or wrong way to practice mindful eating. It’s a tool that’s there for you to draw from, a skill that you can develop with practice, but it’s not a rule to live by. As with intuitive eating, it’s important to give yourself grace. Our modern world, and the diet culture we all grow up in, isn’t exactly amenable to mindful eating, so for most people, building a mindful eating practice is learning something you’ve never been taught. And as with intuitive eating, it’s something that sounds simple in theory, but practice can be a different story. Be kind to yourself, and remember that you’re doing hard work.
If this mindful eating 101 post is helpful, you might also like:
Five Mindful Eating Exercises
Intuitive Eating 101
How to Start a Mindful Meditation Practice
