In my last blog post I tried to set the stage and define mindful eating and intuitive eating. There are many overlaps between these similar concepts, so I will simply refer to them collectively as mindful eating for the remainder of this post.
Working on being present when you’re repeating an action that you have done hundreds upon thousands of times before, can significantly change your experience of that action, and in turn, a significant portion of your life.
Two things have struck me as I have considered mindful eating more profoundly: so often people say, ‘just be more mindful in how you eat!’ without a real explanation of how to practically approach this.
Additionally, there are many people who have developed disordered eating behaviors, whether that is binge eating, severe restriction, emotional eating (sadness, stress, boredom), externally influenced eating (packaging, portions, time of day). I see mindful eating as a potential remedy to the mental and emotional reactionary automation we have developed culturally & societally to food. By focusing on how we feel as we approach the food, our experience during eating and then reflection in post consumption on how we are feeling we can start to see patterns and attitudes that we have developed towards food that we may not have been consciously aware of prior. It is through this significant self introspection, that we are able to self analyze, discover habits or attitudes that are working against the goals we are trying to achieve.
Embedded in the research on mindful eating was significant data showing a reduction in symptoms of binge eating, emotional and externally cued eating. Which is to say, that engaging in a mindful process as you approach food, means that you’re systematically reducing disordered eating behaviors. From a wellness perspective, this is extremely important to overall health. It is important to learn how to eat a well balanced diet for your long term health, but it is equally important to learn a mentally healthy approach to how you consume that food.
OK! So it’s a good tool to have in your wellness toolkit. But HOW do you actually DO mindful eating? Well, there are all kinds of explanations, books on the subject, workbooks you can fill out at your dining table and apps. I personally like simple, accessible and free resources.
In my quest to learn more, I downloaded an app called Ate recently and have been very pleased with it. (Disclosure: I have no affiliation or financial interests associated with this app, I just liked the interface.) Initially upon opening the app it prompts you to enter a goal, which is always visible at the header of the app. The idea is to take a photo of your food before you eat, answer if that food item is “on-path” or “off-path” as it relates to your goal. Then about 20 minutes after the photo is taken you get a push message that prompts you to complete a mini questionnaire on your experience with the following questions:
- Why did you eat?
- How are you?
- Who did you eat with?
- How was it?
- Where did you eat?
- How was it made?
- How did it make you feel?
Prefilled responses are available for you to quickly tap through, so you are able to complete the task in a short amount of time, but are still engaging in self introspection about your environment and experience with the food. What I have noticed, in my short time using the app, is that I’m prone to eat when bored. And through using the app, I’m able to identify when I’m engaging in this emotional eating process and stop it, if I choose to. By gaining this awareness I have been able to modify my behavior and help me move closer to my goal.
It is important to note that your goal can be ANYTHING as it relates to you and food. Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help us discover more about ourselves and change our relationship to things in positive ways.
Coach Sarah, FNP-BC, MSN