Mindful Eating Amidst the Chaos
Imagine this: It’s 2020; you are either off work or working from home because there is a global pandemic. You went to the grocery store and bought storm chips and ice cream, because, stress. Each night, you find yourself on the couch eating all the snacks because there is nothing else to do. Now, we are only a week or two into this, which is why, I want to introduce you to the concept of mindful eating, in hopes of saving a few people from the Corona15 (aka the new freshman 15).
Mindful eating is the practice of eating using mindfulness. Mindfulness can help you to recognize your emotions and the physical sensations within your body. Using this technique while eating can help you to put attention to your body’s experiences while eating, learn about your cravings and your hunger and satiety cues. Living in such a fast-paced and technology filled world can create so much disconnect in terms of your own body, so since most of us are home bound and have a bit more ability to slow down, take advantage of it!
Mindful eating can involve the following aspects:
Eating slowly and without distractions
Listening or learning your own physical cues so that you stop eating when you become full
Discovering true hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating (stress/emotional eating anyone?)
Learning how to feel less restricted and in control of your eating habits
Challenging yourself to pay attention to the various colours, textures, smells and flavours of your food
Noticing how food affects your feelings and emotions
Now, I understand that taking a mindfulness approach to eating can be extremely challenging, so I am going to give you my top three tips that are simple. Eating at the kitchen table, eating without distractions and eating slowly. If you are interested, we will be putting out a 3 week Mindful Eating Challenge.
Tips:
Designate an “eating zone” – Creating a daily routine that involves sitting at the table (or wherever your designated eating zone is) to eat a meal can help your body to prep itself for digestion and intake of food. Think about it, if you are just hopping in your car to eat, your mind is all over the place and you are likely rushing off to somewhere else, which may mean that you have a higher stress level. When cortisol levels are higher, our sympathetic nervous system is activated and our body is on high alert putting less attention on proper digestion of nutrients. Sitting down at the kitchen table or wherever your designated eating zone is, can allow your body to realize that you are there for a reason. This can allow you to focus on eating, digesting and actually enjoying your meal. If you have others that live at your house, whether it’s a spouse and children, partner, roommate, etc. having a meal together can increase feelings happiness, calmness and love. All of these can put you in a better state for proper digestion of food and you are likely engaged in conversation, which allows you to slow down while eating.
Eat without distractions – This is a tough one! By distractions, I mean without your cellphone, TV and even book or newspaper. I know you want to see what dad jokes Cody drops in the daily workout videos or what odd object Danielle finds next but having your focus elsewhere can distract you from tasting and actually enjoying your food. How many people love ice cream? Wouldn’t it be nice to actually savour the taste and truly enjoy it so that instead of mindlessly eating a whole pint, you can have a smaller dish of ice cream and feel satisfied once you are done? Eating without any distractions can allow you to understand and learn your body’s own hunger and satiety cues. If you start eating and are solely focused on your food, you may realize that it is not fulfilling the need or emotion that you actually feel. Are you bored? Lonely? Anxious? Maybe taking a warm bath, trying meditation (Darryl’s meditation video) or calling a loved one would make you feel much better than eating would at that moment. While solely focusing on your food, you can also learn what fullness feels like to you and learn how to stop eating before you get to the point of feeling too full.
Eat slowly – By focusing on chewing your food and setting your utensil down in between bites, you can not only increase your digestion, but also help to maintain or achieve weight loss (without counting calories!). It takes about twenty minutes from the start of the meal for the brain to send signals that your body is full. Aiming to chew each bite 20-30 times not only slows down your overall eating time but it also helps your stomach process the food. Chewing properly helps you fully break down your food with the mechanical action of your teeth and your saliva breaks down your food further to help prepare it for digestion.
If you are more interested in working on your own mindful eating practice, we are going to be posting a Blended Athletics Nutrition Challenge that consists of working on one small habit per week. With so many people being isolated at home, now is a good time time to slow down and create habits that you can sustain for the rest of your life!