How to Use Mindful Eating to Lose Weight

A couple of years ago, I knew a woman who wanted to lose some weight. She cleaned up her diet, she started to exercise. She even lost a couple of pounds. And then she got really frustrated because it just stopped. She plateaued and she didn’t know why. 

And so one day, she’s at work and one of her co-workers said “you know, every time you walk by my desk, you grab a handful of candy”. And she replied “No, I don’t”. “Yeah, you do. And you eat the candy while we’re talking”. “I definitely don’t do that!”. And then she had a big aha moment. She realized she had been mindlessly eating this candy, and probably lots of other snacks and not even realizing it. This is what was tripping her up on losing weight. Now, I’m not trying to point fingers at her or any type of blame because we’ve all been guilty of this. And that’s why I want to talk about mindful eating. 

What exactly is mindful eating? Well, it’s it’s this moment of creating awareness around food. And it is a non judgement zone. It’s about being in the present, being in the now. And being focused on your food and enjoying the taste, and the texture, and the temperature. By doing all of this it can help you to develop a better relationship with food. 

If you’re someone who carries a lot of guilt about food or maybe you try to control situations regarding food, you might not have the healthiest relationship with food. And when as you start to practice, mindful eating, it allows you to ease up the stress, the anxiety, the shame, the guilt around food. It allows you to let in all food and realize that food itself is neutral. We don’t need to attach any sort of fear or other emotion to food. 

Mindful eating is about eating slower. Not only are we going to be enjoying our food more, but it’s really going to allow us to start to tap in deeper to our body and start to listen to our body and hear what it’s saying. We’ll start to learn, when are we physically hungry versus emotionally hungry. When are we comfortably full versus overstuffed. Plus this slowed, eating is really going to aid in digestion. 

Lastly, mindful eating starts to allow you to discover what foods work well in your body, and what foods don’t. So as you’re eating, you’re going to start to realize what foods really give you energy or create a great mood versus maybe other foods that are going to make you sluggish or achy or sleepless.

Practicing mindful eating doesn’t have to be complicated. If you would like to try it, I suggest to start off with one meal or one snack and eliminate all distractions. No TV, no computer, no phone, just you and your plate of food. Being in the present and in the now.

Peace & Love!