Are you mindful about eating?

LyndaBSS

A few months ago, when I was trying to figure out how to eat healthier, I came across the phrase "mindful eating".

In a nutshell, it's a way of eating where you truly focus on the food. What is the texture, the aroma, the mouth feel? It's eating without distraction.

I felt it made sense for me and I even added a twist. I got personal chopsticks made, engraved with the phrase "be mindful". Eating with chopsticks means eating more slowly. I'm still awful with them, but improving.

So, are you mindful about eating? Please share your thoughts and any helpful hints. Thanks! ❤

Five0Six

I am not, but this sounds like a fantastic idea. I guess I do get more mindful when I have to decide between eating 500 calories of candy and be full for, like, a half hour or a 500 calorie sandwich and be full for several hours.

I think your chopstick idea is awesome and very creative!

nooboots

Im afraid I have always been mindful about eating. I love food, the flavours the textures, the smell, the sound, the look. Its all I focus on. Unfortunately it has not stopped me eating much much more than I need.

At the moment I have lost my sense of taste and smell so am literally just eating for fuel. Its awful. I am therefore eating much much less than normal.

LyndaBSS

I'm sorry to hear about your sensory deprivation. Any chance it will get better?

nooboots

LyndaBSS wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear about your sensory deprivation. Any chance it will get better?

It keeps coming and going, its really annoying me. I am rather fanatical about smells, need to know what things smell like, like the house, how do I know if something is off in the house etc. I need to get back to the doctor. I have been given steroid sprays before but they're not working recently. Bit paranoid now about dementia as I have heard about lack of smell connected to that, although Im only middle age

bpetrosky

It's good to be aware when you're eating because it interferes with doing other things with your mouth, like breathing, talking, or playing the saxophone.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I definitely am a "mindful eater" now. When I was obese and overweight, I saw food as a, ummmmm, "fix" of sorts ( ya know, a reliever of some sort of addiction or jones). I use to eat kinda like an animal (dogging my food/shoveling it down sometimes without really chewing, just "wolfing" stuff down (like an "wild" animal or something), no real thoughtfulness nor "thinking" AT ALL...just a source of soothing or just very animalistic (a "frantic" desperation or something like that) and my eating was insatiable too. I would be so hungry really soon (sometimes within minutes) after I just ate.

Enter how I eat now, "so-called" mindful eating. I chew my food thoroughly and eat slowly and "mindfully" with every bite or sip now. When I put some food in my mouth, I put my fork or spoon down, again chew slowly and don't pick up my fork until I've totally and completely chewed and swallowed my food. (I NEVER did that when I was obese and overweight). When I was obese, I could clean my plate in minutes, no matter what it was. Now, I eat so mindfully and slowly that it takes 2 or 3 times the amount of time to finish my food as when I was obese. The same goes for drinking--I don't gulp my drinks downs--I take my time with drinking too. The end result of mindful eating is it makes eating and drinking a REAL treat and delight for me...no longer "an itch that must be scratched" so to speak.

LyndaBSS

Thanks for sharing. That's very inspiring @NewLIFEstyle4ME.

I end up leaving food on my plate now, too. I was always a member of the clean plate club. 😳

NewLIFEstyle4ME

LyndaBSS wrote: »

Thanks for sharing. That's very inspiring @NewLIFEstyle4ME.

I end up leaving food on my plate now, too. I was always a member of the clean plate club. 😳

My pleasure and THANK YOU for posting this terrific topic. I too have left-overs on my plate a lot now...I've even come to place where I can eat HALF of my meal for one meal and eat the other half for another meal. That NEVER happened to/for me when I was obese and overweight.

ValeriePlz

Meditation is great for developing mindfulness habits overall, too. It carries into every aspect of your life, and you notice sounds and smells on walks, etc.

Specifically re: eating, I read about a meditation retreat where participants were encouraged to close their eyes while eating and chew really slowly. You can really get the flavors that way and cultivate a feeling of satisfaction.

amusedmonkey

Not enjoying food has never been the problem for me, the problem was enjoying it too much and chasing those hedonic sensations as often as I could. The only time I wasn't mindful was when I picked up random stuff while passing by and threw them into my mouth even if I didn't enjoy them much. It's weird because I was aware of the taste (can't turn that off) but ate them anyway, like you would when you eat stale fries, complain that they're stale, then continue eating them anyway. I worked hard to change that habit and now I only eat things I'm 100% sure I want.

Being aware of how good something taste makes it harder for me to leave food on my plate because I want to keep enjoying that experience until there is nothing on my plate, so I just accepted that I'm not the kind of person who leaves food on the plate and ran with it. I just load my plate with the exact amount of calories I want to consume, enjoy every bit of it, and problem solved.

I'm also not the kind of person who eats slowly and chews a lot. It makes food mushy and unappealing in my mouth and makes eating boring and unpleasant. I just accepted that this is just me, and again, just load my plate with the exact amount I'm planning to eat so it doesn't matter how long it takes to finish it. I do, however, use distraction tactics. Eating while watching something slows me down without me getting bored. Since I already enjoy my meals by nature and can't turn that off, it doesn't distract me from the taste and I'm completely focused on the taste when I take a bite, it just slows me down between bites.

sardelsa

It depends on the food and meal for me. Usually a really good home cooked meal with wine, or good quality restaurant meal with company, sure. I am also a really slow dinner eater, mostly because I am enjoying the experience and talking a lot.

Otherwise (especially lunches or snacks) not really. Sometimes I am rushing to eat (for me eating can be a nuisance) and I don't enjoy all the food I eat to be honest, sometimes I just need to get my protein or nutrients in.

lemurcat2

I like the concept of mindful eating and somewhat follow it. For me it has a broader meaning, however. I don't impulse eat, but eat at meals, and I try to make those meals not just eating on the go kinds of things (although life happens), but sit down at the table (or at my desk) and enjoy the food. I also think of it as about making my calories count -- eating foods I appreciate and paying attention to them. If I'm having ice cream, I'm having a small bowl of something that I really like and paying attention to it, not grabbing a pint and watching TV and eating a bunch without really noticing.

One thing that might go against this somewhat is that at times in the past I've used food as escape-ism, an excuse to take a break from a task I didn't want to do or to distract from something bothering me. In a way that's about paying attention to the food or to eating or something too, but it's also the opposite of mindful eating since it's really a form of emotional eating.

LyndaBSS

Part of mindful eating is knowing whether or not you're actually hungry. I've only recently started to acknowledge when I'm satiated. Mind blown.

lemurcat2

I actually found it easier to stop worrying about whether I was hungry or not, but to eat appropriate calories at regular meal times, and relatively filling (for me) foods. My issue before was more that I didn't have a good sense of portion size and I'd make more than I needed and then finish it because I was eating and not thinking or because it tasted good or because there wasn't enough for leftovers and I didn't want to toss it.

When I decided to lose I measured (later weighed) to achieve the portion-size/calories that seemed appropriate and just trusted that it would be enough, and it was -- I found I was perfectly satisfied and not hungry after eating.

I still find it easier to exercise control with what I put on my plate vs. trying to decide when I am finished eating and stopping eating with food still on the plate. I've heard that satiation tends to kick in a bit after eating too (another reason why eating slowly can be better). At restaurants I tend to decide what percentage of my meal I will eat in advance, which helps me not overeat. It's not "intuitive," but I think it works better for me.

pinuplove

Similarly to @lemurcat2 I don't keep eating to fullness any more. Calorie counting for the majority of my weight loss gave me a pretty good handle on what an appropriate portion of food looks like. I no longer like the feeling over being overly full, so with rare exceptions I'm not tempted to overeat because it feels actively unpleasant afterward.

I know this won't work for everyone. Just my experience. I still log my food sporadically, but have been shaving the last few pounds off very slowly without logging the vast majority of it, as I needed a mental break from it.

sgt1372

LyndaBSS wrote: »

Eating with chopsticks means eating more slowly. I'm still awful with them, but improving.

LOL!

You obviously haven't been to many (if any) Asian restaurants frequented by experienced chopstick users. You can be just as glutonous using chopsticks as you can w/a fork or your bare hands.

LyndaBSS

Maybe I'm better off being clunky with them then. 😀

NovusDies

I made an effort in the beginning to leave my work area and eat at around the same time each day to break myself from an old habit of working past getting very hungry and then inhaling my lunch at 3:30 sitting at my desk. I had established that particular habit contributed to my weight gain because often the food I was inhaling was an abundance of calorie dense food that was easy to fix or acquire from a ff place.

More importantly I forced myself to start cooking/prepping more. I would always cook for me and my wife but I seldom put the effort in for just me. That may be off topic but it is in the same type of vein because I was being kinder to myself.