WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE 2024

Overview
Session 3: Mindful Eating
Last week, you learned how to balance your meals and snacks with MyPlate. As you work towards making more of your meals look like the MyPlate example, it is important to also learn how to approach each meal in a mindful way. Like MyPlate, mindful eating is a tool that will help you to eat in a more balanced way and maintain a healthy weight for the long term.
What Is A Mindful Eater?
A mindful eater is present in the moment. They take notice of the taste, smell, texture and temperature of their food. Mindful eaters listen to their body by asking questions like: “What do I want to eat and what am I hungry for?” They also listen to their hunger and fullness signals by asking questions like: “Am I still feeling hungry or am I feeling full now?” Mindful eaters don’t judge themselves or their food
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choices. They show self-compassion and approach their eating patterns with curiosity. Mindful eating is a key skill that will not only help you reach your weight loss goals, but it will help you maintain a healthy weight long term.
✓ Skill Building Activity: Taste A Raisin (your coach will lead you through this activity)
Ignoring Hunger Cues
Almost everyone is born with the innate ability to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Physical hunger is useful. It is your body’s way of telling you it needs fuel. Physical hunger can feel different to different people. Some people experience a grumbling in their stomach, while others may feel a gnawing sensation.
As you grew older, you may have lost your natural hunger and fullness cues, or maybe you learned to ignore them. Maybe you grew up being told you need to clean your plate, regardless if you were hungry or not. Maybe you eat due to emotion, social cues or time of day.
Ignoring hunger and fullness signals can eventually lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and the following may occur:
➢ Eating when you are past the point of fullness
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➢ Eating when you are not physically hungry
➢ Denying your body food when you are hungry
When hunger and fullness signals are ignored over time, you may lose the ability to feel hunger and fullness at all.
The good news is that you can teach your body to eat in a mindful and natural way again!
Becoming More Mindful
One key aspect of mindful eating is listening to your hunger and fullness signals. While this may sound simple, many of us often eat when we are not physically hungry and/or eat until we are uncomfortably full. You are not alone if you struggle to recognize your body’s hunger and fullness cues.
The first step to getting your hunger and fullness cues back is learning to listen to your body. Knowing your hunger level and your pre-meal mood helps you to become a more mindful eater.
Before each meal and snack, take a moment to rate your hunger using the scale below. Your goal is to stay between 3 & 7 on the hunger scale. (Note: This scale is available on your app and website each time you upload a meal.)
Score
Pre-Meal Hunger Level
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1
Ravenous, starving, feeling faint
2
Uncomfortably hungry
3
Hunger pains
4
Light hunger
5
Neutral, no hunger, no fullness
6
Satisfied, not too full
7
Full
8
Uncomfortably full
9
Stuffed
10
Feeling sick
Hungry or Not?
If you determine that you are physically hungry, you should eat. Some diets may ask you to ignore hunger and follow strict diet rules. This often leads to feelings of deprivation and overeating at a later time.
When you feel hungry, use the steps listed on the left side of the chart to approach your eating in a mindful way. If you decide that you are not physically hungry, use the ideas listed on the right side of the chart to help figure out your next steps.
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I’m Physically Hungry
I’m Not Physically Hungry
1. Determine if you are hungry for something sweet, crunchy, warm, etc
1. Take a moment to figure out what you actually need
2. Eat foods that leave you energized and satisfied
2. Determine if you feel bored, lonely, sad or tired
3. Eat without distractions (television, computer)
3. Try to meet your need without food
4. Eat slowly, taste your food; notice the flavor and texture
4. Re-direct your attention by taking a walk or reading a book
5. Stop when you are no longer hungry and before you feel full or stuffed
5. Practice using skills other than eating to deal with feelings and emotions
What to Eat
You may have noticed that the first step of mindful eating is deciding what you want. Many diets tell you to avoid the foods you want. Rather than avoiding them, think about ways you can work these foods into your meal. If you really want pizza, make it
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your grain and meat serving and fill the rest of your plate with fruits and veggies. If there are certain foods you crave, ask your coach how you can have those foods every once in a while and still create a balanced meal or snack.
Moving Forward
As you begin to honor to your hunger and fullness signals, you may notice strong urges to eat when you are not physically hungry or eat past the point of fullness. If you notice yourself doing this, don’t worry. Being mindful of your eating takes time and you will get better as you go! In later sessions, you will learn how to deal with these urges, but in the meantime, be sure to let your coach know what you are noticing.
Summary
Change takes time and you may notice strong urges to eat even when you’re not physically hungry. If you are in the habit of eating to deal with stress or boredom, it may take time to retrain yourself. Becoming a mindful eater is a great skill that you will master as time goes on. Mindful eating will help you reach your weight loss goals because you will become more satisfied with the foods you choose to eat. You will also eliminate the extra calories you are consuming for those times when you eat when you are not hungry or when you eat past the point of fullness.
Activities
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□ To become more aware of your hunger and fullness signals, begin or continue to use the pre-meal hunger ratings when you upload a meal or snack.
□ Post one mindful eating experience from this week in the group discussion.
□ Goal setting: Work with your coach to set one goal this week associated with this session. Example: I will eat dinner at the kitchen table without any distractions.
List your goal here or message it to your coach: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________
Discussion/Questions
□ Have you ever waited to eat until you are a 1 or 2 on the hunger scale? If so, what happened? Share this experience with your coach and/or your group members.
□ Post one benefit of practicing mindful eating in the group discussion.
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non- judgmentally.”
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-Jon Kabat-Zinn
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Eating Without Distractions
Ideas to Eat More Mindfully
● Don’t eat in front of the television or computer screen.
● Try eating alone.
● Don’t read while you eat.
● Turn off the music and eat in a quiet room.
● Don’t text or check your phone while you eat.
􏰀 Distractions during mealtime can cause you to eat faster than normal. You also will be less likely to know how much you have eaten.
􏰀 Distractions may cause you to feel less full because your attention was on something other than your eating experience.
􏰀 To limit distractions, try the ideas below and see if you are able to eat more mindfully.

Are You Truly Hungry? 􏰀 Why are you eating?
o Sometimes we eat because we want to eat, it’s time​ ​to eat or other people are eating.
o We need to eat when we are truly hungry.
􏰀 Eat slowly.
o Be sure to eat your meals and snacks slowly. This can help you determine your level of hunger.
o Feelings of fullness do not happen right away
􏰀 Are you full?
o Stop 2 or 3 times while you are eating to check in with yourself and determine if you are still hungry or are starting to feel satisfied. This way you will not be too hungry or too full.
o You should eat until you are satisfied and almost full.

Re-Directing Your Attention
􏰀 If you find yourself thinking about food when you’re not physically hungry, consider re-directing your attention to a non-food related activity.
􏰀 Take a look at the list below and see if any of these activities would be enjoyable for you.
Non-Food Related Activities
● Call a friend
● Clean out a closet or junk drawer
● Walk around your workplace or neighborhood
● Make a to-do list
● Check your email
● Sip on water
● Play with your pet
● Work in the yard
● Do something nice for someone
● Brush your teeth
● Color in ​a coloring book