Discover the Joy of Mindful Eating This Summer
Summer brings a wave of social activities, from concerts and picnics to vacations and family gatherings. With so many opportunities to indulge in delicious foods, it's the perfect time to explore mindful eating, especially if you're looking for an anti-diet approach. Mindful eating allows you to truly savor each bite, making your summer treats even more enjoyable.
Principles of Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is about more than just consuming food; it's about becoming aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities available through food preparation and consumption. It involves respecting your inner wisdom and making choices that are both pleasing and nourishing to your body.
Awareness and Preparation: Allow yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food preparation and consumption. Respect your inner wisdom by choosing foods that resonate with you.
Sensory Exploration: Choose to eat foods that are both pleasing to you and nourishing to your body. Use all your senses to explore, savor, and taste each bite.
Non-Judgmental Acknowledgment: Acknowledge your responses to food—whether you like, dislike, or feel neutral about them—without judgment.
Hunger and Satiety Cues: Learn to be aware of your physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decision to begin eating and to stop eating.
Practicing Mindful Eating in Daily Life
Someone who practices eating mindfully acknowledges that there is no right or wrong way to eat and tunes into the varying degrees of awareness surrounding the experience of food. They accept their eating experiences as unique and direct their awareness to all aspects of food and eating on a moment-by-moment basis. This approach is not about focusing on the distant health outcome of each choice but on the immediate experience and joy of eating.
As you become more attuned to the direct experience of eating and the feelings of health that come with it, you can gain insights into how to achieve specific health goals. Additionally, a mindful eater becomes aware of the interconnection between the earth, living beings, and cultural practices, reflecting on how their food choices impact these systems.
A Personal Story of Mindful Eating on the Go
As a yoga therapist and qigong instructor at a busy hospital complex in Denver, my days are filled with traveling from one location to another, often during lunchtime or midday when I'm usually hungry. This means I sometimes have to eat on the go. While eating mindfully while driving isn't ideal, I've learned it's better than not eating all day and then binging when I get home.
To make this work, I pack my lunch and a snack for the way home. Through mindfulness, I've learned to pay close attention to my hunger and satiety cues, even while driving. There are times when I need to eat a little earlier, even if I'm not as hungry, to ensure I have the energy for teaching. I often find a shady spot to park and mindfully enjoy my packed lunch. This practice not only supports my health but is also more affordable than grabbing convenience food or eating out consistently for lunch.
At home, I strive to eat breakfast and dinner with more focus on my food and fewer distractions like TV or multitasking. It's a practice, and I'm far from perfect, but it makes a significant difference in how I feel. Additionally, I've found that I binge much less because I'm not skipping meals, and because I no longer restrict myself from eating certain foods, I rarely have cravings.
However, there are days when life piles on the to-dos, and I don't have time to pack my lunch or there are no leftovers in the fridge. On these days, I treat myself to a meal out. I cherish these opportunities to sit, eat mindfully, and savor the experience, fueling my body for more teaching.
Embodiment
Mindfulness practices can become a part of day to day experience no matter where you are or what you are doing. I'm excited to support you in cultivating and using these practices in the Eat for Life Course, which I'll be offering this fall. In this course, we'll explore the principles of mindful eating and the connection between yoga, qigong, and eating, which I like to call "Embodiment."
Eat for Life is for anyone who wants to integrate mindful eating practices into their daily life. I think it is safe to say that many of us have experiences with one of these issues: yo-yo dieting, caloric restriction, body image struggles, or binge eating to name just a few. This course will be a good introduction on how mindful eating can calm food and body image anxieties while also developing simple mindfulness strategies that can be used on a day to day basis.
Sign up for the course here.
