Make Eating a Positive Experience

young boy smiling with watermelon

What and how we eat is often influenced by our thoughts and emotions, sometimes in unhelpful ways. Here are some tips on changing negative habits around food and making eating a positive experience in our lives.

  1. Start small

    small step fruitDon’t try to do everything at once. Even if you know what you ‘SHOULD’ do, just pick one thing to change and focus on that for a while. When you feel comfortable with that, add something else.

  2. Acknowledge and honor your hunger—listen to your body

    Allow yourself to feel your hunger. Accept and embrace it. Don’t react to hunger or try to fix it, just be with it for a while and pay attention to what your body wants. Are you craving something warm and comforting, or cold and crisp? Something light or really filling? It is incredibly satisfying to eat after really experiencing hunger.

  3. Get rid of distractions—turn off the television/screen

    This is especially important. It is hard enough to be engaged and focused on your food with just the distractions of your own mind and technology adds yet another layer between you and mindful eating.

  4. Engage with your food-before, during and after your meal

    choosing good foodThis is the crux of mindful eating. Think about your food at every stage of the meal, from the growth of the ingredients, to what your body wants, to what kinds of textures and flavors you are craving, to the pleasure and meditation of preparing it, to finally sitting down and really enjoying it.

  5. Understand your emotions, but don’t eat because of them

    This is very difficult, because we are experiencing emotions all the time, and they influence how we feel, which affects what and how we want to eat. But you can acknowledge your emotion, while making conscious choices about what to eat! You will always be glad you stopped and acted intentionally.

  6. Get rid of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ labels

    While we hear about foods that are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for us all the time, there is no reason to beat yourself up or make things more complicated. If you are putting energy into taking care of yourself, then you deserve treats and snacks and junk from time to time-with no judgement. Also, once you start eating more mindfully, you will find that your cravings change, and what once was satisfying may be less satisfying now and vice versa.

  7. Eat with others—share a meal/your food

    eating in companyThere are several reasons to eat with others. There is the opportunity to share the pleasure of the food itself, and the special treat of feeding someone with food you put your heart into preparing. Also, there is the emotional support and connection of friends that is so valuable, and often we are more motivated to prepare and sit down for a meal when we are sharing it with or feeding someone.

  8. Take your time

    Find out more about slowing down and becoming aware. This seems like a very simple rule, but is surprisingly difficult. We are used to eating on the go, often without even sitting down or getting out of the car. A large part of mindful eating is giving yourself time to savor your food and taste each bite the whole time you are chewing. Put your fork down in between bites. Pause between bites and look at the food on your plate—what do you see? With practice, you may become so aware of your food and your experience that you are not even thinking about the time.

  9. Stop before you feel full

    When we are eating mindlessly and eating without thinking about it, it is easy to keep eating. Part of mindful eating is knowing what it feels like to feel satisfied, which is not the same as being full. It takes our brain about 20 minutes before it gets the message that we are full. There is a point at which your hunger is satiated, but there may be a little room left—that is a very comfortable and balanced place to be. It is also a way of acknowledging and honoring the bounty and privilege that we have. Most likely, what we think is a typical portion is more than what we need.

  10. Have fun—enjoy the process

    having fun eatingThis is really important. Figure out what part of mindful eating you really enjoy and do it more. Is it the cooking, the gardening, or setting the table?  Whatever it is, find ways to incorporate it into your routine and make it fun. Be sure to make that part of your routine. If you want to be successful with eating mindfully, you need to enjoy it.

Tips on eating mindfully

Practice 1

In Eating Mindfully, Susan Albers recommends starting with one mealtime: breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Choose a specific location to eat, such as your table or the lunchroom at work. Sit quietly. Don't get up, and don't answer the phone.

Have all the food you intend to eat on the table in front of you before starting. To be mindful you must give your full attention to your eating. You must focus on the process of eating and enjoying your meal.

Practice 2

Susan Albers suggests that one way to slow down the process of eating is to challenge the way you have always done it. 

For example, try eating using a pair of chopsticks instead of your customary utensils. This will force you to take smaller portions, eat more slowly, and look at your food more closely. Other strategies include eating with your non-dominant hand, chewing your food 30 to 50 times per bite, or trying to make the portion of food you've taken for the meal last 20 minutes.

Observe the sensation of picking up the food and placing it in your mouth.

Practice 3

In Coming to Our Senses, mindfulness guru Jon Kabat Zinn says, "When we taste with attention, even the simplest foods provide a universe of sensory experience, awakening us to them."

The Raisin Consciousness is an exercise Jon Kabat Zinn uses with his clients as a first meditation. The exercise is based on Buddhist teachings. (Note: if you don't like raisins, you can use another fruit or nut.)

Raisin Meditation

  1. Sit comfortably in a chair.
  2. Place a raisin in your hand.
  3. Examine the raisin as if you had never seen it before.
  4. Imagine it as its "plump self" growing on the vine surrounded by nature.
  5. As you look at the raisin, become conscious of what you see: the shape, texture, color, size. Is it hard or soft?
  6. Bring the raisin to your nose and smell it.
  7. Are you anticipating eating the raisin? Is it difficult not to just pop it in your mouth?
  8. How does the raisin feel? How small it is in your hand?
  9. Place the raisin in your mouth. Become aware of what your tongue is doing.
  10. Bite ever so lightly into the raisin. Feel its squishiness.
  11. Chew three times and then stop.
  12. Describe the flavor of the raisin. What is the texture?
  13. As you complete chewing, swallow the raisin.
  14. Sit quietly, breathing, aware of what you are sensing.

Kabat Zinn discusses the experience thus:

"The raisin exercise dispels all previous concepts we may be harboring about meditation. It immediately places it in the realm of the ordinary, the everyday, the world you already know but are now going to know differently. Eating one raisin very, very slowly allows you to drop right into the knowing in ways that are effortless, totally natural, and entirely beyond words and thinking. Such an exercise delivers wakefulness immediately. There is in this moment only tasting."

Reference

Kabat Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to Our Senses. New York: Hyperion.

Nourishing MN logoResources courtesy of Nourishing Minnesota.

Albers, S. (2003). Eating Mindfully. Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 

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