Mindfulness refers to a concept where you fully concentrate on one task at a time; without multi-tasking. Some call it living in the moment; learning to avoid distractions. Mindfulness applies in many different areas of life, and eating is no exception. Mindful eating simply involves eating while actually concentrating on the food. Doesn’t sound like a big deal; right?
You’ve most probably eaten something in the past couple of hours. What exactly did you eat? How much of it did you eat? What was the taste, flavor, color and texture? What sensation did you experience when eating it? Your answers are rather vague; right?
Chances are as you were eating, you were also doing something else. Working, driving, watching TV, reading or browsing on your laptop/phone. You were not fully aware of your eating since you were concentrating on something else. Did you know that you spend up to 2.5 hours eating every day? Yet it hardly feels like it, since most of the time you eat mindlessly.
What is the problem with subconscious eating? Well, mindless eating affects the quantity and quality of your food, and ultimately your physical and emotional health. The effects of mindless eating include:
- You constantly eat more than enough since you eat quickly. Your body takes up to 20 minutes to send the ‘full’ signal to the brain. As you eat hastily, you fill this timeline with more eating, when you’ve actually had enough.
- Constant overeating conditions your body to always expect more. Have you wondered why some people can never be satisfied with regular portions of food? Their systems have adapted to high food quantities, and always demand as such. Eating subconsciously will set you up for a habit of overeating.
- Mindless eating encourages unhealthy eating options. As soon as you feel hunger, whether real or imagined, you grab the next available bite. This will most likely be from a fast-food restaurant offering French fries, bhajia, fried chicken, sausages, sodas and so on. These options are high in fats, salt and sugar. Taking them regularly will have negative effects on your health.
- Unhealthy foods give you temporary spikes of energy. Soon after you’re hungry again, and you reach for the next available bite. Your energy graph keeps zig-zagging, and this affects your productivity.
- Such feeding habits increase the chances of excess weight gain. With the weight comes social stigma and a high risk of lifestyle diseases. When we talk of watching what you eat, you can do it literally here. Look critically at what is on your plate, and evaluate its nutritional value. Is it adding value to your body or is it just empty calories?
- You miss out on the experience of eating. Food has so much to offer. Different flavors, textures and colors. If you rush right through it, or multitask with other activities, you’ll not notice any of them.
When you eat mindfully, you pay full attention to the eating experience. You notice the particulars of the food and listen to the sensations of your body. Treat eating as a process that requires the whole of you; physically and emotionally. Stop multitasking when eating. Here are some pointers to guide you through mindful eating
1. Differentiate physical versus emotional hunger
Who is really asking for the food? Is it your body or your mind? One minute you’re not hungry, and the next you can’t get food out of your mind. What happened? Did you see a food commercial? Or smell food? Or is it meal time? All of this is emotional hunger, which is not real hunger. Your stomach is not empty. You’re just reacting to a trigger that reminds you of food. You could also be reacting to a negative emotion such as sadness or loneliness, and trying to comfort yourself with food.
While real hunger builds up slowly, emotional hunger surges abruptly after a trigger, and comes as a strong craving. Fortunately, emotional hunger is a wave. If you simply ignore it and carry on with your work, it’ll pass and you’ll even forget you were hungry. Avoid the hunger triggers when you can.
2. Get involved in the process
If you only interact with food on the plate level, you may not appreciate the rigorous process that it takes to get it to your table. If you have the space, consider a vegetable garden. Get involved in shopping and cooking.
How does getting involved in the process help with mindful eating? Well, you will see your food differently. As they say, once you carry your own water, you’ll see the value of every drop. The same applies to food. Once you experience the amount of work that goes into getting it to your table, you’ll appreciate it more. You’ll eat like you unwrap a pricey gift; slowly and carefully.
3. Eating schedule
How many times do you eat in a day? Or rather how many times should you be eating in a day? Most probably, you just eat when you’re hungry, essentially responding to emotional hunger. So, if you’re eating every time that you feel hungry, you’re eating much more than you need to.
Have a fixed eating schedule. For instance, you can have 3 meals a day, and 2 snacks in between. Take your breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time every day. The body responds well to routine. It learns to expect food at that particular time, and you’ll be less likely to suffer from hunger pangs and cravings.
4. Avoid skipping meals
If you skip meals, you end up so hungry that you’ll go for whatever is readily available. You’ll then hog it down, unable to slow down, led by your biting hunger. You’ll end up overeating since in your haste you’ll miss all the signals.
Mindful eating encourages you to go for healthy options; and eat just enough. At the end of the day, you reap both short-term and long-term health benefits from such disciplined eating.