Mindful Eating
Re-thinking Our Way to Weight Management
Why Dieting Doesn't Work
Dieting alone does not lead to lasting change. We must change our relationship to food by focusing on un-hooking our association with foods we know are not healthy for us. The first step in doing this is to slow down the eating process.
When eating, do you ever notice a forkful hovering near your mouth, as if to say, “hurry up in there – I’ve got more food to stuff in!” Try putting the fork down, swallow, and then fill the fork again. What happens in that moment? Become zen-like with "mindful" eating. Intentional eating means tasting the food and developing awareness of whether we are nurturing ourselves or stuffing our feelings.
Is it Hunger or is it a Feeling?
Next, try asking, “What does the food that I obsess about represent for me?” Is it the plate of cookies you learned to make as a child that brought approval from family? Is it the food you could never eat because your family couldn’t afford frivolous things, like chocolate bars? Is it the extra glass of gin and tonic that takes the edge off a stressful day? Ask, “What does the food represent and how can I get a similar feeling without it?”
Remember, cookies don’t love us. Chocolate doesn’t comfort us. People can comfort and love us. We can comfort and love ourselves. Food may be the placeholder for those feelings that we desire.
Try taking 20 minutes where you can be completely quiet. Take a few deep breaths and imagine yourself in a beautiful, comfortable place where you can feel at ease. Keep developing that place in your mind – whether you’re able to visualize a place, or you just have a memory of a place of comfort and beauty that you’ve actually been to. Keep breathing into the pictures or memories in your mind, allowing other thoughts to simply drift away.
Next, bring to mind the food or foods that you feel you’re having difficulty with – those snacks you crave, a dessert you think about, or greasy foods that you know aren’t good for you.
Ask yourself, “when was the first time I ate this food? What was the very first feeling associated with it?” Just take what comes, trusting your unconscious mind to go where it’s most advantageous to start. Was it approval? Was it acceptance? What is the feeling you have hooked into the food that you now crave as an adult?
Now, release that memory and thank your mind for the information. Next, in the following days, just pay attention when the craving comes up. Remember what you associate with the food as you’re noticing the craving. Experiment with finding new ways to get to the feeling, without having to have the food.
It takes patience and a certain gentle vigilance to retrain ourselves in enjoying a healthier diet. Approach the process with the tender understanding that you would offer a child. The triggers with foods that we overeat or obsess about usually began in childhood, so try approaching the feelings that come up as you practice dietary change with the most loving forgiveness you can bring forth, and a willingness to change.
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