Mindful Eating

So last week I talked about how unhealthy views of food and the messages we receive taint our relationship with food. And when we aren’t able to “follow the rules” we tend to beat ourselves up and blame ourselves for having “no self-control.” Food is not so black and white. Our cultures are inherently structured around food. If you think all the way back to the original “Thanksgiving”, regardless of the various accountings of it, it is based around food and bounty. Most of our major holidays revolve around food regardless of what the original meaning was. In medieval times, food bounty was seen as a symbol of wealth. Food is not inherently bad, food is nourishment.

(Yes, this blog is a bit longer than my normal posts but please bear with me, I promise it’s worth it!)

In the late 1940s, during WWII, a man by the name of Ancel Keys, Ph.D., conducted a 6-month study about the effects of food restriction on 36 single men who demonstrated good mental and physical health. It was designed to observe the physical and emotional effects of starvation. These men were restricted to a semi-starvation diet of 1550 calories a day, divided between 2 meals, and instructed to lose 25% of their normal body weight. The results were as follows:

Behavioral- They became obsessed with food, collected recipes, and pictures of food began unusual eating habits such as cutting foods into tiny pieces and other odd behaviors, increased their use of coffee, tea, and other spices to help suppress appetite.

Emotional- In the beginning, most felt euphoric which quickly evolved into depression, anxiety, irritability, anger, sudden and intense mood swings, psychotic episodes, and social withdrawal.

Cognitive- Concentration levels decreased, poor judgment and impulsivity increased, and a rise of apathy was observed.

Physical- The men struggled with falling asleep, staying asleep and/or waking up feeling rested, physical weakness, GI problems, hypersensitivity to noise and light was observed, swelling in the limbs, constant feelings of being cold, tingling sensations in their extremities, decreased sex drive and decreased metabolic rate.

After the initial 6-months, the participants were then entered into the strategic refereeing phase. They were subjected to a restricted diet of 2,000-3,200 calories a day for 3 months and then finally were able to eat unrestricted over the following 8-weeks. 3 men were dropped from the study for not being able to sustain the diet, one was unable to meet the expected weight loss goal, and one was dropped for unnamed reasons. During this refereeing phase, the most common symptom observed was binge eating. Many of these men regained all the weight they had lost and then some within only weeks of being allowed to eat unrestricted. I’ll leave it up to you to come to your own conclusions as to why this happened.

So what is the point of including this study in this blog? To further reinforce that ‘diets’ don’t work, at least long term. In fact according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 97% of people who lose significant amounts of weight quickly gain it back within 5 years. “Yo-Yo” dieting confuses our natural weight over time making it hard to maintain a steady weight. Diet pills and laxatives don’t do anything to help long-term weight loss, they simply flush out fluids that your body needs, causing fluctuation in weight day to day along with numerous other reasons your weight may fluctuate up to 5-7 pounds a day that isn’t a result of diet and exercise but natural fluctuations. Per the National Eating Disorders Association, more people die from the consequences of being underweight than people do from being overweight. In a society where we spend more money every year on diet pills, diet foods, and gym memberships we have also significantly increased our consumption of fast food and on average consume 600 more calories per day than we did in the 1970s. So as we have increased our purchasing of these so-called “health foods” and continue to pay that reoccurring monthly gym membership we signed up for in January in an attempt to reach our “New Years Resolution” we have also significantly increased our obesity rate. Also increased is the amount of money that comes with treating health conditions related not only to obesity but with other eating disorders associated with “self-control”, such as anorexia.

So how can we begin the process of healing our relationship with food? I often encourage people to really be honest with themselves with why they are eating or not eating. Are you eating because you are in need of sustenance or are you eating because you’re bored, stressed, or angry? Are you eating because you are being pressured by friends and family to eat? Are you eating because you’ve been conditioned that certain events require food for whatever reason? I ask my patients to identify and be honest with themselves about their intentions. I encourage them to pay attention to the thoughts they are having about food, the anticipation, and the physiological sensations/responses they are noticing. This helps to get a better understanding of how and what to target or if we need to do some deeper work around food (ie- dysfunctional eating habits are often associated with sexual abuse and various other traumas).

I also go through an activity with my patients around mindful eating. I taught a psycho-educational class for almost 2 years, it was a once-a-week class that had 6 lessons. When I added this specific mindful eating activity I am about to share into the curriculum, I had absolutely no idea how powerful of an experience this would be for not only the participants but also my observations and education as a therapist. I often tell people, if I had the chance to just teach this one activity over and over and over again, I would in a heartbeat! The responses, reactions, and “ah-ha” moments have been so eye-opening and I particularly enjoyed when I had a participant who was openly skeptical, and there was always one but they were usually the ones telling me in the next class or even calling me a few days later to tell me how much it has impacted them and that they have told their friends.

So here it is:

Mindful Eating is about being fully present and focusing 100% on only eating. It’s about using all of your senses to fully appreciate this experience.

  1. Just eat, don’t do anything else.

  2. Observe what the food looks like. Describe it either in your head or out loud. What thoughts or memories are you noticing?

  3. Smell the food and notice the scents and smells of the food. What are you noticing within yourself? Are you noticing any emotions?

  4. Touch the food and notice what it feels like. Does anything surprise you? Is it what you’re expecting?

  5. Take a small bite but don’t chew it. Just hold it in your mouth and notice the weight on your tongue, the texture, and other sensations of the food in your mouth.

  6. Notice any salivation, taste, or any smells you notice.

  7. Chew each bite thoroughly (10,15, 20 bites or so)

  8. Repeat these steps to finish the rest of your food, it’s not necessary to take as much time with each bite but make sure you’re slowing down and paying attention to all of your senses. Notice all of these experiences and sensations.

  9. As you slow down and are mindful this gives your stomach time to communicate with your brain that it is full. If you’ve spent time ignoring that, either eating more despite being full or ignoring your hungry queues and not eating, this may take some time to relearn. Begin to notice these feelings or sensations.

  10. Notice what it feels like to be full and satiated.

Practice this exercise with smaller snacks at first and work to slowly increase the use of it to at least 1 meal a day. As you do it more and more you’ll start to notice that these new skills become more natural and routine. You’ll start to notice that when you’re more mindful with eating you’ll get more satisfaction and in smaller quantities. This will reinforce the habit of what we call “intuitive eating” which requires you to be in tune with the queues your body is sending you in regards to its needs for sustenance.

If you have any questions or would like additional resources regarding Mindful Eating you can reach out to me by email at Colleen@ScatteredPotential.com, subscribe to my blog, or my newsletter by filling out the form below. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Increasing Mindfulness

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Is it Time to End Your Toxic Relationship…with Food?