A Beginner’s Guide to Mindful Eating

One of the things I appreciate most in life is food. I love trying new foods, I have a huge sweet tooth, and I find comfort in a good meal. In my 5 Simple Mindfulness Activities for Your Daily Life post, one of the concepts I touched on was mindful eating. This is something I’m still trying to work on. I have a bad habit of multitasking while I eat, eating too fast, and not taking the time to really think about the food I’m putting into my body. When you practice mindful eating, you create a deeper connection with your food and become more aware of the effect it has on you.

I believe eating mindfully is about taking a holistic approach to what you eat, how you eat, and the effect that food has on your body. I’m not a food or mindfulness expert in any sense, but I’ve found significant benefit in taking this approach to my eating habits. When I try to eat mindfully, I regain a sense of control, awareness, and connection with my food. In this guide, we’ll dive into some basic aspects of mindful eating that you can apply to your own eating habits.

So, what does it mean to eat mindfully?

Mindfulness is all about being in the present moment, paying attention in an intentional way, and connecting with your mind, body, and soul. So to eat mindfully, you need to connect with your food in the present moment, intentionally pay attention to your eating habits, and connect with how the food you eat affects your mind, body, and soul. Mindful eating may feel difficult at first, especially if you’re used to eating while you’re distracted. The more you practice, the more you’ll start to see all the benefits mindful eating can bring to your life.

What are the benefits of mindful eating?

Mindful eating comes with many benefits. You’ll create a deeper connection with your food and have more awareness of your eating habits. You’ll gain more control of how you eat and what you eat. You’ll learn to be present, appreciate, and be grateful for your food. Overall, mindful eating will lay the groundwork for creating and maintaining more balanced eating practices, which will lead you towards living a healthier life.

Now, let’s get into how to be mindful of what you eat.

I’m sure you already know the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. Of course we need to eat our fruits and vegetables and avoid eating an excess amount of fast food and sweets. But eating mindfully is not about strictly sticking to a vegan diet, eating all organic, and never eating anything “unhealthy”. Obviously if you want to do those things, go for it! But if those eating practices aren’t your thing, that’s cool too. Your body is your decision, so you get to choose what you put into it, and that’s what mindful eating is all about.

As long as you’re making a conscious decision about what you eat, you’re eating mindfully. Try your best to find a balance between eating a sufficient amount of nutritious foods and indulging in foods that are less healthy. If you become too strict about your healthy foods and go overboard with your unhealthy foods, you might start to lose your connection to your eating habits. Also, being on one extreme or another (eating super healthy or super unhealthy) could suck the joy out of eating altogether. When you’re able to discover and maintain a balance that’s right for you, you’ll create a deeper connection to your mindful eating practice.

It’s also important to be mindful of how you eat.

If you’re like me, you’re guilty of distracted eating. This means eating while you’re doing other things like work, watching TV, or scrolling on your phone. Sometimes, you just have so much going on that eating becomes the accompaniment to your other tasks. It’s totally understandable that when you’re busy, you just don’t have the time to sit down and focus on eating your meal. Maybe you’re so busy you don’t even have time for a meal so you’re running on snacks, or you forget to eat at all. These scenarios are hard to avoid. But instead of making food and eating an afterthought, try to take some time to notice your eating habits and how they affect your relationship to food.

Whenever you can, try to intentionally make time to sit down and have a meal free of distraction. Avoid multitasking while you eat. Pay attention to how slow or fast you eat. Notice the smell and taste of your food. Realize the immense privilege it is to have the resources to nourish your body with food. Once you learn how to become present with your meal in these ways, you’re well on your way to making mindful eating more of a habit.   

Something I struggle with when it comes to being mindful of how I eat is creating a sense of control over how much food I eat. I hate to waste food, so I often eat more than I should just to avoid wasting it. I’m also guilty of eating when I’m not even hungry, mindlessly snacking until my stomach hurts, and even forgetting what I ate throughout the day. I’m really trying to regain my control over the quantity of food that I eat, but in a mindful way by rethinking the amount of food I actually need to consume in order to maintain a balanced diet. This all might just be a me problem, but if you can relate at all, try taking some time to reflect on how much you eat and how you can regain your control.

Lastly, to eat mindfully, it’s crucial to be mindful of the effect that food has on your mind and body.

It’s important to be aware of the effect that certain foods have on your mind and body. These effects can be mental, emotional, and physical effects.

An obvious example of physical effects is allergies. You wouldn’t intentionally eat something that you know will break you out in hives, right? So, avoiding the foods you’re allergic to is part of mindful eating. Other physical effects food can have on your body are weight loss and gain, nausea, and even headaches. Be aware of the physical reactions you experience when you eat certain foods. These reactions could be obvious or subtle, positive or negative. When you become mindful of the physical effects food has on your body, you’ll be more able to consume the foods that make your body feel good and avoid the foods that make your body feel bad.

The mental and emotional effects of the food you eat are a little more abstract, but equally as important. These effects can be as simple as liking certain foods and hating others. The foods you enjoy eating elicit positive mental and emotional effects, so chances are you’ll eat them more often. But the foods you dislike bring about negative mental and emotional effects, so you’ll probably avoid them. Some foods might make you feel energized and happy, while others might make you feel sluggish and irritable. Paying attention to any mental or emotional reactions that come up when you eat certain foods is an important part of mindful eating.  

Like I said before, I’m not a food expert. But I am a food appreciator. I believe in the emotional and sentimental value food can have. Food is a cause for memories and traditions that can last a lifetime. Food is a privilege and a responsibility. Eating mindfully may seem difficult at first, but the more you practice being mindful of what you eat, how you eat, and the effect that food has on your mind and body, the easier it’ll be to turn mindful eating into a habit.

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