Mindful eating- step two!

I've previously blogged about the general concept of mindful eating along with one way to practice eating more in the moment. The next step you can take involves learning the difference between eating due to hunger versus other influences.

So so so many clients struggle with eating when they are not hungry which can trigger feelings of guilt and shame. Understanding whether you are eating due to hunger or other reasons begins with being mindful before taking the first bite.

Before you take a bite of food, take a minute to listen to your body. Ask yourself- "am I truly hungry?" The task at hand is not to resist the urge to eat or be a "good person" for not eating- but to simply listen or check in with your body. 

It is important that you do this in a non-judgemental way. If you are scared of how you might feel if you are not hungry but want to eat anyways, you may eat out of rebellion or anger. Allowing yourself the option to eat anyways and congratulate yourself on taking the time to listen to your body's hunger and fullness levels will help you avoid feeling guilty.

Step one would be to step away from the food. Go to a quiet place free from the smells and influence of food. This could be in  your car before heading into the house or in the bathroom before eating dinner. You can close your eyes or focus on an object while evaluating your physical signs of hunger. 

Some people find it useful to write down a list of physical signs of hunger- tummy rumbling, gnawing feeling, etc. Refer to that list while you are trying to judge if you are hungry. 

Step two: Once you've determined if you are actually hungry- try to figure out how hungry you are. A lot? a little? Hunger is not all or nothing- there is a scale or progression that will help determine how much food you need. You can use a scale from 1-5 or 1-10 to help you evaluate it. 



Step three: once you know how hungry you really are- decide how much food you need to eat to fill the gap BEFORE starting to eat. You can always decide to eat more or less once you are eating, but letting your hunger decide how much you need versus the food can help you be more mindful. 

If you feel confident in listening to your hunger signals and determining how hungry you are- there is a fourth step. Once you have eaten about half the plate of food- take a mini break. Reconnect with your body to reevaluate your hunger levels. Check in to see how much more you need to eat to feel satisfied. 

Practicing listening to your hunger cues and evaluating your level of hunger or fullness is a big concept to master. It is not that difficult with practice and is INVALUABLE for weight management.

Tackling the triggers that influence you to eat when not actually hungry is another exercise to increase mindfulness. This one is a bit more difficult to do on your own and can stir up some emotions. Triggers can be in your environment (donuts in the breakroom), feelings (like stress or sadness) even old habits (snacking while watching tv). But that's for another post!

What is mindful eating?

I talk a lot about mindful eating and how it can help you manage your weight, reduce any disordered eating and help repair your relationship with food. Understanding what mindful eating is and how to practice it is the challenging part. Not because it is hard to do but because it takes time, inner reflection and lots of practice.

Being a mindful eater means noticing the colors, smells, flavors, and textures of your food; chewing slowly; getting rid of distractions like TV or reading; and learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food.
Noticing these things means deliberately paying attention, being fully aware of what is happening both inside and outside yourself. In your body means in your heart and mind such as any emotions or thoughts you may be having- "I am stressed" or "I feel fat". As well as outside yourself, in your surroundings- like at your desk with emails coming in every 2 minutes or alone in the kitchen with everyone gone to bed.

Noticing how eating affects our mood and how our emotions like anxiety influence our eating is important. Mindfulness includes paying attention to the experience in our body. Where in the body do we feel hunger? (in the head or in the stomach?) What does half-full feel like, or three quarters full?

One other very important aspect of mindfulness is being aware of all these things without criticising or judging yourself. For example, you are feeling stressed at your desk at work and want to eat your lunch but it's only 10am and you are not hungry. Rather than judging yourself and thinking:"what is wrong with me? I just had breakfast! How am I supposed to get through the day if all I want to do it eat!?", try being more aware of the situation- "I am feeling stressed which usually pushes me to eat. Also, my stress is mounting with the constant chiming of emails. What I need to do is decrease my stress and food won't do that...but a small walk to the bathrooms might help me relax".

Eating mindfully can sound a bit abstract and practicing concrete activities to increase mindfulness can help you get started. Gradually start to become more mindful of when, how and what you eat as well as what influences you to eat. Start by dedicating one meal a week or a day to eating more slowly and more attentively. Try these tips:

-Set a timer to 20 minutes and take the whole time to eat a normal sized meal.
-Try eating the meal with your non dominant hand to slow you down. You can also use chopsticks to do this.
-Eat in silence for 5 minutes and think about how your food was grown, produced, prepared and cooked.
-Take small bites and chew well.
-Try to guess all the spices and herbs used in the dish.
-Notice how the crunchy food feels between your teeth or the silky food feels on your tongue.
-Is the food as good or tasty as you expected?

The next few steps to take is to become more aware of your hunger signals (Am I hungry? and if so, how hungry?), fullness signals and triggers that may influence your appetite or desire to eat.

Reading through a book, using a workbook or talking to a registered dietitian about mindful eating can be very helpful in getting started or to help maintain mindfulness. You can read more about mindful eat and intuitive eating in past blogs here, here, here  and here (you can also search my blog for posts related to mindful and intuitive eating).

Not too much, not too little...just right

Listening to your body's signals is a good long term strategy for weight management. However, if you are just starting out and find it challenging to "eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full", here are a few ways to help you recognize when you have eaten enough:


1. Recognize and experience the feeling of hunger. Practice experiencing true hunger by avoiding eating for at least 4 hours. The goal is to feel and understand the sensation of hunger.

2. Create a routine. Eating a similar breakfast everyday and eating at regular hours your lunch and supper can help your hunger signals get into a routine. The goal is to feel hungry (not starving) before meals and satisfied between meals.

3. Concentrate on the flavours. Take small bites, one at a time to allow your mouth and brain to savour the flavours! The better the flavour experience, the more satisfied we feel with the meal.

4. Pause ½ way through the meal. Take the time to evaluate your hunger levels. If you are experiencing less pleasure with the food, you have likely eaten enough.

5. Avoid distractions while eating. Try to focus on the task at hand by avoiding doing more than one thing at a time. Ex. watching TV, reading or studying while eating.

6. Identify cravings versus hunger. Determine what influences the onset of cravings so that you are better prepared to manage them. Keeping a journal of cravings to help ID emotions, environments and times of the day that may bring about cravings.

7. Do not eat now to avoid eating later on. Avoid eating “in case” you get hungry later on. Focus on the moment at hand and bring a snack if you are afraid hunger may strike.

8. Only YOU can judge your needs. Don’t eat to please someone or to anger them. Only you know how hungry you are and can estimate how much food you need to satisfy that hunger.

9. Practice moderation. Try eating “just enough” and evaluate how you feel physically and mentally. Decrease portions to get a better feel for how much you need to feel satisfied and full after a meal.

10. Slow down. Stretch meals out to be at least 20 minutes long. This will help hunger signals reach the brain before you eat too much.

Calories = Satiation + Energy

Imagine your body as a car…
What allows the car to run? Gas.
What allows our body to run? Calories.
Calories essentially are energy for our body. We find calories in carbohydrates, protein and fat. Vitamins, minerals, water and fiber have NO calories and therefore are used NOT to provide us with energy but for other functions.

Carbohydrates and protein contain the same number of calories per gram. You may have heard that carbohydrate rich foods are fattening but in fact they are not any more fattening than protein rich foods! 4 calories per gram means that if you eat 30g of carbohydrate (ex. 2 slices of bread) or 30g of protein (ex. 4oz fillet of sole) you will consume 120 calories.

Fat are higher in calories per gram- 9cal per 1 gram. Therefore, 5g or 1 tsp of margarine will contain 45 calories.

True hunger is our body is telling us that it has burnt all the calories consumed last meal or snack and that is requires more nourishing. We should not be afraid of experiencing hunger-rather embrace it as a signal that it is time to eat again.

The hardest part of listening to your hunger is being able to determine if it is “true” or “fake” hunger. Sometimes we can mistake other feelings for hunger so it is important to reflect before eating if you are unsure if you are hungry with your eyes versus hungry with your stomach. How long ago was the last time you ate? When is the next meal scheduled? These answers will determine how big of a snack will be appropriate.

The fact that we are hungry when all the calories we last ate have been “burnt” for energy, means that the more calories we eat, the longer we can wait between meals/snacks. So, if we are looking for a snack at 10am to hold us over until 1pm lunch, a mere 35cal yogurt may not be enough. This snack will be “burnt” and possibly leave us hungry by 10:35.

Knowing how many calories your body needs in one day is important in helping you lose weight. It can help keep snack and meal sizes adequate- not too big and not too small. It is important to spread the calories throughout the day to avoid being hungry and boost metabolism.

Keeping a food journal that tracts calories can help you be honest about how much you are eating. It can help to point out where the excess calories are coming from as well as any large gaps between meals.

Eating too many calories one day does not necessarily mean weight gain. Gaining weight requires more than one day of excess. Don’t despair if you get off track one day or one meal- make fresh start the next opportunity you get!

Hungry for the truth?

Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. These guidelines may be easy to understand but are definitely harder to follow. The idea of "eating mindfully" is a new trend in the weight management world. The concept draws on our innate ability to listen to our body's signals of hunger and fullness. However, many of us have stopped listening to these signals a long time ago and have a hard time unscrambling the messages.

One step towards clearly hearing and understanding these signals is to first recognize what they are in their physical form. What exactly do I physically feel when I am truly hungry? Some examples are feeling irritable, an emptiness in your stomach, a gnawing feeling, grumbling in your stomach, headache, shakiness and inability to concentrate.

When we are stimulated into feeling hungry by an outside stimulus, such as the smell of dinner cooking, or seeing donuts in the break room or watching someone else eat, we can have the illusion we are hungry. It may be more a stimulation of our appetite than a true hunger. Removing yourself from the situation for a moment to evaluate your physical symptoms of hunger can help you to determine if the motivation to eat is based on our eyes or your stomach. Some useful tips are to determine your level of true hunger before encountering the stimulus:
-sitting in the car before walking into the house for supper
-take a moment to walk out of the kitchen to determine how hungry you are (ex. in the bathroom) and thus honestly determining how big you portions should be for the meal.
-being honest with yourself regarding the last time you ate (was it only an hour ago?)

If you are still not sure if you are truly hungry, wait 20 minutes before eating. If the symptoms do not go away and get worse, you body is likely asking to be fed.

Knowing the signs of fullness is also important. How do you know when you are full? Again, observing yourself and recording your personal physical signs can be quite eye opening. Feeling full and satisfied after a meal is not the same as feeling bloated or stuffed and ideally, by listening to fullness signals, those signs of overeating will be avoided.
If you are not sure if you are full with the quantities you have eaten, give yourself time to digest. It is likely that in 20 minutes you will feel satisfied. REMEMBER, if you are hungry later, you have the right to eat.
Take the time to measure your level of fullness halfway through the meal.

Only by practicing listening to your body do the messages of hunger and fullness become decoded. It takes practice but in the end, your body is the best determinant of how much food you need!

Surfs up!

Food cravings are a natural part of life but many people think of them as their worst enemy. Most people think they are alone in the battle to outsmart cravings and don't realise that will power or self control often has little to do with them. The trick is in how you deal with them because ultimately that is what we have to do- manage our cravings, not hope that they will one day disappear.

Firstly, identifying what behaviours spark your cravings is a priority. There are different situations that can encourage cravings to arise more often, such as:

WHY? Dieting and severely restricting what you eat can make cravings stronger. Often we want what we can’t have.

SOLUTION: Don’t try to avoid “bad” foods forever! Save them for special occasions. Don’t be scared to eat a small amount of any food.

WHY? Putting foods into categories of good and bad. Trying to totally avoid certain foods can lead to over eating them in the end.

SOLUTION: Stop labelling foods as "good and bad", "legal and illegal" or "forbidden and allowed". The food itself is not bad, often it’s the quantity. Stop feeling guilty about eating special foods. Allow yourself to include your favourite foods into your life in moderation and without feeling guilty.

WHY? Eating way too few calories.

SOLUTION: Eat 3 balanced meals per day. Skipping meals leads you to feel hungrier at the next meal and makes it hard to watch portion sizes.

WHY? Habit and expecting certain foods at certain times, places and with certain people can lead to craving them.

SOLUTION: Start new habits. If you always eat with around a certain person, chose an activity that cannot include eating.Change the environment you are in to discourage mindless eating. Sit in a different chair, in a different room, etc…

WHY?If we look to be comforted by food when we are stressed, our body learns to expect pleasure and comfort from certain foods.

SOLUTION: Exercise regularly. This not only helps to burn calories but it also helps to relieve stress and anxieties due to cravings.

WHY? Having cupboards stocked with sugary, high fat foods (or the foods you crave).

SOLUTION: Buy smaller portions of the foods you crave.Portion out the amount you want to eat- don’t eat directly out of the box/bag/carton.

To help yourself manage your cravings, try to understand them. Is there a pattern? Are you setting yourself up for more cravings by doing some of the things mentioned above?

You cannot always control the occurrence of cravings but you can control your reactions to them.Think of cravings as suggestions to eat, not opportunities to overindulge.

Lastly. disarm your cravings with the 5 D's:

1. Delay: wait 10 minutes before you eat
2. Distract: keep yourself occupied with an activity that requires your attention
3. Distance: don’t keep food handy at all times and within easy reach
4. Determine: establish how important it is for you to eat this food.
5. Decide: what exactly you are craving: something salty? Sweet? Sour? Hot? Cold? Decide what food item you want to eat. Portion out a reasonable serving of the food you crave. Put the rest of the food away, out of site. Sit down, eat slowly and enjoy the food.

Have faith in yourself that all cravings will pass. Think of a craving as a wave and you are a surfer who is trying to ride the wave, not wipe out because of it. The more you practice riding the wave, the better you get.