Being Present with Your Food – Mindfulness Matters in Achieving Weight Loss.
Behavior modification is one of the keys to weight loss. What you have been doing in the past obviously is not keeping you healthy, helping you to be fit or lose weight. "Doing" is a verb, an action word, which correlates to a certain behavior or process that you engage in.
If you have a stressful day at work, feel too depressed or tired to go home and make a nutritious meal and instead hit a drive through – you are exhibiting a response to a stimulus (stress) – you are conditioning yourself to say "I am stressed, therefore I will ease my future burden/effort/stress (cooking/thinking about meal/prep of food) by taking a short cut (drive through)". The problem is there are no such things as short cuts in staying healthy or getting fit. It is an everyday process of choosing and following through with positive behaviors. It requires thought. It requires you to be present in the moment, not living in the past or dwelling on the stimuli/events that caused your health hindering behaviors.
Small lapses happen to everyone – but most people to not plan a lapse, or acknowledge it. There lies one of the problems. You have a lapse without thinking about it, get caught in the moment of giving in, and feel guilty after the slip. The guilt spirals downward with negative thinking, negative reinforcement, etc. until you are engaged in your old behavior patterns.
Instead of having "lapses" I make "choices". I live in the present with my choice, think about it, and plan it. If I want a piece of vegan cake – I think about it. How many calories there are, how much work I would have to do to burn off the calories, how I may feel after I eat the cake – and I weigh this against my desire for the cake. Most times I don’t give into cravings, but every once in a while – I may feel as though I had a particularly stressful, busy or active day and that the pleasure I would receive from a piece of cake outweighs the rest – and I have a piece of cake and move on. The cake is then in the past, gone and done with. I don’t harbor on it, or feelings of guilt. I don’t starve myself for the next few days as punishment, or hit the gym extra hard to prove I can stay on top of everything. Life is about moderation and balance, not punishment.
Lapses vs. Choices Behavior:
- Be present with your food.
- Ask yourself why you want the food. To deal with stress, as a reward?
- Once you know why, ask how that makes you feel. Guilty, Ashamed, Happy?
- Question what the food will do for you – is it nutritious? is it high in fat?
- How much will this food set you back from your goals?
- How will you feel after eating this food? How have you felt before after eating this food?
- After searching for these answers question whether you truly want this food, and make your decision. When you are done eating, move on.
Keeping a food journal is another technique I use to stay tied to the moment. This used to be very hard for me because it brings up issues surrounding past struggles with eating disorders. if you have or have had an eating disorder – food journaling possibly is not a healthy option (check with your mental health provider if need be). It took me a while to come to a healthy relationship with food journaling and now I use it as a tool to analyze what my diet may be lacking nutritionally, how much I have eaten and it honestly reflects my intake.
There is the important part of food journals – you have to be honest (another problem for me years ago). Make sure to measure food amounts, for detailed journals or tracking of certain nutrients make sure to note them (such as carbs, fat, protein – or most recently for me Iron percentages). Simply writing "Potato Chips" tells you nothing – did you eat 10 chips or a whole bag ?
Food Journal Behavior:
- Be honest with your food journal. (don’t omit things you ate or add food you didn’t eat)
- Make accurate measurements of what you eat. (1 cup, 1 bag, 2 tablespoons, 1 serving…).
- Keep track of important information about the food (calories consumed, carbs, fat, saturated fat…)
- Note why you chose the food (only thing in the house, fast to make, as a reward…)
- Track the quality of the food /experience (enjoyed it, ate it fast to get past eating, didn’t notice eating)
- Mark the time that you ate (comes in handy to see if you are a late night eater, spacing out meals…)
Maybe you don’t want to journal your food, or have to make meal plans ahead of time. There are simple techniques that you can use to stay more present with your food. I mention being present with your food a great deal because I believe it is the number one factor in a healthy relationship with food. I have personally had very unhealthy food relationships on both sides of the fence. One of the most important reasons to be present is to be able to identify satiety and hunger cues. It is hard for many people to understand how others can eat so much, get so big – or how they can eat so little. Imagine having earplugs that blocked all sound and you were asked to complete a task every time a buzzer went off and keep doing it until the buzzer went off – without hearing the buzzer you could do one of two things – complete the task until you got tired of it – or never start on the task.
When I overate the most difficult thing was knowing when I was full. I ate emotionally as a child because I was overweight, teased and bullied. I come from a family of over eaters and people who don’t pay too much attention to what they are eating beyond how delicious it is.
Sitting alone and eating I remember never feeling "full" . As I progressed through eating disorders and eventually to anorexia I just never felt hungry, or couldn’t cue into it. I was so afraid of gaining weight, or eating something "wrong" that my mind simply ignored the cues.
I found that sitting and questioning, monitoring my food intake and physiological signs helped. I noticed that in college if I didn’t have lunch (or "forgot to eat") I couldn’t stay awake in biology class. If I went too long between meals (a day or so) I would get migraines, become angry or frustrated. These were very gross signs, eventually I cued in to more subtle signs.
Hopefully most people are not that cue-less. If you are you may need help from a licensed professional. If you are just an occasional food lover (m&m’s are your weakness from time to time) or you find that you don’t pay attention to your eating, behavior modification at the table can help.
Mind the Fork, Mindful Eating:
- Start by noticing what is on your plate; how does it look, how does it smell?
- Notice the utensil in your hand, how does it feel (cold, smooth..)
- As you take a utensil full notice the arrangement of the food, notice it as your bring it to your mouth.
- As you take a bite, notice the texture of the food (is the inside different than the outside? is it soft / hard? hot / cold?)
- Notice the taste of the food (is it sour, sweet, salty?)
- Become aware of how the food feels in your mouth, your chewing, against the palette and tongue.
- As you swallow the food, imagine it traveling to the stomach, nourishing you.
- If you are a fast eater – add in a food count (one, chew, two, chew, etc).
There are others ways to mindfully meditate upon your food, I use them in my yoga classes from time to time with small snack items. It is a great way to connect the mind and body – food nourishes both and they both house the spirit – it becomes a dynamic relationship.
Of course, what you put on your fork is just as important as how you approach each forkful. For tips on incorporating healthy choices into your meals check out my previous post Eat Better, Feel Better – Easy Tips to get Started.. If you are in need of meal plans, or special diets, for any reason make sure you consult a licensed and registered nutritionist or dietician. Personal trainers, weight loss coaches and fitness instructors are not licensed or degreed to make meal plans for you , and in most states are breaking the law when they do. This does not mean that they are acting maliciously or giving bad advice – it is just the facts.
This goes the same for recommending nutritional supplements. Trainers get compensated for selling certain supplements at many gyms and therefore have an incentive to get you to buy. This is against ACE and other Personal Trainer Certifying Organizations’ code of ethics and can result in removal of their certification, it is also against many Personal Trainers’ Insurance Policies to do so. Please be informed, educate yourself and stay healthy.
