Mindfulness has huge benefits to health and has exploded in popularity. So how can we transfer mindfulness to how we eat?
He was giving me the side-eye.
My six-year-old was unimpressed that I was reading emails off my phone at the breakfast table. He was perhaps too polite to point it out verbally, but he was definitely giving me ‘the look’.
And he was right, of course.
I clicked my phone off, stood up and put it way out of reach on the kitchen counter. Then I returned to the breakfast table, smiled and asked him how he slept.
As he returned my smile I looked down at the chopping board I was eating off. I hadn’t even bothered to put my toast on a plate and I hadn’t even really registered the fact I had eaten a piece already. I had been so consumed with work emails that I had taken no joy in my breakfast at all. I had eaten mindlessly, instead of mindfully.
Mindful eating is eating with awareness. Instead of multi-tasking or eating on the run, you sit down and focus on your food, taking the time to really enjoy it.
This is easier said than done. I am guilty of eating lunch while typing emails one-handed, stuffing food in my mouth while driving, and taking random bites of cold toast as I whizz past the kitchen counter in the morning.
Our fast-paced lives make it difficult to eat mindfully for every meal and snack of the day. During the holiday season possibly even more so than normal. We are often out and about, busy wrangling children, and stressing over whether we packed our phone charger or not. But if we can get one or two mindful meals in there somewhere, be it a big meal or a small snack, it can make a huge difference to both our appetite and happiness. It’s no coincidence that people who eat mindfully tend to eat less, savour their food more, and choose foods that are more nutritious.
So here are my top tips for mindful eating this festive season:
- Sit down to eat
- Put food on a plate
- Turn off the TV and put phones and devices away
- Put your knife and fork down sometimes between bites. This slows down your eating. Remember that it takes about 20 mins for the bacterial proteins in the gut to signal to the brain that its full, so we should give it time to do that!
- Bring all of your senses to the meal: not just taste but smell, sight, feel and sound (be it crunchy chippies or the delightful cracking of a meringue)
- And lastly, share meals with loved ones. This is not strictly mindful but it comes with a host of benefits in and of itself (some of these are better school performance, better self-esteem, less disordered eating, less depression and suicidal thoughts, less violent behaviour, lower alcohol and substance use). Plus, I think food tastes better when its shared.
To get you started on your mindful eating journey this festive season, I have a little exercise that you can do with some of that candy from your stocking!
- Get some chocolate, put it on a plate and sit down with it.
- Now imagine that you are an alien and this is your first meal on this strange new planet called Earth.
- Look at the chocolate, pick it up, and examine it as if you have never seen chocolate before. Feel its weight, look at how it shines, smell it, notice the stickiness.
- How do you feel about this strange new chocolate?
- Lick the chocolate and really take note of the taste.
- Take a tiny bite, roll it back into your mouth and let it melt slowly as you swirl the flavours around in your mouth.
- Take another tiny bite and again, let it melt slowly. Repeat until you have finished the chocolate.
- Take a moment to notice what you just experienced. How do you feel about chocolate? Do you want more or are you satisfied?
It’s perfectly fine to mindlessly eat popcorn while watching Home Alone, you don’t have to be perfect all the time. But if we can get a mindful meal in our day somewhere, you’ll definitely notice the difference.
As my son expounded on his dream about blue aliens and Pokemon ninjas, I savoured my next bites of toast and marmalade, and sipped my hot tea slowly. I felt so much calmer, so much happier and more at peace. But mainly, I actually tasted my food instead of shovelling it in, and, to my surprise, it tasted really good. I couldn’t believe I had almost missed out on the joy of a crunchy and sweet piece of toast with a smooth morning cuppa because I was too focused on other things.