This Practice Will Make You Stop Your Food Cravings

Mindful eating is the practice of being aware and present while you are eating. It is not a diet. There are no food restrictions or recommendations. There is no counting calories or fat grams or carbohydrates. It is simply paying attention to what you are eating and how you feel when you eat it.

Sounds kind of easy, right?

But when was the last time you ate a meal, sitting down, with no distractions, for at least 20 minutes? That means no phone, no iPad, no book or Kindle or newspaper. That means no getting up in the middle of the meal to do some task you just remembered. Or standing in front of the television while spooning your breakfast cereal in your mouth. Or sitting at your desk eating your sandwich while answering emails.

Maybe not as easy as it first sounded.

Mindful eating is a simple practice that when done consistently, offers tremendous benefits.

It’s something I have done off and on for a couple of years. When I’m in the practice of doing it, everything is better.

I feel better about myself.

My digestion is better.

My eating is under control.

I make the right decisions about what foods to eat.

I feel more comfortable in my clothes.

I don’t crave things or have moments of crazed binge eating.

Food doesn’t control me.

I decide what and when I want to eat.

I don’t succumb to every stray thought that tells me to open the fridge to see what’s there.

The Benefits

The benefits of mindful eating are well researched and documented. Dr. Susan Albers is a psychologist for the Cleveland Clinic and has written 5 books on mindful eating. She lists three general ways in which mindful eating can benefit someone.

1. Mindful eating plugs you back into your body’s cues so you know when to stop and start eating.
2. Being mindful can bring about better management of your emotions. Sometimes people restrict or overeat as a way to cope with negative feelings. Eating and not eating can distract you from your worries. When you have healthier ways of coping, such as mindful breathing and letting go of anxiety, you may no longer manage your emotions through your food choices. You can tolerate your emotions, as uncomfortable as they may be, without pushing them away or stuffing them down with food.
3. Mindfulness changes the way you think. Rather than reacting to food-related thoughts that urge you to overeat, overly restrict your diet or emotionally eat, etc., you respond to them. You can hear these thoughts without obeying them.

In other words, mindful eating works in the same way mindful meditation works. With practice, you become more aware of your thoughts and less susceptible to being yanked around by them. It gives you the space to pause and make a choice before shoving that cookie in your mouth.

So why is it so hard to do? If everything is better when I do it, why can’t I just keep doing it?

I have mantras that help me through the times when I’m struggling.

When I’m feeling the need to snack mindlessly while working, I say to myself

“Create Space”.

Or when I have the overwhelming urge to pop bites of food in my mouth while I’m preparing dinner, I say to myself,

“Don’t eat before you eat.”

These silly little mantras actually work when I remember to say them. The words help to slow down my thoughts and pause long enough to realize they are merely thoughts and I have a choice of whether to act on them or not.

The Key to Success

But why does it stop working? Where do the wheels come off the track? Why does weakness take over and my strong will crumble?

Even now as sit here writing this, I have the thought that getting up to go to the fridge might help me find the right words that I need to continue this post.

Surely, no part of that thought is true. When did food become my sole source of comfort?

There’s another great doctor who is doing some positive work in the mindful eating arena. His name is Judson Brewer and he has a fantastic smart phone app called Eat Right Now. It is a 30 day program, teaching you the basics of mindful eating. Each day has a short video and lesson about mindful eating followed by a simple practice to perform that day.

When I was doing the program, I had the will of Ironman. The videos and the lessons worked. The practices made sense. I was happy with the results.

But like so many good habits, without the proper attention and focus, they can easily slip away. Mindful eating, just as mindful meditation, or any mindfulness practice, requires diligence and discipline.

But an even greater component of this practice is patience and self compassion. It’s important to remember that there’s a lot wrapped up in our relationship with food. On the one hand, we need food to fuel us, give us energy, and make our bodies function. On the other hand, food is often used as a reward, treat, or as a way to soothe and comfort in times of sadness or even excitement.

Food sensitivities, allergies, and intolerances add even more complexity to our relationship with it. Our brains are directly affected by what we eat. Food can cause cravings, mood swings, brain fog, memory loss, depression and a whole host of other symptoms that we may not immediately recognize as coming from a food source.

Mindful eating can help us to recognize these cause and effect reactions. Paying attention to what we eat and how we feel before, during and after eating can illuminate many seemingly unrelated feelings or symptoms.

We are living in a time where toxins are at the highest rate in history. Even small levels of exposure can build up over many years and slowly wreak havoc on our systems. Yet the slow build up can cause us not to notice the small effects. Or we write it off as part of getting older. But if we are practicing mindful eating, we are more likely to see the direct correlation of how we feel from what we put inside of our bodies.

So while I have been struggling with my own mindful eating practice, I have to remind myself that there are many factors at play and what I need most is non- judgmental self compassion. That is the foundation of any mindfulness practice.

If you’d like to begin a mindful eating practice, I highly recommend checking out Dr. Susan Albers website or Judson Brewer’s smart phone app.

For some free guided mindful eating meditations, check out the Center for Mindful Eating website or the Insight Timer app, which has a great meditation that I use often.

N E X T ⟹⟹ 8 Ways That Will Make You Avoid Food Cravings