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Mindful Eating


Mindfulness refers to the practice of being ‘present’ -  an active awareness of what is happening right now including your surroundings, thoughts and feelings, described as ‘knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment’.

Mindful eating means developing awareness about what you are eating and why, taking control of what you consume and being present in the act of eating.

By being mindful of what you are eating, you eliminate eating on autopilot and can be aware of detrimental behaviours, such as emotional eating or binge eating. 




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Mindful Eating

Here are 5 great examples of Mindful Eating:

  1. Body awareness - only eating when your body signals you are hungry and stopping eating when your body signals you are full.

  2. Food choices - choosing foods that will positively impact your health across every level: physical, emotional and mental.

  3. Food sensations - when eating a food, spending time to enhance your senses, the taste, the smell, the texture and experience of the food.

  4. Environment - removing distractions, not eating in front of the tv, not eating on the go, not eating whilst working - to put simply, allowing yourself to have the only task you need to be focusing on is eating.

  5. Socialising - since time began food was a celebration, a time to socialise and catch up, converse and tell stories, making eating “special” again is important rather than it being a process or a “get it done” task.

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Mindless Eating




Here are 5 examples of what not to do, which is mindless eating:

  1. Eating beyond the feeling of full and then feeling guilty.

  2. Emotional Eating - eating when you are bored, stress, anxious, sad rather than having a genuine body signal of hunger.

  3. Grazing on food throughout the day without even really acknowledging any of the smells, tastes, textures or experience.

  4. Eating and multi tasking - eating whilst on the go, in the car, walking, sat at your computer, on your phone or even in front of the TV.

  5. Skipping meals and not paying attention to your hunger signals, often replacing these with caffeine, energy drinks or sugar filled drinks.

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Mindful Eating Methods

Mind-Body Awareness: eating slowly is a key method for connecting the mind and body and listening to what we really need nutritionally.

It takes 20 minutes for the satiation signal (the message from your body to your brain to say your full) which is why people often unconsciously overeat.

Sitting down to eat, chewing your food thoroughly, setting your fork down between bites, eating off a plate, all these can promote mindful eating.

  

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Task - Mindfully Eat A Meal




Mindfully eat a meal - switch off all distractions and focus all your attention onto the meal:


  1. What textures are present?

  2. What flavours are present?

  3. What does it smell like?

  4. How do you feel during the meal?

  5. How can you experience the meal as fully as possible?

 GUIDE: Focus on all the elements of the food and the experience.

Mindful eating can be a form of mediation - fully immersed in the process.

Mindful eating can make you aware of habits attached to eating that can lead to greater success in losing weight and keeping weight off.