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The advice to eat what we want sends shudders of horror among
many women today. “If I eat what I want, then I'll
eat nothing but potato chips and candy!” is the common
response. But when we truly understand the advice, we see
that only by eating what we want can we achieve success in
feeding ourselves well for health, healthy weights and well-being.
Mindful Eating – the Natural Way
to Eat
 Mindful
eating (also called intuitive eating) uses our
internal cues for hunger, appetite and satiety to guide us
in eating. As infants, we naturally follow these cues, but
once the outside world begins to influence us, we may start
to distrust our cues. “Women who come to Green Mountain
often say their struggles with eating began with comments
from well-meaning parents, worried their daughters were eating
too much because they had recently gained weight,” says
Robyn Priebe, RD, nutritionist at Green Mountain at Fox Run.
“The parents didn't realize that their children
were in the midst of growth spurts that often mean a child
gets rounder before she gets taller. Unfortunately, the result
for many women is the beginning of a lifelong struggle with
eating and weight.”
This struggle often revolves around periodic bouts of dieting,
or even living on a diet, in constant fear that what we eat
will make us fat. Research clearly shows, however, that dieting
doesn't work. While we may lose weight initially
when dieting, we fail to keep it off, and often regain even
more pounds than we lost. Further, we've “failed”
when we don't lose weight or when we regain it.
On the other hand, mindful eating is positive. It's
part of living well, leading a healthy lifestyle and accepting
the diversity of size of bodies in their healthy states. After
years of dieting their way to higher weights, many people
lose weight by adopting this new way of thinking and being.
More importantly, however, it means improved self-esteem and
health including lower cholesterol and blood pressure. There's
no ‘pass/fail' to this new lifestyle. Instead,
the result is a happy, healthy body, mind, and spirit.
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is eating in a supportive manner, using our
bodies' cues to guide us in when, what and how much
to eat for satisfaction and well-being. It includes all kinds
of foods that make us feel well, but that can vary from time
to time as well as from person to person. For example, a hot
fudge sundae may be a better choice than an apple sometimes,
although some of us may not like hot fudge sundaes so we never
eat them.
Mindful eating is about:
- a peaceful eating relationship with food according to
your body's needs
- eating to support your body's natural healthy state
- balance, choice, wisdom, and acceptance
- eating consciously in a way to make our bodies feel well
- being aware of our surroundings, mind, body, and spirit
- being “in the moment”
Mindful eating is NOT about:
- dieting
- measuring or weighing food
- restricting or avoiding foods
- counting fat grams or calories
- worrying about body size or “ideal” weight
Strategies for Success in Eating Mindfully
These guidelines may help you better understand your role
in eating mindfully. Eating with intuition is different for
every person, but the general aspect of listening to your
body remains constant.
- Eat when you are hungry. Watch for your
body's hunger cues as your signal that it is time
to eat. Eat enough to feel satisfied and comfortably full,
not stuffed. For most of us, this means eating every 3-5
hours or so. Balanced meals that include grains/starchy
vegetables, protein foods, and vegetables and/or fruits
promote satisfaction and satiety.
- Eat what you want. If we don't,
we'll likely find ourselves overeating out of deprivation.
Restricting ourselves from certain foods may also keep us
searching for food whether we're hungry or not. If
what we want is always the richer choice, we may still be
caught up in diet deprivation. Compromise by using richer
foods in smaller quantities. For example use foods such
as bleu cheese or bacon bits as a garnish to a healthier
choice like a green salad.
- Eat until you've had enough. If
we're used to eating until we're uncomfortable,
we may want to work on redefining our definition of how
much is enough.. Being comfortably full after a meal may
be necessary to feel satisfied for some people. On the other
hand, consistently eating until we're stuffed is not
ideal for healthy eating as it may mean we were not listening
to our bodies' signal of fullness. Occasionally overeating
is normal; it's the habit that we want to avoid.
- Use the Healthy
Eating Plate Model as a guide. It's a
tool to use until we've learned to trust our cues
of satisfaction and fullness. It can help eliminate the
anxiety of how much is enough/too much by providing beginning
portion sizes without measuring, weighing, or counting what
is being put into your mouth. It also guides us in balancing
our meals for satisfaction and satiety, although it's
our job to put onto the plate what satisfies our taste buds
and provides for our well being.
- Enjoy your food! When we're eating,
we want to remember to savor our foods with our eyes and
nose as well as our mouth. Letting all of our senses play
a part can enhance our enjoyment and help us feel more satisfied.
To learn more about mindful eating, join us for a week or
more at Green Mountain at Fox Run.Our cookbook Recipes
for Living also includes an introduction
to mindful eating to help you. Order
it online, or call 800.448.8106.
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