Eight Strategies For Mindful Eating

Eight Strategies For Mindful Eating  

Keeping A Food Diary Is A Great Way To Be Mindful Of The What, When And Why You Eat

      Have you been practicing the mindful eating guidelines we spoke of in last month’s blog? Hopefully, you have learned how to focus on your food and enjoy as you eat it. So, now let’s discuss some simple strategies to take control and be more aware of your hunger cues. There are eight strategies that can help you do this:

  1. Utilize the hunger scale 1 being starved and 10 being so stuffed you are nauseous. The goal is to come in at about 5 or 6. See below for details.

  2. Understand hunger and satiety Eat until you have had just enough, which is basically enough food to control hunger for four hours, not to feel stuffed

  3. Tracking hunger, fullness, emotions and perceived healthfulness Keep a detailed food diary for a week to track trends. Accountability will help you change behavior.

  4. Slow down. Chew your food thoroughly, this improves satisfaction and actually helps us to obtain nutrients from the food. It also increases the amount of time to eat each portion and allow for you to feel hunger/fullness cues.

  5. Hit the pause button Take 30-60 seconds before making a decision on what and how much to eat. Doing so can help you to recognize triggers and make better choices.

  6. Redirect. When looking for or craving unhealthy snacks or meals, redirect yourself to a list of healthy choices and be sure to have the ingredients on hand to assure you stick with the new choice.

  7. Embrace Healthy Eating and Manage Your Expectations Be sure your food choices are for nourishment overall Ask yourself “what do I want the food to do for me?” Then determine if the food is for fuel, comfort, nourishment, entertainment or to fight disease.

  8. Cook Healthy Be the nutritional gatekeeper. What you have in your pantry will determine what you eat at meals, so shop wisely. Be sure to keep cooking simple and easy to avoid the pitfall of turning to take out when you’ve had too busy a day.

Try these strategies and see how easy it is to be more mindful about your eating.

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