The Difference Between Mindless Eating and Mindful Eating
Filed Under: Mindful Eating
17 August 2016 | Written by Xenia Ayiotis
“When walking, walk. When eating, eat.” — Zen Proverb
Have you ever eaten something and when you look down it’s finished and you don’t remember eating the food?
This often happens with chips, nuts and popcorn but it can also happen with a plate of food! This is typical mindless eating. Mindless eating essentially, is eating on auto-pilot…
Let’s look at some of the characteristics of Mindless Eating:
- The classic form of mindless eating is eating while multi-tasking. We justify this by saying we are so busy and have so much to do! So we eat at our desks, snack in front of our computer, we eat in our cars and on the run, standing up.
- It is very enjoyable to combine pleasures: eating in front of the TV and watching our favourite series, but our attention is divided so we don’t get maximum pleasure from our food and so we need more and more! If we eat and multi-task, the chances are we will overeat because our attention is not on our food.
- Eating and thinking at the same time is also mindless eating – typically we do this whilst problem solving. Our minds are so deep in thought that before we know it, the food is finished and we can’t remember the taste!
- Mindless eating happens when we are bored, stressed, anxious or sad – we want to distract ourselves from the discomfort of the unpleasant emotion, so we eat!
- Sometimes we mindlessly eat because the food is there in front of us and eating has nothing to do with our physical hunger or we continue to eat regardless of fullness, because there is still food on our plate.
Mindful Eating on the other hand, is getting out of auto-pilot and becoming aware of our moment to moment experiences:
- We eat mindfully when we pay attention to our hunger and mostly eat out of hunger.
- Becoming aware and noticing how we feel emotionally and physically before and as we eat. Very often if we notice we are tired, we realise that it’s rest we need and not food.
- Mindful eating is eating slowly (as much as possible, even if it’s just the first few bites of a meal) and becoming aware of the taste, texture, aroma and flavours of the food – essentially being in the moment and taking the meal bite by bite.
- A mindful eater will determine his/her hunger level and eat accordingly.
- There is no guilt or judgement when we eat mindfully, we simply notice and decide what and how much to eat consciously.
- When we overeat, we learn from the experience and let it go without beating ourselves up.
Do you want to start eating mindfully? Here are some simple steps:
- Eat without distractions – no computer, iPad, cellphone, book, radio.
- Do not eat in the car or on the go.
- Eat while sitting down. Put the food on a plate.
- Pause in the middle of your meal.
The great thing about Mindful Eating is that it is NOT a diet. It is realistic, practical and easy to follow. There are no rules or restrictions. There is no imposed hunger or deprivation and there is no guilt or judgement about how much or what you eat. You are in charge and empowered.
The main benefit is that it is a way of eating that anyone can follow – you can be vegan, vegetarian, kosher, halaal.
It works long term because you address the reasons why you are overeating instead of imposing dietary rules.
Mindful Eating helps us develop a healthy, peaceful relationship with food and eating. It gives us freedom around all types of foods.
Mindfully Yours,
Xen.
Hello, I'm Xen. Welcome!
I help women all over the world drop the struggle with food and their bodies to create a life of peace and freedom.
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