Mindful eating is a practice that can support your overall health and wellness. A regular mindfulness practice serves as a strong foundation for making lasting lifestyle changes that support wellbeing. Mindful eating can support weight loss, and it can also support overall wellbeing. Losing weight and keeping it off involves a willingness to begin to take responsibility for your own wellbeing. Notice that all I’ve said is required at this point is the willingness, even if you don’t know what to do next. Are you willing?
Are you willing to take responsibility for your own wellbeing?
Committing to Your Own Wellbeing
It really is possible for eating to become something that is pleasurable, something that is perceived as an act of self-care to nourish your body and your overall wellbeing. With mindfulness for weight loss, it’s possible to transform your relationship with your body and food so that you are able to savor pleasurable food and enjoy eating in a way that nourishes you without continuing to become entangled in the cycle of craving, overeating, and hating yourself. And it really is possible to arrive at a place of being able to decide that you and your health are worth the time, commitment, and effort required for this transformation.
After willingness, you’ll need commitment. Are you willing to commit to your own wellbeing? Notice what happens in your body, heart, and mind in response to simply reading this question. Did you body feel open and light, your heart open, and your mind offer a wholehearted yes? Or did your body tighten with fear or some other form of resistance, your heart close, and your mind tell you that it’s just too much work?
Most of us resist change. We find comfort in what is familiar, even if what is familiar is painful. If you encountered resistance in response to the question, “Are you willing to commit to your own wellbeing?” try to objectively observe the resistance and meet it with an attitude of kindness and compassion rather than judging it. Try reassuring yourself that it’s ok to move toward change, even when you notice resistance. You don’t have to continue to allowing the resistance to be in charge of your decisions and choices.
Mindful Eating for Weight Loss Takes Effort
Changing any habitual pattern requires effort. In order to lose weight and keep it off, you’ll need to put some effort toward beginning to change the habitual patterns that keep you stuck. Mindfulness for weight loss can help you to create lifestyle changes that support weight loss and maintenance. If you’re encountering some internal resistance to the idea of making the effort toward changing the habitual patterns that keep you stuck, then it may be helpful for you to spend some time exploring the reasons behind the resistance, as that may offer valuable insight into some of what is keeping you stuck in doing the same things and getting the same results. Try making a list of the types of internal resistances you’re encountering in your journal. Then, one by one, try generating at least two possible solutions or counter points to each of these resistances.
I’m offering below some concrete steps that you can begin to take right now to support you in losing weight and successfully keeping it off. These steps take effort. When your mind tells you that it’s just too much work, try reminding yourself that it requires effort. The mind responds more favorably to the idea of effort than to the idea of work.
What else have you put effort toward in your life? Cultivating a relationship? Choosing a career? Taking care of aspects of your physical, emotional, and/or mental health? Starting a family? Searching for a job? Creating a home? Nurturing a garden? Most of the areas that I’ve named also require effort in order to obtain and maintain the results you desire. For example, if you have a career or are in a relationship, each took initial effort to achieve. If you then stop putting effort toward nurturing your career and generating ongoing intellectual stimulation or growing financially, you may feel stagnant. Similarly, if you stop putting effort toward nurturing your relationship with a partner, the two of you may have grown apart. It requires ongoing effort to maintain career and relationship satisfaction. This is no different from your relationship with your body and weight loss. It requires initial effort to lose the weight, and it requires ongoing effort toward developing sustainable lifestyle habits in order to maintain the weight loss.
15 Things You Can Do to Create Lasting Changes with Eating Habits
If you’re ready to change your relationship with food, I’ve identified a number of steps to support you in your efforts to create lasting changes with eating.
1. Expand your self-awareness by practicing mindful eating. Mindfulness is the most effective thing that I’ve experienced for increasing self-awareness. When you have self-awareness, you can more clearly see the patterns that keep you stuck. When you see yourself clearly, you have the freedom to change.
What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is awareness of the present moment without clinging to it, without turning away or trying to escape it, and without wanting it to be other than it is. Mindfulness is awareness of whatever is happening in the present moment with an attitude of kindness and acceptance.
Any time we have an experience, the mind judges it as pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. If the mind judges it as pleasant, it focuses on how good it is and then usually becomes overly focused on figuring out how to get more, and we become entangled in craving and clinging.
If the mind judges it as unpleasant, it often thinks something like, “oh no, not this,” and becomes overly focused on how to turn away or escape the unpleasant experience. We attempt to turn away or escape by overindulging in food, alcohol, drugs, social media, shopping, smoking, TV, creating chaos in our lives, or becoming overly involved with others’ chaotic lives.
When we practice mindfulness, we attempt to keep the attention focused on the present moment without clinging or turning away. We practice staying with whatever arises and meeting it with an attitude of kindness and acceptance. People who practice mindfulness have an easier time in realizing their intentions and goals.
It’s possible to transform your relationship with food so that you savor delicious, healthy food in the present moment without becoming entangled in clinging and craving. And you can learn to meet the unpleasant moments more skillfully and with less reactivity, which can decrease the impulse to reach for food in an attempt to cope with difficult sensations, feelings, and thoughts.
2. Start small with practicing mindfulness and mindful eating. Check out my 4-minute guided Meditation for Awareness of the Body, Heart and Mind recording. Try listening to it twice a week and gradually add more days each week until you’re practicing this meditation 5-7 days/week. You can access the recording here. You can also download the Sound Cloud app and listen to it on your phone. You can find my account there under Jen Johnson or Meditate Create. After practicing this meditation for a week or two, you should begin to notice that your awareness of how your body, heart, and mind feel is expanding. This expanding awareness will serve as the foundation for all of the effort that you’ll make going forward in your attempt to lose weight. It will support you in maintaining self-awareness and help you to see clearly the habitual patterns that are keeping you stuck. Again, when you see yourself clearly, you have the freedom to change.
3. Reduce stress to support a mindful eating practice. Chronic stress can lead to unhealthy eating patterns and weight gain, difficulty losing weight, and a host of health problems. Stress activates the fight or flight response in the brain. When this system is activated, the areas of the brain that help you to keep your intentions and goals in mind are not fully engaged.
Therefore, when you are stressed, you are more likely to give in to food cravings. If you struggle with chronic stress or are currently experiencing a situation that creates acute stress, I’d recommend the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 8-week course. I offer the course online, and you may also be able to find it in your local community if you prefer to take it in person. Learn more about my MBSR online course here.
4. Notice any points in this process that your mind tells you that mindful eating won’t work and why. This is the key to where your resistances lie, and it will serve you well to more deeply understand those resistances and attempt to work through them. When you notice a resistance, consider whether there’s any validity to it. If there isn’t, try to see it objectively as just something your mind tells you to keep you from making changes, because change feels scary, even when it’s positive change.
5. Try applying your mindfulness practice to mindful eating. Begin to make healthy choices with food. I typically suggest to my clients that they write down everything they put in their mouths for a week and then at the end of the week, tally the number of calories they are eating per day. By doing this, you can sometimes identify hidden sources of high calories.
I worked with one client who was eating “a handful” of cashews every afternoon for a snack without realizing the extent to which it was contributing to her weight gain. When I suggested that she measure the cashews, she realized she had been eating 1 cup of them every day, which added 800 calories to her daily intake. You can use an online calorie counter to determine how many calories you need to consume to lose 1-2 pounds per week. This awareness may seem scary at first, but remaining unaware will likely continue to keep you from making the progress that you desire.
Surf the urge to eat when you’re not hungry. Use mindfulness practice to observe the urge to eat. Take some deep breaths to calm your body and quiet your mind. Imagine that the urge to eat impulsively is like a wave—that urge rises, swells, crests, and falls. If you’re eating impulsively, you’re likely reacting to the rise of the wave with anxiety and eating impulsively to make it stop. See if you can bring awareness to noticing the rise and swell and fall of the urge without giving into it. This may well be one of the most important skills for you to learn, to surf an urge without giving into it. If you practice this skill regularly, you’ll learn how to tolerate food cravings and urges without giving in. You’ll also learn that most often they quickly come and go and that you don’t have to react to them or allow them to be in charge.
6. Make healthier choices regarding food with mindful eating practice. Diets are a short-term solution to what is often a long-term challenge. They don’t work long-term. You may lose weight on a diet, but then when you return to your regular eating habits, you’ll likely regain the weight. How many times have you lost and regained the weight that you are attempting to lose? Why not try a more sustainable approach by changing your lifestyle habits? What is required to successfully lose weight and maintain the weight loss is learning to choose to eat healthy and making lifestyle changes that support health.
Choose whole foods—vegetables, fruits, grains, and meats. And try to choose foods that are either organically grown, foods that haven’t been sprayed with pesticides, or foods that have low pesticide residues if they have been sprayed. Environmental Working Group publishes a list of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen foods annually that is a great guide for choosing foods with no or low pesticide residues.
Prior to eating out, remind yourself of your intentions and goals, and choose healthy foods from the menu that support your intentions. If you need additional support making healthy choices regarding food, consult with a qualified Registered Dietician or Licensed Nutritionist. Be sure to ask about their qualifications, and make certain that they hold a license to practice. I love referring people to Summerfield Custom Wellness.
7. Drink plenty of water to support your mindful eating practice. Use mindfulness to check in with yourself when you have an urge to eat. Are you hungry, or are you thirsty, bored, or anxious? Many people confuse hunger with thirst or use food to attempt to escape from difficult emotional or mental states. Staying adequately hydrated will not only support your weight loss goals, it can also support your overall physical, emotional, and mental health. Get informed about the water quality in your city, and make certain that you’re drinking healthy water. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database to learn about water quality in your city. If the water in your city contains toxic chemicals, consider installing a water filter in your home that will filter out the chemicals. Reverse Osmosis filters will filter out most Perflourinated compounds. Be certain to get a filter that has a remineralization process, or add mineral supplements back to your water.
8. Choose portions wisely with mindful eating. If you’re choosing healthy foods, and you total your daily calories, and you’re caloric intake isn’t low enough to support healthy weight loss, try reducing your portion sizes. You may be eating larger portion sizes out of habit, and not necessarily because you need that much food to satiate your hunger. Bring more awareness to your level of hunger prior to eating and during eating. See #9 for more details about this.
9. Evaluate your level of hunger and anxiety with mindful eating. When you sit down to eat (and I do recommend sitting down to eat a relaxed meal), pause for a moment, take a few deep breaths, and check in with your body. Rate your level of hunger on a scale of 1 – 10 with 1 being not very hungry and 10 being very hungry. Now rate your level of anxiety on a scale of 1 – 10.
Pause midway through your meal and again at the end of the meal to rate your level of hunger and anxiety. Keep a journal to notice any patterns. Notice whether you’re generally hungry when you sit down to eat or not. Notice how full you feel midway through your meal and at the end. If you notice a pattern of feeling satiated midway through your meal, can you try decreasing the portion sizes? One client noticed a habit of making a large dinner plate full of salad for dinner but became aware that she was full halfway through the salad and continued to eat anyway. She decided from then on to make her salads on a salad plate. She felt satiated but not too full, and this choice supported her weight loss. This simple mindfulness for weight loss practice can have a significant and positive impact toward achieving your goals..
10. Be kind to yourself as you practice mindful eating. Practice self-compassion. Research shows that people who practice self-compassion are more likely to enjoy peace, happiness, and success in realizing their intentions and goals compared to those who are harsh and critical toward themselves. A comprehensive mindfulness for weight loss practice always incorporates self-compassion practices.
If you’d like to develop a kinder relationship with yourself, try practicing self-compassion by following these three steps: 1) Mindfulness/awareness. Notice when you’re being unkind to yourself. 2) Sense of shared humanity. Remind yourself that whatever struggle you have, you are not alone. Everyone is struggling with something. 3) Self-kindness. Create an image or phrase that you can call on as an expression of self-kindness. Imagine someone who loves you unconditionally offering you a gesture or words of unconditional love and kindness. Imagine this gesture or say these words to yourself. If you’re struggling a great deal with being harsh, critical, or unkind toward yourself, invest some effort in learning mindfulness and self-compassion practices. Check out my introductory Mindfulness & Self-Compassion online course if you’d like to learn how to practice being kind and compassionate toward yourself.
11. Cultivate positive emotional and mental states that support mindful eating. Engage in activities that bring about states of relaxation, joy and happiness. Savor the simple pleasures in life, like sipping your favorite tea, noticing the brilliant blue sky, listening to birdsong, listening to the sound of rain. Whatever you rest your attention on grows. If you begin to notice joy, your experiences of joy will begin to expand.
12. Engage in activities that provide intellectual stimulation. Are you eating because you’re bored? What does boredom mean for you? How does it feel? What are you needing when you feel bored? Can you simultaneously learn skills to tolerate boredom and engage in more activities that offer intellectual stimulation? Make a list of activities that bring you intellectual stimulation, and try doing at least one of these activities every week. Consider taking an online course, taking a course at a local arts center, taking an adult learning course at a local college, reading about something you’ve always wanted to learn about, or getting involved as a volunteer with a local non-profit.
13. Engage in creative expression. Try getting back to a creative practice that you used to enjoy, or try learning a new form of creative practice. Creativity can feel healing to the body, heart, and mind and nourishing to the soul. The possibilities are endless–writing, photography, painting, drawing, collage, kitting, crocheting, pottery, baking, cooking, playing a musical instrument, etc. Creativity offers a lovely outlet for emotional expression, and it can also offer intellectual stimulation. If you’re feeling stuck in your weight loss efforts, try writing about that or making photographs that reflect how stuck you feel.
14. Move your body. Mindful movement is a necessary component of a comprehensive mindfulness for weight loss program. Choose activities that you will enjoy and can sustain. If you hate going to the gym, then find another way to move your body, as this will likely just become something that you do short-term that you won’t be able to sustain. Explore activities that are sustainable for you. Consider gentle yoga, pilates, biking, or other movement that supports strength, endurance, and flexibility. If you need help designing an exercise program, ask for help from a fitness trainer or exercise physiologist. If you have physical injuries or other limitations, consider consulting with a licensed Physical Therapist for recommendations on movement that you can engage with in ways that are safe for your body.
15. Surround yourself with support and accountability in your mindful eating practices. Research shows that support and accountability encourage successfully realizing intentions and goals. Most of us have difficulty creating significant change on our own. You might start with finding a weight loss buddy, and surrounding yourself with friends who are making healthy choices related to food and health in general. If you need some extra support, you might consider hiring a qualified coach or therapist who can support you in identifying where you’re getting stuck and help you to stay on track in realizing your intentions and goals.
There you have it, many of the components of my mindfulness for weight loss coaching program. Remember, start small, keep your mind focused on your intentions, focus more attention on the benefits of your efforts rather than the costs, be kind to yourself when you go off track and then get right back on track.
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Here’s to your happiness and success,
Jen