An Easy Trick to Eat Slower and More Mindfully

Mindful eating

Source: Photo by Vm2002 iStock

Do you eat pizza for breakfast?

Do you begin the day with a bowl of pasta?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, you might already be trying an easy trick to help you to eat more mindfully. A recent study published in the journal, Appetite, found that mixing up your typical eating habits can help you to eat slower, eat less while also feeling more satisfied.

The Study

Seventy-eight participants were served either a typical lunch of cheese and tomato pasta or breakfast food of porridge with milk and honey. When they served lunch for breakfast, the results showed that participants ate slower, less food, and reported feeling more satisfied.

In part, people tend to naturally slow down and pause when things are unusual or out of the ordinary. Breaking out of your typical automatic ruts and routines is important in starting to eat more mindfully.

What Is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating is not a diet. There are no menus or recipes. It’s learning more about how you eat than what you eat. Let’s face it. We have a lot of mindless eating habits that keep us stuck. Such as sitting on the couch watching TV absent-mindlessly munching on chips. Or, wandering into the kitchen to find a snack when you are bored or stressed out. The good news is that there are some easy ways to get started amping up your awareness. Conscious awareness helps to shift you out of old habits.

Mindful Eating Tracker

Source: Copyright Susan Albers

Benefits:

Research on mindful eating has shown mindful eating to help reduce emotional eating, stop mindless munching, lose weight, stop binge eating, and best of all enjoy a positive relationship with food (such as enjoying it more and stressing less about it!).*

Mindful Eating Challenge:

It's easy to eat on autopilot. Today, I challenge you to try something new and shake up your typical routine.

• Sit in a different seat at the kitchen table
• Eat your lunch for breakfast—a peanut butter sandwich, a salad, leftover meatloaf.
• Use a special bowl you rarely use.
• Eat something new and different.
• Notice how it feels to break out of routine eating habits. Do you eat slower? Enjoy it more? Notice how satisfied you feel? These are all aspects of mindful eating.