Eating Mindfully

By Tara Gidus Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, ACSM-CPT

PHYSICAL HEALTH FOR WIDOWS

Recently, I spoke at MWC’s 2023 Virtual Widow Empowerment Event about emotional eating, satiety, and eating more mindfully. During times of stress and grief it is difficult to follow our hunger and fullness cues, whether that’s eating when we are not hungry due to being sad, angry, anxious, etc., or because stress has shut down our hunger mechanism. When my husband was dying and after he passed, I found that I was losing weight, but in more recent years I turn to chocolate and other comfort foods as my main stress reliever.

It is so easy to use food (and alcohol) as a tool to try and relieve stress. The reality is that it doesn’t actually relieve stress, and only provides temporary comfort. In fact, it can increase emotional and physical stress by leading to feelings of guilt and shame or contributing to health problems over time.

Mindful, Intuitive Eating

The ability to feel hunger and fullness is a quality we were all born with. Over time, we develop habits that prevent us from eating intuitively, such as cleaning our plates, eating in front of the television, eating because the food is there, multitasking, and more.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

Believe it or not, we make 200+ food decisions every day, regardless of whether or not we’re hungry. If you’re not physically hungry, there may be another trigger for eating.

Common triggers include eating because of family or social gatherings, food aromas, boredom, habit, stress, distraction, reward, need, want, tiredness, emotion, time of day, and more.

Many of us eat until the plate is empty — that is how we know when to stop. Let me tell you about an experiment called The Bottomless Soup Bowl.

The aim of the experiment was to determine whether visual cues signal the end of a meal. Participants were assigned to one of two groups. One group ate from a regular soup bowl, the other group ate from a bottomless soup bowl — the bowl was slowly refilled as they ate, but they didn’t know it.

The bottomless soup bowl participants ate 73% more soup, but did not believe they had eaten more, and they did not feel more satisfied than those eating from regular bowls.

The bottom line: Visual cues play a very important role in portion control. Use smaller plates and bowls, smaller utensils, and portion your servings prior to feeling hungry.

Practicing Mindful Eating

• Eat Without Distraction. Turn off the TV. Shut down the computer. Put that book away. Eat in the moment, so that you can enjoy the sensory experience of eating. Pay attention to the aroma, the presentation, the texture, and the taste. This will help you eat more slowly and gauge whether you’re eating because you’re hungry or because of some external trigger.

• Sit at a Table. This may be easier said than done. Maybe you’ve grown accustomed to eating breakfast on the way in to work, having lunch at your desk, or eating an afternoon snack in the car. Whatever it is, eating on the go rather than at a table is not conducive to mindful eating. Taking the time to sit at a table to enjoy a meal will help you tune in to what your body actually needs.

• Put Your Food on a Plate. Eating out of a package often leads to overeating. Putting your food on a plate is a visual trick — it forces you to acknowledge what you’re going to eat before you actually eat it. Your portion may appear to be quite a bit larger on a plate than it did in the bag, causing you to put some back for later.

• Be Aware of Your Hunger-Fullness Meter. We are all born with the ability to eat mindfully, but it’s a skill that can become lost throughout life. Relearn how to eat mindfully using a hunger-fullness meter that ranks your hunger on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being ravenous and 10 being stuffed. Over time, you’ll learn to put down the fork when you’re satisfied (6-7) and eat when you begin to experience hunger (3) versus waiting until you are absolutely famished.

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Tara Gidus Collingwood is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Personal Trainer, and fellow Wister. You can find her at dietdiva.net.