Supplemental Talk: Mindful Eating Experience 

Mindful Eating: a mindfulness practice around eating that promotes the individual experience, with an emphasis on being present, introspective (inward looking, without judgment), and attentive to the sensory experience. The focus is on the process rather than the outcome (how you eat and feel physically, mentally, emotionally versus what is being consumed). 

Put an End to Automatic or “Mindless” Eating   

• Support improvements in dysregulated eating patterns by exploring internal and external triggers to eating in effort to interrupt automatic eating. What is driving me to eat? How or what am I feeling? Does this food serve me well at this moment, or would something else? 
• Find satisfaction in the foods you eat by working to reorient yourself to the eating experience. What am I eating? Does this satisfy me? 

How to Develop a Mindful Eating Practice                       

Create a consistent, routine eating regimen. 

• Have a balanced meal every four hours. Snacks are helpful to have when you go longer between meals or if you find yourself hungry. Consistent, routine eating is self care. Doing so supports efforts to feel satisfied, nourished and energized.
• Observe stressors and purposefully rely on convenience in the meal planning and preparation department to lessen your stress load. Take note of when you are more hungry, more tired, more stressed. Could this be physically or emotionally driven? How can you lessen your stress load? 
• Work to find a way of eating that feels good physically and emotionally: Ditch the Restrict/Rebel Cycle. We often want a balance of what’s energizing and nutritious, and satisfying and tasteful. Too much of one thing often doesn’t often work. 

Practice Patience and Persistence 

These practices take time to become habits. When we prioritize patience and persistence in any season of life, we can work towards getting to a place where we can rely on these self-care strategies to support ourselves better physically, mentally and emotionally, no matter the season. 

Instructor and Self-Guided Mindful Eating Experience: 

Practice checking in with yourself. Where are you currently on this scale? __________ 

The Hunger and Fullness Scale

Reflect on your experience below:

What mindful eating practice will you bring to your next meal?