3 Steps to Get You Started Toward Mindful Eating

Have you ever caught yourself mindlessly eating? Have you allowed yourself to become a victim of distracted eating, over eating, eating when you are not hungry, or unconscious eating?

Recognize that what you eat and when you eat, is a choice!  These choices are not always easy and sometimes feel as though they are beyond your control. A number of cues such as sounds, smells, sights and emotions can trigger eating habits which can lead to your subconscious driving your food choices. Ultimately willpower is no match for the subconscious mind.

3 Steps to Get You Started Toward Mindful Eating

To overcome this internal tug of war, you need to identify and align yourself with exactly what you want and create a plan for getting there.

Here are three steps that can get you started

Step 1:  Be kind to yourself – eating patterns are repetitive behaviours that are learned over time, so be patient and kind to yourself.

Step 2:  Identify the underlying cause/trigger for your eating – what is driving the behaviour? Are you preoccupied, overwhelmed, bored, stressed, emotional, etc?

Step 3:  Create healthy habits/solutions – establishing healthy routines will program positive behavioural patterns to follow when subconscious eating strikes.

Small changes, frequently repeated will create new habits that can add up to big improvements over time.  Below are a few examples of habits to use when reprogramming your internal autopilot:

• Sit down at the table EVERY time you eat.
• Plate EVERYTHING you eat.
• Keep a food journal.
• Pre-portion snacks and meals.
• Package and put away left-overs at the same time you are pre-portioning your meals.
• Use smaller plates to eat from.
• Drink water 30 minutes prior to meals.
• Have healthy snacks prepared and ready at all times.
• Keep unhealthy food out of sight or in hard to reach places – or better yet do not purchase.
• Focus on your food – no TV, computers etc. while eating.
• Stop before you eat and ask yourself if you are actually hungry or is it something else?

Consistency is the key! Choose to become mindful and create empowering habits that you can fall back on when mindless eating takes over.