Mindful eating is a holistic and an all-encompassing way to view and experience our relationship to food. Mindful eating is a process of consciously focusing on the food we eat – what we eat, why we eat, and how we eat our meals.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, and nothing trains a person’s mindfulness better than fully focusing on experiencing a meal. Not only does this entail conscious thought, but also bringing in as many senses as possible to the experience.

Even something as simple as a cup of coffee can be more abundantly experienced. How many times have you guzzled a coffee at work, yet shortly after, can’t remember the taste, let alone any of the other nuances that could have made it more enjoyable.

Consider, that taking a moment to hit the mindfulness switch before drinking a simple cup of coffee could add so much to the experience by reflecting not only on taste, texture, temperature and other aspects of the beverage, but how it makes you feel, during and afterwards, physically and emotionally. Continue reading →

Whether we realize it or not, eating is cyclical and we’ve created certain habits within our minds and bodies that trigger a hunger response, or what we think is hunger.

Do you remember in high school English when given an investigative writing assignment the questions we were to answer? We were to answer the 5 critical questions: what, when, where, why and how.

The mindful eating cycle is very similar; it helps us interpret if we are really hungry, or if we are having an emotional response to something else and feel the need to doctor it with food.

You can only change what you are aware of, so let’s take a deeper look at the mindful eating cycle and see if maybe we need to learn how to better determine if we are really hungry or not.

Why Do You Eat?

The first question in the mindful eating cycleis “Why do we eat?” It’s a very personal question only you can answer. Do you find yourself eating during times of stress? Boredom? Or are you truly hungry and hear your body telling you it needs fuel to finish out the day? Continue reading →