ave you ever sat down in front of the TV with a bag of chips and eaten the whole bag before you hardly even realized it was open? That’s mindless eating. Since we are approaching the holiday season when mindless munching is part and parcel of celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s, I want to help you adopt some strategies for turning a mindless habit into a mindful one. There is obviously a strong emotional component to mindless munching – sadness, anger, frustration and unhappiness can drive people to seek comfort in food, especially around these holidays. Old habits, a busy schedule, multitasking while eating, a troubled relationship with food and not valuing the importance of food are other factors that can lead to eating mindlessly.

Simply put, changing from eating mindlessly to eating mindfully involves slowing down giving thanks for your food before you eat it and recognizing when you are truly hungry and when you are satisfied. It’s really about being present and not distracted while you eat, so that you can eat according to the needs of your body rather than your emotions. There is evidence that practicing this style of eating results in the intake of many fewer calories, which can lead to a healthy weight and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Eating mindfully can also help improve digestion, since when we are distracted while eating our digestive process is 30-40% less effective. For better health and a healthy weight, it’s important to learn how to practice eating mindfully.

Slowing down

Have you ever thought about why you eat what you do, or why you like certain foods and not others? There are many hidden cues that influence our eating—things that range from advertising to extra-large portions to the size of our plates. These factors can stimulate you to eat when you’re not hungry or encourage your to overeat when you’ve already had enough. Connecting profoundly with your food, developing a deeper appreciation of it and understanding what draws you to it is an important tool that can help you in your mindful approach to eating. In order to truly savor your food, use your five senses: you need to look, touch, smell, taste and listen. To fully appreciate the power and depth of mindful eating, try the following exercise alone or with others (if you want to discuss your experience afterwards):

1. Before you eat, make sure there are no distractions, so that you can devote your attention to your eating experience for the next 30 minutes.
2. Place a plate with two or three of your favorite foods in front of you. It is better if they require little preparation and can be picked up with your hands. A piece of cheese, some dark chocolate and a strawberry are all diverse and simple foods that would work well. Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths to help clear your mind.
3. Open your eyes and look at your food. Take in the colors, textures, shapes and arrangement on your plate. Without judging your thoughts, ask yourself what pleases you about the appearance of the food.
4. Choose a piece of food to examine first. Pick up a piece with your hands and use your sense of touch to feel its temperature, texture, weight and density.
5. Bring the food under your nose, as though you are going to put it in your mouth. Close your eyes. Smell the different aromas. Do you smell just the food or things in your environment too? Try to imagine what the food tastes like based on the way it smells.
6. Keeping your eyes closed, take a bite. What do your notice first? The temperature, taste, texture or sound? Begin to chew and taste. Try to identify the different flavors that are rolling around on your tongue. Take another bite and listen to the sounds you make as you chew. Take a third bite and as you chew, see if you can notice the subtle transition from chewing to swallowing. After you swallow, notice the amount of time it takes before you no longer feel any food is in your mouth.
7. Repeat with remaining foods on your plate

This exercise should bring an awareness of just how fully we can be physically and mentally engaged with our eating. Using all of your senses can help you realize new things that you like or dislike about a food and it can help bring much more sensual satisfaction to your eating experience. Try to do an abbreviated version of this exercise with your first bite of every meal to help set the intention of having a mindful eating experience.

Giving thanks

Honoring yourself and your food should be a part of your meals. Giving thanks can be like saying grace, or it can be a process through which you take a moment to recognize where your food comes from, the elements of the earth or the ingredients that went into its creation, the nourishment that it will offer your body, and the person (perhaps it’s you) who put his or her time and love into preparing your meal. Through this act, I hope that you begin to respect and listen to your body’s needs and attempt to put only the highest quality, most thoughtfully prepared foods into it. Appreciating the positive attributes of your food can help you to let go of negative feelings and judgments that you may hold about certain foods and bring more acceptance of your choices. With mindful eating, if you choose to eat a piece of pizza, you will be able to enjoy every bite rather than feeling guilty or out of control after eating it mindlessly.

Recognizing true hunger and fullness

Tuning into your body while you eat is the key to eating the right amount of food—not too little and not too much. Begin to use the hunger scale to rate your hunger and satiety. The scale ranges from 1 to 5, where 1=very hungry, 2=somewhat hungry, 3=comfortable, 4=comfortably full and 5=very full. Every time you’re about to eat, rate your hunger. The goal should be to always stay between a 2 and a 4, without going to either extreme. If you eat when you’re a 1, then you’ve waited too long to evaluate your hunger. If you eat when you’re a 4 or a 5, then you’re practicing mindless eating. The purpose of the hunger scale is to help get you back in touch with your physical hunger rather than your emotional hunger. Combine the hunger scale with some mindfulness to help you start listening to your body. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Learn to dislike the physical feeling of over-feeding yourself.

It doesn’t matter if it is a holiday or January 1, mindfulness can be practiced at each meal so that you get what you need out of every food you choose to eat. Mindful eating is about tuning into your senses and listening to your body. Feeling in control of your eating, satisfied and nourished are important benefits of eating mindfully. When you learn to fully appreciate all of the subtle and wonderful aspects of your food, it will transform your eating into a more nourishing experience, both physically and spiritually.