Savor the Moment: Cultivating Mindful Eating for Lasting Well-being

Have you ever found yourself polishing off a meal without really tasting it? As your guide, Leonila Campos, I'll lead you through the transformative world of mindful eating, where every bite is an opportunity for connection and nourishment. Together with my colleague Mary Ellen, an expert in the field of eating disorders, we delve into how attentiveness to our eating can profoundly impact our health, digestion, and emotional well-being.

In our conversation, we'll share secrets to integrating mindful eating techniques into your life that go beyond the fleeting fads. It's about making small, approachable changes like cutting down portion sizes and minimizing mealtime distractions. You'll learn to pause and check in with your emotions, preventing stress-eating, and fostering a serene dining environment. Our goal is to arm you with the tools needed to ensure your journey towards mindful eating is as delightful as it is nourishing.

Embrace the wisdom of listening to your body with our exploration of the hunger and fullness scale - your personal compass to avoiding the discomfort of overindulgence and the pangs of excessive hunger. I'll walk you through understanding your unique cues for hunger and satiety, aiming to keep you comfortably full and content throughout the day. Remember, this is a personal journey, and with a dash of self-compassion and a sprinkle of patience, you'll savor the rewards of a more mindful, healthful approach to your meals.

Resources for You
Mindful Guide
The Hunger and Fullness Scale

Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com

My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Podcast. I am your host, leonida Campos, registered edition, and today we are going to talk about mindful eating Because, although it is a huge topic, right, I wanted to discuss you know what that is essentially and how we can be more mindful when we sit down to eat, and some tips to just help you overall with mindful eating and recognizing sort of strong emotions, slightly about emotional eating, but we won't go into so much detail on that topic. I'm actually really excited because one of my dietician colleagues who works with eating disorders she will be joining me in one of the episodes and I'm excited to have her, mary Ellen, and so, yeah, that episode will be airing sometime, maybe the second weekend of April, so definitely check that episode. But for today's topic about mindful eating, I think it is important to talk about first what that is right, and so, basically, mindful eating is just a practice of bringing awareness and attention to the present moment while we're eating.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Right, it involves turning into our body's hunger and fullness cues, which is sometimes, it's really difficult to really understand. Okay, a lot of the times we feel hungry, but to the point where we're now really hungry, almost hungry because we haven't had food for a long time, or we feel super full, right Because, again, maybe we were so hungry. So then we eat fast, or and we go more into detail in a moment or if we eat so much right that we bypass those fullness cues and now we're really full where we feel comfortable, our belly's hurt, we have to button our pants right because we ate so much, and so, but there is that in between, right, that sweet spot, and that sweet spot is very different for each person, and so you know, for someone could be oh, and we're going to go on, we're going to talk about the scale right of hunger and fullness, and so maybe someone, when they eat, right, they eat and they are satiated around. You know six, a level six or number six, right, but maybe someone gets full around I don't know, five and a half or seven, and so I think it's really important to recognize that and we won't be able to know what those hunger and fullness cues are specifically for us if we're not present right when we eat. Now, I totally understand that can be difficult when we have a really hectic life and we're just on the go, go, go, go, go go all the time. But I think it is really important to pay attention to that. If we're struggling to maybe not eat on time and because of that we're going into our next meal really hungry and now we almost feel that we cannot stop eating because we're so hungry, so we get to that again point of eating, to where we are super full, so essentially mindful eating. That's what it is the practice of being aware and pay attention to our eating, our hunger and fullness cues and to, you know, save our food and look at the textures, literally just being present, right, versus the more traditional eating where we're just eating mindlessly and eating on the go and, like we forget what we eat, we're distracted all the time. So when that happens, right, we really don't know if we like. Sometimes we even forget like, did I really eat? And so that can be difficult, right? Okay, full disclaimer here you are going to hear my little one because he's sick again. I feel like we've been seeing sick since January, the beginning of the year. So you're going to hear him talk and cough and maybe cry or scream. So disclaimer there. We're making it work, right, and that's okay. So bear with me here for a little bit. So yeah, back to onto that topic.

Speaker 1: 4:49

So why is mindful eating important? One, because when we are present, like we are really taking in the flavors of the food and we pay attention to how our bodies feel, right, we pay attention to again those hunger and the tidy cues, and that helps with digestion, that helps with our gut health, that helps with our emotions, right. And so how can we maybe start doing some of those tips right? The first thing that we have to do, again, is bring awareness right, so almost assessing how your meals are, the environment right, the mood, and you know the things that are happening as you are eating, and then, based on that right, analyzing okay, where can I make a change, where can I make some changes to maybe help me be more of a mindful eater? Right, and I'm not saying this is not related to an diet, this is completely separate from it. This is paying attention to our bodies, right, what our bodies need, how our bodies feel as a time we sit down to eat a meal, because that plays a huge role when we have more specific goals, right, and so the first thing that we have to do, right, if we want to start being more mindful when we eat is okay, where do I eat my meals? Right, it might be different areas. It's paying if you work from home, if you work at an office or whatever the case may be. And so you know, look at that, okay, where do I eat my first meal?

Speaker 1: 6:33

And if your first meal is on the go, just because that's how life is, it's very hectic. And if you have kids, you have to drop them, get them ready for school, feed them lunch, take them to school, and so, if that's the case, don't start with that meal, maybe start with that meal that maybe you have more control over. So, for example, in my case, breakfast is hectic. I'm usually on the go, we're usually running late, so we're like let's go, go, go. And so, although I am mindful, I am present and I am intentional to have my breakfast, but it's not a meal where I sit down and take a deep breath and I'm present and I look at the colors and smelled it, the food taste and the flavors. It's usually let's go.

Speaker 1: 7:24

And so the meal that works for me to be more mindful is lunch, because I'm pretty much alone, either at my home office or at work office, and so I'm able to really be present and I pay attention to, okay, where is my hunger when I sit down to eat, right, then I check in with myself midway okay, how am I feeling now? And then I check with myself again at the end of the meal Okay, how do I feel now? Or as I'm finishing my meal. If I'm satiated, if I'm like, okay, I had enough, then I stop eating. Now I completely understand that this can be very difficult to do for someone that grew up with the not the habit, right, but something, for example, eating everything on your plate.

Speaker 1: 8:20

So a lot of my patients learned that because of the scars to be or because there was no food, whatever the case may be and so now, as adults, have a really hard time stopping or paying attention to those fullness gestures or to tight heels, because even sometimes they tell me, okay, I feel satiated, but just looking at that food on my plate, those thoughts come back to my parents or whatever the guardian was telling me finish everything on your plate. And so they ignore those hunger, those fullness cues, just to accomplish that right, just to do that. And so that is definitely. You know it is going to be harder, but it is not impossible. We have to almost work at it every single day, every single time, and being okay with it. And so the other tips, tricks or tips that we can do.

Speaker 1: 9:18

There is like, okay, if we know that we're eating, that, whatever amount we serve on our plate, we're struggling to stop eating because we have that in our minds and our brains and we need to finish everything on our plate. Then next time, serve yourself a little less, maybe not a significant amount, where your brain is like, hey, I'm eating less and I don't want to be hungry, right, because we're so used to eating that amount of food, it's slightly less right. And so every time, you know, serve yourself a little less to where you get to the point where you're like, okay, I'm satiated, this you know, I finished my food again, because we have the mindset that we have to finish everything on our plate, but I don't feel so, so full, where I feel uncomfortable, I feel just fine. And again, that is going to be very different for every single person, because you have to know that point right. So there's that.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Now there are several things that can affect, you know, our satiety, that can affect our hunger, that can affect you know how fast we eat, and so I think it is important to also be aware of it. And the environment, right? The environment also has a huge role in to when we are eating, because if we are in an environment that is loud and is you know, it's causing you to like, oh, I want to get out of here. So then you're going to be fast, right, because you're feeling those, you're having those feelings of like just want to eat and get out of here. Or another thing could be like I eat on my desk, for example. I eat at my desk, right, and I have all these papers and I have all these deadlines and I'm working on my computer, but also eating. That's not mindfulness, right? Do you even know that you're eating? Are you sort of distracted because you have all these things, you know, going on and at the end of the meal you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize that I finished my meal and I'm still hungry, right? Or you know why is it that I ate? So we're not present, right? So why do you usually recommend if possible, right, that would be the goal Don't eat at your desk, because even if you don't want to check that email, even if you don't want to.

Speaker 1: 11:42

You know, write something or look at the computer, it's there, you are going to do it. If you're super busy, just understandable as well. You know, just stepping away from it to just have your meal 20 minutes, right, give yourself 20, 30 minutes to have your meal away from the desk. This applies even if you're home, especially if you're at home, if you work from home, because everything is around, right, like you're home all day and you know, as you start your meal, you're almost like what's the point? Right, you're here all day and so step away. Right, you have the chance to go outside, maybe sit down, eat your meal. Right, where you look at the sky or the trees, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:30

But the environment of where you eat your food also plays a huge role with that. My infamous Same thing with you, know, let's say, for dinner and I'm sure dinner is as busy or maybe busier than breakfast, right, because you're on the go all the time and so dinner can be super, super busy. Right, if you need something or you're just busy and you have other things to do, maybe you have other things to do after dinner. So that also plays into the mindfulness of how we eat. But it is so important to.

Speaker 1: 13:04

If, as you're practicing mindful eating, right To remove distractions, to remove things that are going to distract you from really paying attention to your body. Again, if dinner is a meal where you're like I can, I can be present, because my kids need something every minute of the hour. I completely understand I have two kids, so then don't choose dinner right, you have to focus on the meal that you have more control over and then, eventually, you can work on another meal and then that's how you get. That's how you get your goals. But some of those things right. So look at your environment when you eat your meal. But also, why you want to do right Is, as you are sitting down to your meal, checking in on those emotions that you have.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Right, if you're coming into your meal like really, really angry or anxious or stressed because you just had a conversation with a coworker or your boss or whoever, and now you're coming into this meal, really, you know, with these strong emotions, that could be the same thing, right, we're eating, eating, eating, but we're not thinking, we're not present because we're thinking about what happened previously, right, and so what can help in those cases is just sit down right, take a deep breath, maybe a few, three to five deep breaths, and just be present, right? Okay, I understand that this happened. I'm really angry or really upset or really sad, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to be present and enjoy this meal, right? Again, the pain of how strong the emotions are. We might not be able to decompress and be mindful, but, again, the more that we practice that, the better that we get at it.

Speaker 1: 14:59

And so the first thing to do, right, is come, sit down, check in with yourself, right, how am I feeling right now? Let me take a few deep breaths, and now these, for these 30 minutes that I have, 20, 20 minutes that I have to eat my meal. I am going to be present, right. If possible, then use your phone. Again, that's a distraction, and then again, we're not present, right, but if you can, then you do what you want to do. My run, but those are some of the tips there.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So we talked about environment, we talked about checking in with yourself, right, as you start to eat your meals, and as you start to eat your meals, and then at the end of the meal, to see how you are feeling. Now the other thing, too, right that we want to focus on is okay. How long does it take me to finish my meal, from when I start to finish? Right, if you're a fast eater, that could be five, 10 minutes, and that's really fast. We're almost like walking down the food and like just like swallowing it without chewing it, and so that that can also have an effect in our digestive system. Right, because it takes longer, it takes more work for our digestive system to break down the food, to be able to absorb it.

Speaker 1: 16:24

But the other thing, too right, is that when you think about yourself, you're interconnected, right, and all of your brain is separated from your extremities and your stomach is separated from your heart and your brain. We are all interconnected, right, and so as you eat your food, there's different processes that are happening at the same time, but also your stomach, you know, the sensors and the nerves are communicating and your stomach are communicating with your brain, right, and you have again these fullness cues that happen as our stomach is stretching, right, that sending signals to your brain, and so that connection of your brain and your stomach to tell you, hey, you ate enough, you have, you're satiated, takes about 20 minutes or so, and so if we eat so fast and we finish a meal in five minutes, right. We haven't allowed that, for that connection to happen, and so we either feel that we're still hungry, so we continue to eat, and now we ate more than we were, you know, supposed to eat, or if we ate more to that level where now we feel really full and we feel uncomfortable, again, because we didn't allow those systems to connect, to have a connection and to communicate because we ate fast, right. So it's important to also be mindful of that and how that affects the way that we eat, how much we eat and how we feel at the end of that meal. So so far, what we talked about is the environment of where we have our meals, how we feel emotionally about our meals, the timing, right, and how fast we eat, and but I mean, there's so much to talk about that, but let's sort of use some of the a few other things that really come into play. That is, you know, one of the things that really comes time after time is emotional eating, and again, when you're bringing in an expert in eating disorders and emotional eating, we're gonna talk about that.

Speaker 1: 18:41

But I think it is important to just briefly mention it, that our emotions can have a huge impact in the foods that we eat, in the amount that we eat, how often we eat, and so, as we are eating and as we are mindful of what we eat, how much we eat, the environment we eat, it can help to recognize, okay, I am an emotional eater, right? Or I eat when I have these strong feelings, but not to punish yourself, not to punish yourself at all, right, or to feel guilty, but to recognize it, and then you know, create a planet and do something to help you If that is something that you feel that you need help with, you know, for whatever reason. And so, but yeah, the mindfulness can have a huge impact. So I don't want you to practice mindful eating as a way of restriction or as a way of punishing yourself or as a way to feeling guilty, but more so to just really be in tune with yourself, be in tune with your body. Like, what does your body need? How does your body feel at the moment?

Speaker 1: 19:56

You know I've had lots of clients that tell me you know, when I sit down to eat, you know I'm so busy that I want to multitask and I just and I do these two right, when I'm going to have a really packed day and I literally just have time to, you know, eat something and then move on to, you know, whatever the next session that I have or whatever I need to do. And so these are things that I'm still working on right, and so it's not something that I'm using it again to punish myself or to feel I don't have control over it, but it's more so because I want to be present when I eat my food. I want to make sure that when I eat it, I feel satiated, right, and I enjoy my food, and so practicing that helps. But again, it's not a way of like creating these restrictive rules, creating these really strict rules of eating right. It's more so to help yourself with adjusting better, feeling more relaxed when you're eating right, giving yourself that time to really be present and enjoy what you're eating, and just that, really that time for yourself. That, yeah, it can help, because when we think about it right, for the most part we eat three times a day, but even if you don't, whatever, however many times you eat right, having been present will help. So what I encourage you to do is again to approach this mindful eating, which is an open mind and a way of curiosity, right? How am I going to feel after I start practicing these? The end result? It's going to depend from person to person, right? It's totally different right now. And so, yeah, basically, just bring in the awareness again, start very small, be patient with yourself and remember that every mindful bite is an opportunity to nourish your both your body, your mind and your soul, and just a way of doing more self-care, right?

Speaker 1: 22:17

So I mentioned that I was going to tell you about the mindful, or the fullness, and the tiny scale, so I'm going to show you that here. Let me see if I can. Now, if you're just listening, you can always go into my YouTube video, which I linked in the show notes, and the resources that I have here that I'm going to show you. I also created a quick guide for mindful eating. That's going to be in the show notes too, so you can just go take a look at that. But again, if I'm going to show something right now on the screen, don't worry, You'll have that resource in the show notes. But if you want to follow me as I go along, you can watch my YouTube video, and that's going to be there as well. Okay, so let's share the screen here and down, put it down, see if you can open that with me.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Now, the hunger and fullness scale may seem like it's a big concept, right Again, especially if we haven't practiced that, we haven't practiced how to practice those cues. Then again, just starting very small, just being okay with it. That is again something that it might it's going to take time to really understand. The other thing, too, that I want to really emphasize here, right is, again, depending on how we grew up in terms of food, in terms of, like, finishing our plate, don't waste food. I think it's important to recognize that right Again, the behaviors that we have that haven't rooted for a long time, being aware of them, right, because that can explain why we do things that we do. And so, no, because all is just happened overnight, right, Do you think that is important to understand? Okay, so here we go.

Speaker 1: 24:37

So this scale goes from 1 to 10, right, and 1 being extremely hungry. Right, painfully hungry. You haven't had food for days, maybe weeks, and you're painfully hungry, you're hurting because you're hungry. So it says here have symptoms like dizziness, you feel nauseous, irritable, shaky. Right, you need to eat right away. We don't want to get to that point, right? Because usually that your survival part of the brain is going to kick in and it's not going to care what you eat. It just wants to eat for survival. Right, our bodies are always willing to try to do anything that it can to keep you alive. Right, to help you survive. So who cares what you eat at that moment? Just feed me, because who knows what's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 25:40

Similarly, number two right, very hungry, difficulty concentrating. You may feel ravenous, irritable or anxious to eat. Your stomach is growling. That's a physical sensation, right, that you're having. Number three you have increased thoughts about food and eating, ready to eat, but not overly ravenous, and you have time to start eating around. Number three, right. Number four starting to think about food, deciding why you would like to eat. Stomach needs to begin gently growling, but you know you're like oh, you can wait. Number five is neutral, right, you're not hungry, you're not full. That's what we want to be right, most of the time, as, again, we eat a meal and then the process starts again. Four or five, right, you definitely want to start eating when you feel us. Three increased thoughts about food and eating, ready to eat, but you're not ravenous, right. What we want to avoid is getting into the twos and ones, because again, that's a survival mode, like we need to eat right away because while we eat they'll feed me hungry, right.

Speaker 1: 26:53

And then, as we eat, right, we are beginning to feel emerging fullness, slightly full, not hungry anymore. Right, when you ate you want to be at a six Maybe, step that's pushing it a little bit. You'll feel comfort. Number seven you feel comfortable, comfortably full, you feel satisfied and content. Again, ideal time to finish eating. And then number eight a little too full, doesn't feel pleasant, but it has not yet emerged into an uncomfortableness. Number nine very full, too full. You feel uncomfortable, as if you need to unbutton your pants or remove your belt. And number 10, it's painfully full, like stuffed. You may feel nauseous or sick because you ate too much, right. So again, we want to try to avoid eight, nine, 10. After you eat, you want to stay in around six or seven where you're like okay, I'm comfortably full, I'm satisfied, I'm not hungry anymore, finish eating. And then, when you start to get hungry, right, you want to start eating. Around. Three increase thoughts about food, ready to eat and not overly ravenous.

Speaker 1: 28:05

A lot of the times, we can push our meals right. Okay, I ate, let's. For example, I ate at 12,. Right, and I'm hungry. Around three. I know dinner is not until six, so I'm at a three level. Right that I know that if I don't eat something right now, by the time I get to eat dinner at six, I am going to be around two or one, and so most likely around two. So it's best to eat something at that moment.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Right, a balanced snack. Again, you can go back to my previous episode when I talk about making balanced snacks. But think of something like protein or healthy fat with a fruit or vegetable. For example, it could be a mame, right, that's protein with an apple, or could be, you know, if you eat a dairy. It could be Greek yogurt with berries right, protein fruit, something like that, to hold you over until you have your dinner. Otherwise, again, you're going to be very hungry and you're not going to care who I eat, who cares, just feed me, because I'm hungry. And if you don't eat right now, I'm going to pinch you. So we want to avoid that.

Speaker 1: 29:20

The other thing to why we want to avoid to get to that super hungry level, as I mentioned previously, is because then you eat very fast, right, and you're not pressing with those cues, you're not paying attention to when you feel satiated, right, you're getting to that level seven, six or seven, and so then we push the limits, right, because we're so hungry. And so now, now you got to wait, okay, almost done. So now we are extremely hungry and then we get super full that we're very uncomfortable. So it's like a saggy, this snowball effect. Right Now, it's okay. If you don't know these numbers, you know personally. Okay, awesome.

Speaker 1: 30:12

So, yes, definitely we don't want to follow that cycle, right, that's noble effect of getting super hungry, maybe pushing our time to eat to get to that level two, and then, you know, getting super full, where we feel uncomfortable, we feel nauseous or we just, you know, feel painfully full. Seeing that, right, again, you're not going to get it right away, you're probably not even going to get it the first. I don't know five, ten times, right, give yourself that time to be able to really recognize the hunger and satiety cues, especially if we have followed, like, really restrictive rules or if we don't know how our bodies feel when we feel hungry, when we feel satiated. Give yourself plenty of time. Be kind to yourself, right in that regards, give yourself some grace.

Speaker 1: 31:12

But what is really going to help is practicing those mindfulness tips that we talked about. Right, be present with your knee or chickening with yourself. Look at your environment. Try to minimize the distractions that you know around you or you know next to you when you are going to have your meal. Start with the easiest meal, that you have to really be present and then, as you get better at it, move on to the next meals and what else? Yeah, that's pretty much it. So what?

Speaker 1: 31:51

My challenge, my task to you is, if this is something that you want to try, right, start with the easiest meal. Practice that mindfulness, meaning sit down to eat, take a few deep breaths before you start eating. Try to eliminate the distractions that you have. If you have these really strong emotions that are happening at the moment of the meal time, you know being aware of it but also try to give yourself the time, the giving that time of your meal time to be present, right, and then again, practicing that, you seeing that hunger and fullness scale to help you recognize your hunger and fullness cues. And, yeah, okay, my friends. So again, these resources are going to be in the show notes, check them out, use them and share the episode with a friend or family member. I really appreciate your support. Thank you for coming back. I will see you. I'll talk to you in another episode, but.