• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Grumpy's Honeybunch
  • Grumpy's Honeybunch Recipes
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch Recipes
    • Dinner
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Low Carb Keto Recipes
  • Disclosure & Privacy Policy
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Snapchat
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Meal Plans
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Videos
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • About
    • Recipes
    • Meal Plans
    • Shop
    • Contact
    • Videos
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Lifestyle

    What is Mindful Eating - 5 Best Tips

    Published: Aug 4, 2020 Last updated: Jan 15, 2021 by Shelby Law Ruttan · As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Sharing is caring!

    0 shares
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    Have you been practicing mindful eating? Recently I had a discussion with my friend Cindy Chan Phillips about diet and mindful eating came up. I have a blog friend who credits mindful eating with how she stays slim being a food blogger. Since we felt this was a very important topic during the pandemic issues, she agreed to write this post for me to share with my readers.

    I hope you enjoy what Cindy has to share with you and be sure to scroll to the end of the post to receive her free mindful eating mini lesson.

    Mindful Eating with 5 best tips pinnable image

    Table of contents

    • Too Much Snacking During The Pandemic
    • What Is Mindful Eating
    • Slow Down the Eating Process
    • Engaging Your Senses
    • Are You Really Hungry
    • Feel The Satisfaction of the Food Consumed
    • Reduce Distraction While Eating

    Too Much Snacking During The Pandemic

    I heard from many parents, concerned about their teenagers gaining 10 pounds or more during the pandemic, and feeling helpless about how to help them. Mindful eating is a healthy eating strategy that can help us avoid over-eating.

    Like many of you, I am working from home during the pandemic. I began to notice something unusual about my lunch patterns. Often Zoom is logged on (with video off), the web news ready to scroll, or Gmail open on my phone. 

    When the Zoom meeting is done, I look down my empty plate and go “What?! I finished my plate already?” What’s going on? I got half the satisfaction, feel less nourished, likely eating more calories. Not to mention, I probably became hungry sooner. And I am a dietitian! Not a good deal in my book!

    The pandemic has blurred the structure of our lives, and increased our anxiety level, too. 

    I temporarily let the current situation get in the way of eating mindfully. What is Mindful Eating and why are people talking about it?

    What Is Mindful Eating

    Eating is a natural, healthy, and pleasurable activity for satisfying hunger. Mindful eating is eating with the intention of caring for yourself. When I prided myself for multi-tasking. I took my eyes off of the intention. 

    Eating mindfully enables us to reclaim the satisfaction of our meals and snacks, and avoid over-eating. We are less likely to be snacking to fill voids of loneliness or emotional stress when we are fully engaged with our internal hunger cues. You will also learn that practicing smart portion control becomes effortless and does not require much control, after all.  Here are 5 of my favorite mindful eating tips:

    Slow Down the Eating Process

    Mindful Eating is about awareness and intention. Slow down to be aware of your thoughts, feelings and surroundings. Slowing down makes it easier to reflect on the full taste of the food. The phone can wait, the email can wait. Dedicate the intention to the meal on the table. You will be surprised that, with practice, slowing down takes hardly much extra time. No auto-pilot here. The payback is astoundingly positive.

    A bowl of aromatic berries

    Engaging Your Senses

    I was once in a professional event. When the lunch was brought out, I lowered my head to fully take in the smell of the perfectly grilled strip steak. My face must have got pretty close to my plate because my manager sitting next to me thought I was about to drop my head into my food. 

    When we eat out at restaurants, we call it an eating experience for a reason. The anticipation of the meal being brought out from the kitchen, the aroma, picking up the silverware, adjusting the napkin, feeling how the knife cuts into the chicken. All that goes into heightening the satisfaction of the meal.

    Even at home, engage your senses when enjoying the meal. Explore the taste, flavors and texture of the foods. Feel the heat of the spices going up the back of the palate. Taste the level of sweetness of the cream in the chocolate cake. 

    Is the heat just right in the Coconut Curry Shrimp and Zoodles featured in Shelby’s new The One-Pot Paleo Cookbook? Explore how the burst of juicy savory flavor of the shrimp complements beautifully the nutty taste in the coconut sauce. (I wrote a testimonial for the cookbook, I am partial of course!)

    I think you can tell this is my favorite tip.

    Mindful eating - how hungry are you, a white plate with the words hunger across the plate on an orange towel

    Are You Really Hungry

    Tune into your internal hunger cues and fullness signals. Before you begin eating, pay attention to the level of hunger. Are you ravenous? Is hunger just panging? I encourage my clients to use a hunger scale from 0-10.  Am I eating to satisfy a physical hunger or to fill an emotional need? Download your free mindful eating mini video lesson and hunger scale here. 

    Tune into your sense of fullness as you eat. 

    Listening to our hunger cues makes it easier to know when we are full. Hunger and fullness are two sides of the same coin. 

    Feeling the fullness signal works double-bonus. When we are guided by internal hunger and fullness cues, It helps us to eat just the right portion sizes of our favorite foods. Besides, we become more aware when are snacking at night for reasons other than hunger. 

    Being aware of our hunger level is one of the most intuitive abilities for humans. It is like strengthening a muscle. The more your practice, the more second-nature it becomes.

    Strawberry Rhubarb Pudding Cake
    Strawberry Rhubarb Pudding Cake

    Feel The Satisfaction of the Food Consumed

    Chew slowly. Savor the irresistible rhubarb-sauce infused pudding of strawberry rhubarb pudding cake. Feel like pouring yourself a little bit of wine to go with it? Go for it!

    I often tell my clients that all foods fit in a healthy diet. Love what you eat, eat what you love. Do you know how some of you get hungry soon again after eating? The secret is feeling satisfaction.

    As we eat, our guts produce hormones and nerve transmissions that signal to our brain that we are full. This marvelous feedback mechanism helps us prevent over-eating. When we eat too quickly, we do not allow our brains to catch up. 

    Pause and check in with your satisfaction and pleasure sensation as you enjoy your foods. As you practice this, you will be surprised that even a small amount of food can leave you completely happy and satisfied. Without satisfaction, portion control is just external control.

    a photo of a hotdog and cup of coffee with person in the background holding a phone (distracted eating)

    Reduce Distraction While Eating

    Eating on the run? Sure, we all find ourselves in that situation sometimes. The principal is the same. Try not to look at the phone while you eat. Multi-tasking makes it next to impossible to practice mindful eating. 

    Pull up to the favorite table in your house. Give yourself space and time you so deserve. Mindful eating nourishes your body and satisfies mentally at the same time, all from a place of self-care. 

    Here are some free resources to help you give it a try. Access your free mindful eating mini-video lesson and hunger scale here.

    CLICK HERE for a FREE Mini Lesson On Mindful Eating

    Have you tried any of the techniques before? What works and what does not work? I would love to hear from you!


    Cindy Chan Phillips, MS, MBA, RD is the nutrition coach at Cindy Chan Phillips Nutrition and the Past-President of Mohawk Regional Dietetic Association. She helps people eat without guilt, via non-dieting nutrition counseling services, so that people have the energy to pursue what matters to them in life. Read her nutrition blogs on www.cindychanphillips.com. Message Cindy at @cindyphillipsRD on Instagram, or Cindy Chan Phillips Nutrition on Facebook.

    More Lifestyle

    • Valentine Gift Ideas for those you love the most!
    • Gifts for Wine Lovers - My Top 10 picks
    • Gifts for Cat Lovers - Grumpy's Top 10 Gift Guide
    • Gifts for Coffee Lovers - My Top 10 Picks!

    About Shelby Law Ruttan

    Shelby is the author/owner of Grumpy's Honeybunch. Established in 2007, she shares and preserves family recipes as well as recipes for cooking light and keto. She has authored the One-Pot Paleo Cookbook and The Pescatarian Keto Cookbook. She is an experienced, self-taught home cook who loves to share recipes with others. She also authors the websites Honeybunch Hunts and The Best Vegetarian Recipes. You can see her work on websites such as Veal Made Easy, Parade, Community Table, SoFab Food, Yummly, and FoodGawker.

    Subscribe

    for your weekly recipe fix.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. cindy chan phillips

      August 04, 2020 at 2:35 pm

      Thank you for such a warm place to start this conversation! Hope you enjoy this!

      Reply

    Leave a comment Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Welcome! I'm Shelby Law Ruttan, author and content creator at Grumpy's Honeybunch. She is self taught in the kitchen and has been sharing keto low carb recipes and family recipes since 2007.

    More about me →

    Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
    Southern Sweet Potato Pie

    Trending Recipes

    • Keto Chicken Nuggets with Canned Chicken
    • Baked Red Snapper Recipe with Garlic Topping
    • Air Fryer Roast Beef with Herb Crust
    • Hot Fireball Apple Cider Toddy
    • Crockpot Venison Stew - Warm and Hearty
    • Mom's Rhubarb Sauce

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    About Shelby Law Ruttan

    Privacy Policy

    Terms and Conditions of Use

    Accessibility Statement

    As Featured In:

    Contact Shelby

    Contact

    Work with me

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2020 Foodie Pro on the Foodie Pro Theme

    0 shares