What I Learned from 5 Days of Eating Mindfully

I’m not a mindful eater. Or at least I wasn’t before I took up the 5 Day Mindful Meal Challenge initiated by Darya Rose, Ph.D this January (link at the bottom of this page if you’d like to take it up).

Before I took up the challenge I had three problems.

I ate too fast.

I had always been a fast eater, eating with no brakes. This was particularly dangerous if the food was in front of me with easy access e.g. crisps. If it was in front of me my resistance would be very low. If the meal was hot, I would eat it fast so it wouldn’t go cold.

If eating alone, I ate quickly to get to the thing I was going to do afterwards. Sometimes I would multi-task, mindlessly shovelling food in while watching videos or TV or trying to work.

I ate greedily.

One piece of chocolate was never enough. Nor was one biscuit. Or one crisp. Or one forkful. I didn’t seem to have control. I seemed to enjoy having my mouth full of food. I am not sure why. Sometimes my wife would catch me as was literally about to shovel a handful of crisps into my mouth. It was greedy, unattractive and not particularly healthy.

I ate too much.

I always used to eat everything on the plate and if anyone else left something and offered it to me, I would take it too. You might call this the ‘children in Africa’ syndrome and stemmed from my grandmother/mother who lived through a war where food was rationed. I didn’t know how to say no.

So, what did I learn?

1. Before the challenge I didn’t eat mindfully. Not even close.
2. That mindful eating is best done alone but the more you practise the more chance there is that elements of mindful eating may manifest themselves when in company.
3. That mindful eating involves all the senses: sight (shape, colour); smell; taste (not a single taste but many subtle tastes) and hearing (crunching and chewing) but ultimately impacts most on feeling.
4. That eating mindfully not only heightens the pleasure of eating but makes you reflect on the quality and quantity of the food you are eating. The more you think about the food the more you consider its origin, how fresh it is and the positive or negative affect it might be having on your body. You also find that you don’t need as much food as you think. Small meals topped up with healthy snacks are much healthier than two or three giant meals.
5. If you want to think during mindful eating, it’s okay. If your mind offers you the gift of insight, an idea or a positive reflection, feel free to accept that gift (note down the idea if necessary) then get back to the now of eating. If the thoughts are negative or lead you down a rabbit hole of thought, try to be aware of this and go back to notice the sensations of eating.
6. Putting down utensils and clasping hands together helps prevent ‘mindless’ shovelling of food.

As with any new habit, it will take time for mindful eating become fully assimilated so I am going to add the habit of eating mindfully to my Loop Habit Tracker and I look forward to reporting back at the end of the year (or sooner) to say how I got on. If you have any questions about this habit or would like to share your progress, feel free to add something in the comments.

And here is the original post if you would like to try the challenge.

The 5 Day Mindful Meal Challenge