What is Mindfulness?

 

Mindfulness is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting ones’ feeling, thought, and bodily sensations”  (Oxford Dictionaries). 

 

 

How does it apply to Nutrition?

 

Mindfulness can be practiced in many different ways with food.

 

“Mindful eating is about awareness. When you eat mindfully, you slow down, pay attention to the food you’re eating, and savor every bite.” – Susan Albers

 

Increasing awareness of food taste, intake, hunger, and emotions before and after eating can help reach your nutrition goals. Additionally, mindfulness can help in other area of life; including relationships and cognition.

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Mission:

 

The weekly practice of food based mindfulness as a way to introduction the concept of mindfulness generally, in the hopes that this practice will trickle out and have a positive impact in other areas of your life, other than nutrition.

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Goals:

 

• Increase awareness of how you feel before and after eating (physically and mentally)

• Become mindful of motivations surrounding food intake

• Raise awareness of cravings and when these come up

• Learn to pause and slow down

• Connect with your food

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Tips:

 

• Eat slowly and chew thoroughly, savoring every bit

  • Not only is this a practice of mindfulness, it also gives the body time to register hunger and fullness signal from the brain

• Honor the food – where it was grown, who prepared it

• Eat while present – without distraction

• Connect – with the food and others sharing in the meal

• When you get a craving, pause, consider why you are having the craving and then decide how to proceed with this knowledge

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Guided Meditation Videos

 

Below are five guided meditation videos for you to explore and use at your leisure. These videos include relaxing sounds to go along with the guided meditations tailored for mindful eating. 

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Meditations:

*Guided Meditation for Food Cravings from Live Sonima

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38hBWbegTLY

*A Mindful Eating Script from Christine Milovani at the VHA Office of Patient-Centered Care & *Cultural Transformation

-https://www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTHLIBRARY/docs/Script-Mindful-Eating.pdf

*Raisin Meditation – Dave Potter

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CZEEYMXr8Q

 

Exercises:

 

1. Guided Body Scan

   1. This will allow you to become reacquainted with your body and its signals you are comfortable with listening to them

2. Savory Food Meditation

   1. While eating an orange, notice all the 5 senses

      1. Smell

      2. Touch

      3. Taste

      4. Sound

      5. Sight

3. Follow the Breath

   1. Breath in through the noise on a count of four, pause for three, and out through your mouth on a count of four

   2. Follow the movement of a candle

   3. Observe your belly raising and falling

4. Gratitude

   1. Towards your food and the nourishment it brings your body

5. Meditation

   1. Engage in a 2 minute meditation before and after you eat to notice the physical and emotional sensations

 

Information Handouts:

 

1. Get to Know Your Hunger and Fullness

   1. Includes a hunger and fullness scale

   2. As yourself “on a scale of 1-10, how hungry am I?”

2. “Mindful Eating Quiz”

3. “5-5-5-5-5 Exercise”

4. “5 Ways to Respond to Food Pushers”

5. “Mindful Eaters… 10 Habits”

6. “Mindful Eating Cycle” (May, 2018)

7.  “Mindful Meal Challenge” 5-days of mindful eating (Dr. Darya Rose) 

   1. https://www.mindfulmealchallenge.com/

8. Apps: “Am I Hungry” and “In the Moment”

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