Mindful Eating: Change Your Eating Habits for Good

In this busy world, it can be extremely easy for most people to fall into patterns that lead 
them down an unhealthy path. When you feel like choices can be more trouble than it’s 
worth for you, the least troubled choice always seems like the better answer, but is it 
really? 

When it comes to nutrition, it can take careful planning, patient observation, and diligent 
efforts to gain the healthful benefits like great skin and healthy organs. The biggest 
obstacle to this can be the way you do or don’t focus on your eating habits. 

This report isn’t just about eating a healthy diet – whatever that means to you – but 
being more mindful in your eating. This allows you to really figure out what foods are 
good for your body and mind, and which aren’t nourishing you. It is the first step to 
being more of an intuitive eater and ditching those restrictive diets for good.


1. Starting Your Path to Mindful Eating

The first thing you will learn are some basic habits and strategies that help to get you 
into the mindset of being more of a mindful eater and using mindfulness for your meals, 
and when deciding which foods are nourishing you the most.
 

Being Open to What Your Body Tells You

If this is the first time that you’ve ever heard about the fact that your body has built in 
signals to let you know what it needs, and when it’s had enough, then it might sound 
strange, but it’s important to note that doctors have used physical cues and reactions to 
diagnose or narrow down the range of possible illness for thousands of years. 

The same principles apply when it comes to daily bodily functions as well. All events 
have some form of signifying or initial reaction. The best way to observe this 
phenomenon would be to practice mindfulness. To begin focusing and practicing 
mindfulness, you should first find out whether mindfulness is something that you 
naturally practice, or if it needs to become an adjustment that you explore. 




Mindful or Mindless 

When it comes to mindful eating, it is fairly direct and specific in that it is simply being 
focused on your present state of mind and the moment during eating. Mindfulness 
reduces the amount of stimuli that you are likely to experience and encourages you to 
focus on what you find there. 

If you are a mindful eater, then you’re more likely to do things like meal planning and 
only eat when you are hungry. These days, mindless eating is far more common 
because of the enormous amount of distractions that are available on a 24 hour basis. 

If you find yourself having to eat while watching some form of entertainment, then you’re 
more likely to develop some habits that put you at serious risk of being a person who 
eats mindlessly. Continuing that kind of behavior can lead to unintentionally eating 
multiple portions of foods that aren’t intended to be ingested in those quantities. 


Get in the Right Mindset

No matter what your specific goals may be, it’s important to approach your new habit of 
mindfulness with a positive attitude. Mindfulness is here to help you to enjoy life more, 
and not to put a pile of restrictions upon you. 

When you practice becoming more mindful, you will find that your experiences will be 
more memorable, and many times more vivid. Also, embrace this journey that you’re on 
because it’s going to teach you more about yourself. 


What You Will Learn

In the coming sections, you will learn the following important mindful eating strategies:

Why you should eat without distractions.
How mindful eating works.
Why you need to be present during meals.
How mindfulness helps you to develop a healthier mindset about food and diets.




2. Becoming Aware of Your Eating

When you’re first getting in the mode to become mindful, you have to increase your 
awareness of your eating habits. This will be the easiest achieved through asking 
yourself questions to establish a more realistic view of your relationship with your meal, 
and how much focus you actually have during the meal. 


Some Questions to Ask Yourself:

1.	Do you find yourself reaching for snacks without fully realizing you have until you 
already have a mouthful of food?
2.	Do you eat when you’re bored, or experiencing negative emotions? 
3.	Do your meals typically last longer than 20 minutes, or are they rushed (eaten on 
the way to work, school, or home)?
4.	Do you feel satisfied with your meal portions, or do you often feel overstuffed 
after eating?
5.	When you are home eating a meal, are you in front of a tv, video games, internet 
or any other form of entertainment while eating? 

If you ended up answering yes to any of these questions, then you might find the next 
few pages somewhat helpful. They will give you a few areas where you can make 
changes or additions to your lifestyle and begin eating more mindfully. 


Chew Your Food 28 or More Times 

You’ve probably heard every sort of rhyme that has been or can be said about the 
amount of times you should chew your food. Even though it sounds like the most 
unpleasant and controlling way to get food into your body, you have to consider the fact 
that people digest food much better when it’s been chewed more times. 

That means that your stomach and intestines will have to do a lot less work when it 
comes time to break these beautiful and tasty meals down into the basic building blocks 
that make up your body. When your food isn’t chewed well enough, it can lead to poor 
digestion, and waste of your food, so the next time you take a bite, take some time to 
chew 15 more times. Your body will thank you. 

 

Learn to Enjoy Eating in Silence

You can view this step as the next natural progression from eliminating distractions 
during mealtime. At some point you should push to eating in a quiet calm place. Every 
day as people go through life, they learn to block out the enormous amounts of noise 
coming from machinery like cars, planes, and buses of all types. 

In restaurants, you will find music, and some may even have televisions blaring out the 
news, or some form of children’s entertainment. While it might not seem like a big deal, 
these extra amounts of stimuli which are being rammed into your mind like a hot knife, 
are exerting a small amount of stress on your senses at a constant level. 

When you take some time out for yourself and step away from the chaos that surrounds 
the everyday tech-obsessed world, you’ll be more likely to find a massive, quiet peace 
as you sit with your meal. If you have a patio space, you might want to try eating there 
during a peaceful time. 


Remember the Basics of Mindfulness

As you adapt to being a more mindful eater, you want to keep in mind the basic 
practices of mindfulness itself. These are the same practices you use whether you are 
journaling mindfully, using meditation with mindfulness, or being mindful during other 
activities.

It includes:

Always being present with your meals. Just like you are present during other 
activities, you want to be more present when you eat mindfully. Reduce distractions, 
focus on your food, and really enjoy the experience.

Allowing your thoughts to come in, then letting them go without judgment. Your 
mind might wander a bit, which is okay. Just don’t let it distract you from your food. Try 
to let the thoughts come, understand that is how you feel now, and then let them pass. 

Tapping into your senses and how you feel. This is one of the most beneficial 
aspects of mindful eating. You are not just shoveling food in your mouth and not 
thinking about that next bite. You are really noticing how you think and feel when you 
eat a specific food. This is the beginning of being a more intuitive eater.

3. Get Rid of Distractions 

This is going to take more effort for some people than others, but it’s an extremely 
important step in learning mindful eating. Earlier, when the question of what kind of 
distractions came up, what was your answer? It’s highly common for people to eat 
during their entertainment in the home. 

For some people with predispositions to having various types of eating disorders, this 
can be a dangerous habit. You should strive to place meal time into areas of the home 
that aren’t where you will be distracted from anything other than the meal itself. 

Phones have advanced to the point that they’re now pocket computers. They can bring 
news, social interactions and video entertainment with you to anywhere you might want 
to go, but they also bring the threat of constant contact with every thought and 
complaint any person can broadcast to the world at the touch of a button. 

These items should be left out of the direct dining area. Keeping your food areas 
exclusively for food will increase your chances of being successful at mindful eating, 
and reduce your stress. Sit at the family table, or if you don’t have one of those, sit 
outside in a quiet area. 


Sit and Be Present

When you’re eating, do you find yourself trying to solve complex issues and problems of 
the day? While it’s noble to work towards efficiency, it could prevent you from living in 
the moment with your meal. 

When you sit with your meal, you should give yourself some time to clear your head of 
the noise of the day so you can be there with the food you are about to eat. If you begin 
to add other things like languishing-over-bills to your meal, then you have already 
defeated the purpose of mindful eating. The entire purpose of eating mindfully is be 
focused on the singular task of enjoying your meal. 







Reflect and Appreciate 

Whether you come from a religious family or not, it can be extremely healing and good 
for your heart and mind to take some time to focus on the things that you feel thankful 
for. In this moment, you are attempting to stay focused on your thankfulness for the 
meal that you are a about to enjoy. 

Think deeply about what it has taken to bring your meal together. When you consider 
the origins of the many ingredients that go into making any meal with more than 5 
individual elements, not to mention the skills involved with cooking the food at the 
appropriate temperatures for the needed length of time. 

In a way, that means that thousands of years of innovation came together to help you 
arrive at the meal that you are about to eat. Taking note of this can help you to grow 
appreciation for food. 


More Tips for Reducing Distractions

Since this is probably the hardest habit to create when it comes to mindful eating, you 
might need a few more tips. Here are some things you can do now to get into the 
practice of mindful eating without all those outside distractions.

Turn your phone off. Your biggest distraction while eating is probably your phone. 
Whether you are at home or work, you need to turn that phone off. To be mindful, your 
mind needs to be on what you are doing right now, which is eating a meal. Not on 
emails, phone calls and texts, social media, or other reminders that take away your 
focus.

Eat at a table or desk. An easy way to avoid eating in front of the television or with 
other common distractions is to eat at a more conventional place. Eat at a table in the 
break room at work, at your home’s kitchen or dining table, or even at a desk if you 
have to. Just make sure that computer is turned off! 

Have a journal next to you. In the beginning, you might find it difficult to just eat in 
silence without something else to do. To start adjusting to this, have a journal or 
notebook next to you instead. When you have another thought, just write it down, then 
go back to your mindful eating.


4. More Mindful Eating Habits

Moving beyond the basics of mindful eating, here are some other habits that you can 
incorporate at the same time. 


Don’t Pass on Meals

Even though you might not be hungry to the point of starving, it really not a very good 
idea to skip any meals unless you’re fasting for a specific reason. When you don’t intake 
the expected amount of calories in a day, your body will go into a mode where it begins 
to think that it’s starving. When this happens, it plays havoc with your blood sugar. Try 
to keep small snacks on hand for busy days where you have less incentive to take a 
break for nourishment. 


Take Notice of Your Body's Cues

When you eat food, your tongue, esophagus and stomach send messages to your brain 
that it should expect some delicious food. When your brain gets these messages, it 
responds by sending signals to your pancreas so that it can make insulin. Insulin helps 
regulate and process the way your body uses sugar. 

During the time that you are eating, the interactions happening in your body might 
produce different types of tells or cues that signify where you are in the process. In 
order to become more familiar with the cues that your body might produce, you’ll have 
to spend some time quietly eating and observing your feelings and reactions. 

Once you have gotten to the point where it easy for you to be in a quiet place, you will 
be able to record the slightest changes in your physical comfort that can tell you how 
healthy you feel. Some people who eat a little too much might experience some kind of 
reaction like burping, excess production of mucous, or hiccups. 

When you are practicing mindfulness, you’re more likely to eat at a pace that allows 
your body the time that it takes to send the appropriate hormones to your brain. If done 
properly, this will make it easier for your body to send the signals that are needed for 
you to feel satisfied with how much you ate. 



5. What You Eat Matters

Humans are creatures of habit for the most part. People love to go to their favorite 
places to eat and order the same foods over and over. While this can be very enjoyable, 
it can be a good idea to switch up your orders or try making something new when it’s 
time to eat something. 

This can give you a suddenly new look at your tastes. This is especially true when 
you're’ trying to get a lot of practice as a new mindful eater. Whatever the case, you 
should always try to find food that you love to eat. Also, if you like to go out a lot and sit 
in a booth, try sitting on an outside patio. You may find that the new experience of the 
night air can bring you a lot of joyful, vivid reflections on the evening.  


Using Different Utensils

Some dishes like some Asian dishes are traditionally eaten with chopsticks, so it might 
be a good idea to incorporate that into the idea of putting in a greater effort to eat foods. 
If you are required to take extra steps in order to eat your food, this will also work to 
slow you down so that you can experience some of the hormones that tell your brain 
that you have been sated.  


Eat Food that Requires Effort

While it’s true that it probably won’t be feasible for you to use this technique all the time, 
having another method that can put up a moderate amount of resistance to bad habits 
is always a good idea. If you get and eat foods that require a lot more effort to eat, then 
you will be forced to have to focus on the moment where you are preparing and getting 
ready to eat your meal. 

A lot of foods like pineapples, shellfish, coconuts, and walnuts will take some extra time 
for you to get the part that is edible, so that can help you increase in your self-
awareness and mindfulness. 






Curate Your Shopping List 

One of the most important steps in becoming a mindful eater is being more choosy with 
the kind of foods that you find yourself attracted to during shopping trips. If you find 
yourself reaching for the quick microwavable foods, do your best to go straight to an 
aisle with your favorite healthy and delicious ingredients. 

If you are trying to create healthy meals for low cost, then simplify some of your meals 
and buy things that can be more versatile. Meats and vegetables are all about how 
they’re cooked and seasoned during the process, so you should be able to get quite a 
few options with something like chicken and veggies. 

Try your best to stay away from processed foods and anything that is higher than your 
daily value of sodium in one serving. With a small amount of study, most packages of 
frozen prepackaged foods will contain more than your recommended daily amount in a 
single 6 - 8 oz of food. 

