Mindful Eating: How I Have Survived a Life of Being a Serial Dieter

I am obsessed with food.  I think about it all day, constantly looking at the clock and counting down  to when I can eat again. Welcome to the world of a serial dieter.

I grew up in an abusive, food-obsessed household.  My mom would fluctuate 100 pounds constantly.  Up, down, up, down.  When she was skinny, she would lay off me.  When she was heavy, she would torture me.  The problem was that I looked just like her and she didn’t want me to be just like her.  By the crisp age of 5, I was introduced to juicing, the soup diet, the 72-hour Hollywood Diet, Atkins, Jenny Craig- you name it.  For my sweet 16, my mother gave me a one-year membership to Weight Watchers and would ground me if I didn’t weigh in with her each week.

As I’ve worked through my traumatic childhood and eating issues as an adult, I still have an obsession with food that I can’t quite shake.  Low fat, high fat, no carbs, no sugar…. I am constantly researching the greatest new health craze.  But like any professional would tell you, dieting doesn’t work.  Lifestyle changes are the only thing that actually does.  I tried keto about two years ago to convince my husband to lower his cholesterol and blood pressure and I LOVED it.  But mostly because we did it together for a good year.  I found the key to a successful healthy life is doing it with your partner and your family.  There is also so much information out there with Facebook groups, online blogs, and books that really helped me meal plan and find delicious recipes that kept us full and satisfied.  We both lost weight, improved our blood work, and felt great.  But just like any diet, it all fell apart.

That was when I went to a nutritionist therapist (yes, this is a thing) who suggested to look into mindful eating.  The idea of mindful eating comes back to when we were newborns.  Newborns only eat when they’re hungry; they stop eating when they’re full.  Their bodies tell them to eat more when they are growing.  That is all mindful eating.  Somewhere in the growth process, possibly when we are introduced to sugars and saturated fats, the brain forgets about when we’re actually hungry and we give into cravings and eat until the plate is empty.  Most of us grew up in an empty plate household- one where we couldn’t leave until our plates were empty- which has been proven is not a healthy habit to push upon our children.  Instead, having our children eat until they are full and not allowing after meal immediate snacking will help our children continue to mindfully and intuitively eat.

Now that the winter holidays are over, when we spend most of our time mindlessly eating instead of really thinking of what we’re putting in our stomachs, it might be the best time to start the new year thinking about when we are truly hungry in order to bring our bodies and our minds back together.

Here are some tips on how to mindfully eat which I have been practicing and would like to not treat like just any other diet.  This has really changed my mindset and has not made me become so obsessed with eating anymore.  I don’t have to look at the clock and think about my next meal.  I, instead, listen to my body.

• Eat only when you’re hungry. If you aren’t hungry for breakfast, it’s OK to skip it. Listen to your body to cue into signs when you are hungry.  Is your stomach growling? Is your energy low?  I have noticed that I often get a headache when I am dehydrated but not necessarily hungry.  I used to think that I just needed to eat when I actually needed to just drink water. Learn your body.  Just like a newborn, it will give you subtle clues that you need to listen to.  Don’t listen to emotional cues (bored, sad, angry).  This will get easier the more you practice this.
• Make time for a meal. My nutritionist asked me if I ever multi-task during meals and I instantly laughed. What working mom doesn’t?  Whether it’s going through the mail, taking a “working lunch,” helping with my kid’s homework, doing the dishes, watching TV, answering emails… I can’t even remember most of my meals after I eat them.  I didn’t realize how fast I ate until I spent a week on a trip and multiple people commented on it.  Did I even taste my food?  If you are only eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full, you should take the time to actually enjoy your meal.  Don’t multi-task while eating because you won’t be able to listen to your body when you are full.
• Engage your family in these practices too. Just like when I started my keto diet, it was easier when my husband did it with me.  Have your family put away all distractions too.  Teach them to stop eating when they’re full and not just to clear their plates.  Teach them to eat slowly and enjoy their meals.
• Start slow. If you want to begin mindfully eating, it’s a good idea to pick one meal a day to start. If you stop eating halfway through your meal but become hungry an hour later, maybe you actually didn’t eat enough during your meal.  Once you have the hang of being able to listen to your mind and your body, mindful eating will become more natural.  Then you can focus on implementing these habits into more meals. 

If you grew up in a food obsessed household like me, or became a serial dieter later in life, nothing has felt more freeing than learning how to listen to my body and to instinctually eat when my body actually needed to.  Mindful eating takes practice.  Try eating more slowly, remove your common distractions, listen to your body, and stop eating when you are full.  If I can do it, you can too.  ?