Episode 248: Making Peace with Food with Mindful Eating
When I say “mindful eating” or “listen to your body” what’s your instinctual response?
I know for a lot of people their knee jerk reaction is, “My body wants cheetos and ice cream at every meal, so I don’t think you want me listening to my body.”
This is incredibly common and it points to an unfortunate theme: we do not trust our bodies. And we do not trust ourselves.
And where does that leave us but to rely on a diet telling us exactly what we are and are not allowed to eat?
But here’s the irony: dieting is not only one of the strongest predictors for the development of an eating disorder according to the National Eating Disorders Collaboration, “studies show that although dieting may cause short-term weight loss, it is associated with weight gain in the long-term.” -National Library of Medicine
And yet, we are still drawn to the diet.
The black and white rules feel safe; they’re clear, straightforward, and don’t leave any room for interpretation. This allows our brain to be very lazy because we really don’t have to think about what we’re doing. It’s just a matter of implementation. Eat this much of these foods. Don’t eat these foods. Done and done.
Except that we are not machines. We can’t just ingest data and then perfectly execute on it.
We have to contend with all the psychological and physical factors that influence our behavior around food.
We have to deal with cravings, and cultural celebrations that revolve around food, we have to maintain a social life that often centers around food, we may have to ignore physical hunger to abide by our diet rules, we have to work through emotions that we normally would use food to cope with.
Diets don’t take any of this into account. There is no nuance, no room for modification, no flexibility, no individualism.
Add on top of all this the cycle diets perpetuate:
You start off restricting, be it restricting certain macros like carbs, or restricting calories, or restricting certain foods like sugar or pizza.
This leaves you feeling psychologically deprived (I want dessert but I’m not supposed to have it) and often physically deprived of certain nutrients (your brain and muscles need carbs to function).
You eventually can’t take it anymore and break the diet, resulting in overeating and/or feeling out of control around the foods you finally took off the ‘no fly list’.
After “cheating” - be it a small cheat like having a bag of candy at the movies or a big cheat like plowing through all the snacks you can find in your pantry - you feel guilty, hopeless, and broken, which often leads to further overeating episodes because the diet is ‘already ruined’ or quitting altogether because ‘I’m never going to lose this weight anyways, so why bother.’
Until eventually you feel frustrated enough with your body again that you decide to try yet another diet, jumping right back on the merry-go-round thinking ‘this time it’ll be different.’
Allow me to let you in on a little secret that took me a long time to figure out: dieting will never fix the problems that dieting caused in the first place.
Which is why you hear me thrash against the idea of tracking, counting calories, and restricting food for the sake of restricting food. (Yes, there are times where we need to eliminate certain foods in the name of healing. I’ve done it many times in working on my hormones and gut health, but a healing protocol is not the same as a diet.)
Instead I am a huge proponent for the practice of mindful eating.
Now before you dismiss it thinking that there’s no way listening to your body is going to get you anywhere but down a binge spiral, consider this:
“One review of 10 studies found that mindful eating was as effective for weight loss as conventional diet programs.” -Healthline
Healthline also cited a study showing that women who completed a 12-week mindful eating program didn’t only lose weight, they also improved feelings of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-compassion - all things we teach about here at Follow Your Gut and all essential elements for developing a healthier body, a healthier mind, a healthier relationship with food, and a healthier relationship with yourself.
A misconception that a lot of people have - and I think it’s why a lot of people reject the idea of mindful eating - is the idea that it’s just a free for all. Eat whatever you want whenever you want because that’s what you feel like.
But no. Mindful eating does have practical strategies you need to follow to be successful. They just are very different strategies than your typical weight loss plan.
In some ways mindful eating is admittedly harder than dieting.
You can’t just blindly follow a bunch of preset rules. You have to turn your brain on, engage in critical thinking, and really pay attention to your physical and mental state as you make your food choices. And you have to get out of autopilot and tap into a level of self-awareness and intentionality that diets don’t require.
But in a lot of ways mindful eating is a lot easier (and significantly more sustainable and enjoyable) than dieting.
You don’t have to worry about a list of rules you have to adhere to, you don’t need to pull out an app every time you sit down to eat, you have a lot more freedom and flexibility to include your favorite foods, there is no pass/fail, anxiety and food fear significantly decreases, and it seamlessly fits into daily life even in situations where diets would fail you like while on vacation or enjoying the holidays.
So what exactly does mindful eating entail?
On a high level, it’s a combination of slowing down, minimizing distractions, noticing how food makes you feel physically and emotionally, and fully experiencing your food.
But of course you know I’m an action steps girl. I don’t like when things are ambiguous or obscure. And if you’re new to relying on your body as your guide, it may feel really challenging and even confusing at first.
You may struggle identifying different levels of hunger and satiety, you may fight against your instinct to always clean your plate, you may battle cravings and not know how to navigate them without just resorting to restriction.
So to simplify and solidify this seemingly ethereal practice, I dedicated a whole week to the art of mindful eating inside my membership program, The Club. It’s in week 5 of the fall challenge module, and it covers 5 very straightforward steps to make mindful eating an effortless habit in your life.
If you did literally no other part of the challenge and you only followed what I laid out in that lesson, you would notice massive changes in how much you crave and think about food, food anxiety would drastically diminish, you would physically feel better because you wouldn’t be eating to the point of feeling bloated, lethargic, or guilty, and you would notice the scale going down without you having to obsess about the scale going down.
As a reminder, the content in the fall challenge will only be up until mid-November, so I wouldn’t put off joining.
It’s only $29/month and inside the challenge alone you’re going to get a very specific step-by-step plan to help you overcome emotional eating, the restrict-binge cycle, and diet confusion. Plus you’ll walk away knowing how to confidently navigate the exact situations that have screwed you up in the past like travel, holiday seasons, stressful seasons, low motivation days, and setbacks.
In the past a 6-week program like this alone would have been $300. Now you get that, plus all of my other programs and masterclasses, recipes, extended podcast episodes, oh and me as your personal coach for less than $350 for the entire year.
For context, one private session with me costs between $150 and $350, so this is beyond a steal.
And if you’re thinking, “I feel like I need a more customized approach,” first of all you can jump onto the message board with your specific questions any time you want.
And second of all, I will be hosting office hours throughout the year where you’ll have the opportunity to get some 1:1 attention from me with hot seat coaching and food log audits.
I know I’m a bit biased, but I truly believe this is the best investment you could make in your health this year and I genuinely feel bad for anyone who doesn’t take advantage because you are missing out on so many tools and so much support for less than $1 a day.
With all that said, if all this sounds like what you’ve been looking for and you’re ready to get started, click here to sign up. That link will also give you the full breakdown of what you can expect inside.
On the other hand if you’re intrigued but have some questions, just shoot me a DM over on Instagram at @follow.your.gut.nutrition and together we can figure out if this is the right fit for you!
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