Mindful Eating for Weight Loss

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Related Episodes:

• Mindful Eating Even When You’re Busy
• 5 Mindset Shifts to Help You Lose Weight
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Full Episode Transcript:

Mindful Eating for Weight Loss

Hi there, welcome to the podcast. Today we’re going to talk a little mindful eating for weight loss.

Mindful eating is a really good skill to help you lose weight, because it helps to decrease overeating. And when it comes to weight loss, we want to make sure that you are not consuming more calories than you are burning. So we want to decrease overeating.

Overeating being defined as eating more then you need. This could either be at one sitting, or one meal. Or it could mean total throughout the entire day.

Now, I just want to mention that sometimes this is difficult to know as far as how much to eat throughout the day. But this is something that you start getting in tune with as you go.

There are lots of calculators out there where you can calculate your basal metabolic rate, which is the number of calories that you burn just to stay alive. But then of course this does not take into account any activity that you do through the day.

This is just to actually keep you alive as far as your body processes such as breathing, digesting, all the things that your brain needs to do to keep you alive. Your brain actually burns a lot of calories.

And even just keeping track of calories that you’re eating is difficult, because oftentimes companies that have packaged foods, put a number on the box as far as calories that is actually less than what is really in the food per serving.

This is because the FDA allows them to under or overestimate by 20%. Of course, it’s going to be in the company’s best interest to underestimate the calories, because they want you to buy the food and they no that lower calorie foods tend to be more enticing to people.

Also, the thing about trying to keep track of calories for the day, is that that means you have to do some measuring, writing things down, and that stuff all takes time. So unless you enjoy doing that, it’s not something that most people are in the habit of doing or have the desire to do.

My coaching philosophy is that I try to make things as easy as possible for my clients to do regarding eating habits and losing weight, because then it’s more likely for you to continue doing them. It just sets you up for success. It makes the process way more enjoyable too. Way more doable.

Sometimes tracking can really seem like a chore to many people.

When I changed my eating habits and lost weight, I was not doing it via tracking calories and measuring foods. That’s because I was very busy and working in surgery and seeing patients in the office at the time, plus I had lots of things going on outside of work, so realistically, I did not want to be tracking every little calorie that I was eating throughout the day. Nor did I want to measure out my food. I preferred to just learn skills.

I know that lots of people have success with weight loss with exact measuring (either via measuring cups and spoons or weighing food on a food scale) plus tracking calories, and this works very well with their lifestyle, especially once they get in the habit of doing it.

And if someone wants to do that, then great. Do it. But that’s not something that I make my clients do, because I just don’t think it fits into many busy lifestyles and I personally wouldn’t want to do it myself, so I’m not going to make my clients do it.

There are lots of other ways that I think feel more natural to people, that are just skills that are developed over time. These are the skills that I help my clients with. Many times they are focused on awareness. Awareness really is one of the most useful tools ever. And these skills stay with you forever. For example, mindful eating is one.

So what is mindful eating anyway? In summary, it is having awareness of what you are eating in the moment, and focusing on the food itself, and the process of eating.

For example, you would be focusing on what the food looks like, smells like, the texture, of course what it tastes like. You’d also be very aware of how it feels in your mouth when you’re chewing it, how your stomach feels. And this is where it crosses over into intuitive eating.

Where you’re focused on when you are starting to feel a little bit full. Of course, knowing when you’re truly hungry is part of this as well. Really paying attention to your body and its needs. People who lose weight and keep it off are good at doing this. That’s why this is a skill that is well worth learning and it’s not difficult to learn. And it will stay with you for life.

It’s just a matter of learning it, doing it, and doing it enough times that it actually becomes second nature to you, or habit. You’re no longer having to be intentional about it because you just automatically do it every time you eat. And then you just become the person who no longer overeats.

At first, when you start trying to practice some mindful eating, that awareness of what the food looks like, smells like, tastes like, feels like, you’re going to have to remind yourself to do this. Meaning, you’re going to have to be intentional about doing this.

I also help you with that if we are working together in a coach client relationship. Because part of developing the habit or forming a new habit, means making it easy to do the thing, the action and do it enough times so that it does form a habit. So that starts with being very intentional, and doing certain things to help you follow through on that intention.

Oftentimes, what happens with that awareness that you have with mindful eating is that you start to enjoy the food more. You’re actually paying attention to all the goodness associated with the food. You’re slowing things down and not just shoveling it in.

Because we’ve all done it. We’ve been snacking while we’ve been doing something else and the next thing you know the snack is completely gone and you have no idea what happened to it.

Well, you have an idea you know it’s in your stomach, but you really didn’t have much awareness of the process of eating it. Which means, you didn’t really get to enjoy it as much as you would have liked to or that you could have.

This can occur with beverages as well. If you’re someone who enjoys wine, have you ever had a glass of wine and started scrolling your phone and the next thing you know the glass is almost empty? You didn’t even really get to enjoy every sip of it.

So learning the skill of mindful eating for weight loss is going to benefit you in more than just the weight loss, but also allowing you to enjoy the food more.

But let’s also dive into how mindful eating helps you with weight loss. So oftentimes, over eating over time leads to weight gain. If you are trying to lose weight, you have to try to decrease over eating. That can be at just certain meals, or your total amount of food for the day.

Mindful eating can help decrease overeating, because if you are focused on sort of slowing things down, focusing on the food itself, the behavior of eating the food, such as chewing it and swallowing it, you’re typically going to eat less of it.

You’re going to first give your stomach a chance to adjust to the food that’s in it and allow the hormone leptin to do its job. Leptin is the satiety hormone, meaning it lets your brain know when you’re full.

Also, if you are paying attention to the food as well as your body, then you are going to start to learn when you’ve started to get satisfied enough without being overly full. You can really pay attention to your stomach and the fullness of it.

You don’t want to be so full that you’re uncomfortable period but you want to feel a little bit of fullness. You want to feel satisfied. But if you’re trying to lose weight, you definitely want to aim more for just feeling that slight or a little bit of fullness rather than feeling completely or overly full.

Because to lose weight, again, you need to be decreasing the amount of calories relative to what your body is typically burning for the day.

And like I mentioned, unless you want to be trying to do the calorie counting thing and keeping track of lots of different things throughout the day, learning this skill is very helpful. And like I said, it stays with you and becomes just part of how you eat. It just becomes part of who you are. It becomes a habit.

And that’s what I’m all about, helping you break those eating habits that are having a negative effect on you. Whether that be causing you to gain weight, hindering your weight loss efforts, harming your physical health or your mental health.

Also, I help you form the eating habits that will help bring you closer to your goals. Whether that be weight loss goals, specific health related goals, or just plain feeling better. I know that sounds very general, but who doesn’t want to feel better period sometimes we don’t even know what specific goals we have, but we just want to feel better. And that can be a goal in and of itself.

And along with eating habits, there are lots of other healthy habits that help with weight loss period I’m actually working on a new free class for you on weight loss habits.

It’ll be an on demand video class, you can watch it over and over again, anytime you want, You can pause and rewind.

In the class, I will be sharing the six weight loss habits that will significantly help you to lose weight. Plus I tell you how to make each of these super doable. And, these habits do more than just help you lose weight, they give you so many benefits for the rest of your life.

So you can certainly do the fad diet and lose the weight temporarily, or you can develop these habits, lose weight and keep it off, and reap so many other benefits, such as increased energy, increased physical health and brain health, improved mood, decreased negative self talk. There are so many things, that I cannot even possibly list them all.

So that free class should be coming out sometime around the end of June or early July. And it comes with a workbook. Don’t worry, it’s not too much work, it’s probably more like a mini workbook. But it helps you to apply what you learn. It’s one thing to listen and learn, and another thing to actually implement. So the workbook helps you to implement.

Once the weight loss habits class is ready to go, I will share the link with you.

That was a little bit of a tangent on weight loss habits. Alright, so mindful eating for weight loss is going to help you become the person who doesn’t overeat. The person who actually enjoys her food more. The person who is very aware of her senses, her body and when she is hungry versus when she’s full.

And again, this does really crossover quite a bit into intuitive eating. They’re similar, but not the exact same. That might be a podcast episode for another time.

And just a note, for you busy career women, you can eat mindfully even when you’re busy period it really doesn’t add that much more time period think about it, you’re slowing things down just a little bit as far as the eating goes. But it’s not like you’re adding an hour. You’re probably just adding about 5 minutes.

Also, to eat mindfully, it’s probably best to not eat while working at your computer. I should say it’s imperative to not eat while working at your computer If you want to truly be mindfully eating. It’s also imperative not to be scrolling on your phone.

This is a little fun fact. If you’ve identified yourself as a multitasker, and feel that you can focus on eating and doing another activity, you’re most likely not focused on both.

There are actually very few people in the world that can truly multitask efficiently. Your focus is often way more on one thing than the other. You may be doing both of the things action-wise, but your brain is typically just focused much more on one thing than the other.

So to say that you can do and focus on more than one thing at once and be truly focused on each of those things at the exact same moment, is probably not correct. You’re part of that very small percentage of people in the world that truly can. Maybe, but I’m just going based off statistics.

I actually always thought that I was a good multitasker, and my husband Paul pointed out that I am not. He notices that I can’t focus on both things very well. My focus is typically way more on one of those two things.

So all you need to do, to start using mindful eating for weight loss, is first understand that it doesn’t add that much time. Next, remind yourself of the benefits. Being aware of and reminding yourself of the benefits or the rewards, is going to be a good motivator to get you to do the action.

So if you want to start eating mindfully for weight loss reasons or just to enjoy the food more, or just for the purpose of being more mindful about everything in your life, then remind yourself of the rewards for doing so. This will help you follow through on your intention.

Next, realize that because this is new, you’re not going to be perfect at this, but start out small. Maybe just choose one meal a day that you are going to practice this new skill. Then at that meal, make sure you’re not doing something else. So maybe pick a meal that you feel like will be easiest for you to just focus on the food and on eating.

Then you’re going to focus on and appreciate what the food looks like on your plate, the smell. You can even then bring your attention to the silverware you’re using, how it feels in your hand, what it looks like. This is optional, but can help. You’ll want to then focus on how the bite of food feels in your mouth, the texture, of course the flavor.

To do so, you’re probably going to want to chew it maybe for a little bit longer than you’re used to. And then pay attention to how it feels once you swallow the food, and then sort of imagine it traveling its way down to your stomach and how your stomach feels after each bite.

So, as you can see, a lot of these things are just going on inside of your brain, so it’s not really taking you that much longer to eat. Like I said, maybe just a few minutes. And you’re going to get so much more enjoyment out of it. You’re going to feel more satisfied with less food. It’s going to make weight loss so much easier.

So, give it a try.

Be sure to follow the show, meaning add it to your library to get notified of the latest episodes. And next week I’ll probably be releasing that new weight loss habits free class plus workbook. So fun.

Also, I invite you to get a plan of action for your specific struggles and how to get you from where you are now to where you want to be, by booking a free consult with me. Talking with me allows me to provide you a plan of action that’s tailored specifically to you.

You’ll find out what will get you out of any challenges you’re facing regarding eating habits or weight loss. Plus, what will get you to your goals. If you have questions, I will answer them.

To get your action plan, schedule the free consult right on the episode page if you’re listening from my website or in the episode description if you’re listening from your favorite podcast app such as Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc.

Alright, thanks for listening, take care and I’ll talk with you soon.