Break Bad Eating Habits with Mindful Eating (Even with a Busy Schedule)

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Read the Transcript:

Break Bad Eating Habits with Mindful Eating, Even with a Busy Schedule

Hi there, welcome to the Eating Habits for Life podcast. Today, I want to explain to you how you can break bad eating habits with mindful eating, even with a busy schedule.

I will first explain what mindful eating is, very briefly, as I believe you probably already have an idea of what it is. I’ll also explain how mindful eating actually helps break bad eating habits and which ones in particular. I will provide some very simple steps so that you can start to break bad eating habits with mindful eating, even with a busy schedule.

Then, I will also bring up some potential challenges and share how to overcome them. That will help to remove any roadblocks that might get in your way as you implement those simple mindful eating steps to break bad eating habits.

But speaking of breaking bad eating habits, if you feel like you are struggling with weight gain or not making much progress in your weight loss journey and you notice that you snack often or at night, this may be what is getting in your way.

So, it’s actually the reasons why you’re snacking that could be getting in the way. And then certainly, of course, how much you’re eating and what it is, but it always does start with why.

I’m hosting a virtual interactive workshop that is completely free on Thursday, June 27th, at 7:00 PM Eastern Time to help you conquer your nighttime snacking habit for easier weight loss.

During the workshop, I will be teaching just for a little bit, and then walking you through step-by-step to create a personal plan for your success. I will provide a template for you that you can print out ahead of time that you will use during the workshop to create this plan on.

You will walk away feeling like you actually have a strategy to follow that’s based on behavioral science, that will help you conquer the nighttime snacking habit.

You’ll feel more in control, you won’t wake up feeling bloated or feeling guilty about how much you ate or what you ate, and you will start seeing the number on the scale go in the direction you want it to.

So, if you have a nighttime snacking habit that you really want to conquer, definitely sign up for that as quickly as possible before you get busy with something else.

Alright, so what exactly is mindful eating? Really quickly, it is just being in the present moment with the food in front of you, your body, and the activity of eating. That’s it in its simplest definition.

You are very much aware of everything about the food, and aware of the parts of your body that are involved in eating the food. So essentially, it is increasing your consciousness while eating. So that you are as fully present, or aware, or as conscious as possible.

This helps you to be very deliberate and intentional rather than reactive or automatic.

So contrast mindful eating with mindless eating. Mindless eating is where you’re not really conscious while eating.

Now, I don’t mean that you’re asleep or half out of it, but you’re just not really that aware of the food, your body, and the action of eating. It’s much more automatic. You’re just not paying that much attention.

So mindless eating is an example of an eating habit that can cause you to overeat, so many may classify that as a bad eating habit, right? Career women tend to do a lot of mindless eating because of a busy schedule and trying to multitask, especially while at work.

What ends up happening is the thing that you need your brain for more, you end up focusing pretty much 100% on, such as typing on the computer, driving, or even reading.

And the other thing, the eating, which you don’t need a ton of brain power for, gets shifted to the other part of the brain, what people commonly refer to as the habit brain. The part of the brain that does those easy, repetitive tasks that you’re so used to doing, on autopilot.

This is why it’s called mindless eating because your mind is elsewhere, it’s on the other thing that requires more focus.

OK, so important to remember, when you’re eating and doing something else at the same time, your brain is going to need the brain power for the other thing, and therefore the task of eating is going to be taken over by the part of the brain that is more automatic and less controlled and intentional.

Emotional eating can fall under this umbrella of mindless eating because oftentimes you’re eating mindlessly when you’re eating emotionally. For example, if you are eating out of boredom, this can definitely be mindless eating.

Another eating habit that falls under the umbrella of mindless eating would be just automatically grabbing bites and nibbles of things just because you see them. This is also very automatic, very impulsive, you’re not really being deliberate or thoughtful. You may just be grabbing out of habit.

So to sort of sum that all up, we want to shift you from automatic, less controlled, mindless eating to mindful eating where it is much more controlled, and much easier to eat the right amount of food for your body. Meaning, eating when you’re hungry, and stopping at enough.

You break bad eating habits with mindful eating by overriding the habit part of the brain. When you’re shifting your focus to food and the eating itself, you are shifting out of that very automatic, habit function of the brain by using the more intentional, deliberate part of the brain.

Increasing awareness and presence when you eat significantly prevents overeating, which will definitely help you feel more in control, less physically uncomfortable and will assist with weight loss.

Mindful eating also allows you to get more enjoyment with each bite of food. This actually helps to provide more satisfaction with less volume. You’re able to appreciate the smells, even the visual of the food, the taste, of course, the textures.

Many of my clients have noticed that they appreciate it so much more and definitely enjoy it more, but also have noticed that they don’t need nearly as much volume to get the same amount of enjoyment.

One client in particular has told me multiple times that she always had to have a piece or two of a chocolate dessert if there is chocolate dessert available, but now she is extremely satisfied with just a bite or two of the chocolate dessert. She doesn’t feel deprived, trust me I have checked in with her about this. She feels that this is all she needs and she is very satisfied.

A lot of times the reasons why we overeat are for more satisfaction. But if you’re getting that same amount of satisfaction with less volume of food, because you’ve been slowing it down and really paying attention, you will be less likely to overeat.

Many of my clients have noticed much less overeating since they have slowed it down a little bit and paid more attention to the food itself.

And mind you, my clients are very busy career women, and they have noticed that they’ve only needed to slow it down just a little bit to see a difference. It’s not like you go from spending 10 minutes eating your meal to 30 minutes eating your meal. It really only adds a couple of extra minutes.

I’ll explain in a little bit why it doesn’t really add that much more time, and how you can ensure success with mindful eating even with a busy schedule.

Mindful eating allows you to really pay attention to your hunger signals. Why it helps to prevent overeating is that you are able to pay attention to when those hunger signals go away. And even when you are just starting to feel a little full, rather than getting to the point where you’re feeling overly full.

When you’re feeling overly full, that means you’ve overeaten.

Another client has recently commented how since she has been implementing mindful eating into her meals, she notices that she no longer judges herself if she wants to eat a few French fries or nachos.

She feels very much in control, she feels like it’s a very deliberate decision, and she is very satisfied with a small amount and so doesn’t overeat. Then she has no negative thoughts or feelings about it.

Alright, so here are some practical steps to help you break bad eating habits with mindful eating, even with a busy schedule. Then, I will address those potential obstacles or roadblocks that you’re thinking may get in your way.

Number one is to choose a meal that you’d like to start off with first to get consistent with mindful eating. I would choose the easiest meal. If you eat breakfast every day and you feel like this might be the easiest meal for you to start practicing a little bit of mindful eating, then choose breakfast. If you feel like it is a snack that you have in the afternoon with tea or coffee, then choose that as the one you’ll start with.

We want to make it easy and we want to make it consistent. So that first step helps with both of those.

Next, give yourself some sort of a reminder. Lots of things come up, you’re busy, so you’re going to need a reminder to practice that mindful eating for that meal. That’s why choosing a specific meal is helpful, because then you can even set an alert on your phone or put a post-it note where you typically have this meal or snack.

Now, for the actual mindful eating part. You’re going to remove distractions so that you are using all of your brain to focus on your meal, your body, and the activity of eating and stopping.

You’re going to first look at your food, appreciate how it smells, maybe even think to yourself how grateful you are for it. This literally takes a few seconds. That’s it. That’s why you can do this even with a busy schedule.

Then you’re going to eat, but just slow it down a smidge. Try to actually pay attention while you’re eating, notice the different flavors in each bite, and the texture. This really doesn’t take that much extra time; it just takes awareness.

It may feel difficult at first, only because it’s very different from what you’re currently doing. Your brain is going to want to do it the way you’ve always done it, so doing it the opposite way is going to feel odd to you. But just know that that’s normal, and with practice, it gets a lot more comfortable. Eventually, it becomes your new habit over time.

You’re also going to pay attention to your body and when those hunger signals have gone away. What can help with this is making sure you’re also drinking water or something else that’s hydrating while you’re eating. This will allow a bit of extra time for your body to process the food you’ve eaten, helping you know when you’ve had enough.

Some people will put their fork down between every bite; others will take a few sips of water after a few bites of food. Play around with it and see what you like.

The final step is to point out to yourself why this was beneficial for you. Our brains need some sort of reward to reinforce behavior. So, if you’re intentional about recognizing how this approach benefited you, or if you enjoyed it, that will increase the likelihood that you’ll repeat this mindful eating practice.

Now, for the main obstacles: Distractions and interruptions, of course, are going to be obstacles, but control what you can. Remove all the distractions and potential interruptions that you can. Anything that you can’t control, that’s totally fine; it’s not going to be perfect.

Another main obstacle that I know will come up for you is the thought that this is going to take too much time or that you don’t have enough time. Your brain is just going to give you this thought because it wants to keep doing things the way you’re doing them. It wants to be efficient, so it’s going to want to do other things while you’re eating. Just don’t let it.

Even if you feel like your schedule is very tight, there are things you can do to give yourself 15 minutes to eat a meal and be more mindful during that time. I know this because my clients and I have problem-solved for this exact type of thing.

Remind yourself that this doesn’t take much time and will serve you in the short and long term so much more than the bad eating habits do, like mindless eating, emotional eating, overeating, etc.

Alright, my lovely people, that’s what I have for you on how to break bad eating habits with mindful eating, even with a busy schedule. If you need help breaking bad eating habits because you are just tired and frustrated from them and the negative impact they’ve had on your life, I can help you be free from this.

If you’d like to tell me about your struggles with your eating habits or seek solutions, I invite you to set up a free consultation with me. Here’s how you do it: Go to my website katemjohnston.com and you’ll see a button to book a free consult. Just pick a date and time that works for you.

Alternatively, you can visit the link in the episode description if you’re listening on a podcast app. You’ll find a link to book a consult toward the bottom of the episode description. That’s also where you can find the link for the workshop, by the way.

Take care, thanks for listening, and please share this podcast show with a friend, colleague, or family member who you think would benefit from it as well.