Margaret is a Faithful Finish Lines 2.0 member and Finisher who loves to read and write when she is not teaching. She lived overseas for a number of years and now resides in the Midwest where she serves the community by teaching English as a Second Language.
Are you struggling to control cravings and mindless eating? Learn how mindful eating can help you lose weight, enjoy food, and find peace with your body.
Are you one of the many women who are trying to lose weight but can’t quite figure out how to avoid yo-yo dieting or emotional eating cycles?
Are you constantly trying to get yourself established in a proper relationship with food that allows you to control what you eat instead of the food seemingly being in control of you?
If you are tired of diets that only help for a while, unhappy with your body image, disliking how you look and feel, and wishing you could find peace in the process of losing weight, you are definitely not alone!
Many of us are struggling in this same way, including myself. Yo-yo dieting kept me from successful weight loss, and actually prevented me from having a healthy relationship with food until I discovered a more mindful and compassionate approach.
According to an article at Grace Filled Plate,
“rather than looking to external factors (like diets) to tell us when, what, and how much to eat, Intuitive Eating teaches us to look to the internal wisdom of our own bodies to guide us in our eating choices.”
Grace Filled Plate
When you slow down and pay attention to your body’s signals, you begin to notice how food makes you feel before, during, and after eating. You become present and aware of what is taking place during your meal.
In a sense, you are listening to your body and learning to understand it so that you know when you have had enough, and you can stop eating because you are full, even if that means there is still food on your plate.
Eating in this way has a lot of benefits. Not only will you have a deeper appreciation of God’s creation of food, you will also have an improved relationship with food that will help you avoid binging and emotional eating. Your digestion will be improved, and you may find you sleep better.
Eating mindfully also helps reduce stress and promotes a more relaxing eating experience as you savor the present moment and focus on actually tasting your food. Not only that, weight loss will be a natural outcome of your new habit of eating mindfully as you identify and overcome problem eating patterns.
What is Mindful Eating?
The nutrition extension of Utah State University shares a good definition of mindful eating in an article about its benefits, challenges, and strategies:
Mindful eating focuses on wellness and how we eat, not what we eat. It involves paying attention and being fully aware of what we are thinking and feeling when we eat. Mindful eating involves eating slower and more deliberately, avoiding distractions while eating, listening to the body’s hunger and fullness cues, eating foods that are both pleasing and nourishing, and being aware of and acknowledging our response to foods.
Utah State University on definition of mindful eating
Mindful eating principles are also evident in Scripture.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Psalm 34:8
This verse applies to the principle of slowing down, and emphasizes the savoring of God’s provision.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
This is a great verse for emphasizing the principle of savoring each bite, as you practice gratitude for God’s creation, including all the good food He has provided for your enjoyment.
“Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and eat your fill of bread.”
Proverbs 20:13
This verse is a good one for showing the principle of tuning into your hunger and fullness cues so that you avoid overindulgence.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Philippians 4:6
This wonderful reminder in Scripture tells you to focus on God’s blessing and works well with the principle of eating without distractions.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
This verse is such a good one for illustrating the principle of being aware of how you respond to food and differentiating between emotional hunger and physical hunger, reminding you to seek comfort in God instead of food.
Mindful eating differs from traditional dieting. Instead of following specific rules or restrictions on what to eat and not to eat, mindful eating focuses on listening to what your body needs and how much you need, with no food being considered off limits.
Mindful eating focuses on self-awareness and honoring God’s principles rather than following rigid restrictions that can lend themselves to food cravings and binge eating.
How Does Mindful Eating Promote Weight Loss?
Mindful eating promotes weight loss in a number of different ways, including;
Reduced Calorie Intake
You lose weight by taking in fewer calories than you expend in energy, so when you are naturally eating less while also paying attention to your body’s signals, you will reduce your calorie intake.
This is also a great way to practice gratitude for God’s provision as you become more and more mindful of the blessing of food that nourishes and is enjoyable.
Curbing Cravings
When you make certain foods off limits, you will invariably find yourself craving those foods, and this makes dieting difficult.
When you apply mindful eating principles instead, allowing yourself to eat food without restriction but in a mindful way, you can better address underlying emotional triggers that lead to overeating through prayer, reflection, and seeking God’s guidance.
Mindful Eating for Portion Control
As you learn to understand your body’s cues of when you are full and when you are truly hungry, you will gain an awareness of how much—or even how little you need for nourishment and enjoyment.
This mindful eating practice helps prevent overeating, and honors the principle of moderation.
“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…”
1 Timothy 4:4
Improved Food Choices
Part of mindful eating is choosing the best food you can eat to satisfy your body. When you are fully present and aware of what you are eating, you will naturally shift towards whole, nourishing foods that are good for you as well as being pleasant to eat.
This aligns with God’s creation plan for your body, which is His holy temple:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Stress Reduction
An article at Healthline.com suggests that stress produces high amounts of the hormone cortisol, which can contribute to weight gain. When chronic stress causes cortisol to remain at high levels, this can promote overeating.
Eating mindfully, where you are fully aware of your eating experience, including specific cues, such as hunger, fullness, taste, and texture, will act as a counterbalance to stress and help you manage your body weight.
Practical Tips for Mindful Eating Success
The following are some suggestions for practical applications and tips to help you succeed with your mindful eating.
Start Small
Start by focusing on one mindful meal per day. As you find yourself able to recognize your body cues of hunger and fullness, and as you become more aware of your food and how to pay attention to it, you can increase your mindfulness to more meals until you are consistent throughout the day.
Mindful Eating Environment
One of the keys to successful mindful eating is not being distracted while you eat. Creating a calm, distraction-free setting will give you the best chance for success.
Some good ways to be free to focus on your food without distractions are to not eat while watching TV, put away your phone or the book you are reading, and sit down at the table while you eat.
Food Journaling
Keeping track of your food, what you eat and how it makes you feel is important for mindful eating success. A simple food journal allows you to track what you eat and how it makes you feel.
Be sure you are tracking your food for an awareness of eating patterns and what foods you enjoy, rather than for an obsession with calories.
Hunger Scale Mastery
Mastering the hunger scale is essential to being able to eat mindfully in the long term. You need to be able to recognize true hunger vs. emotional hunger, and you also need to know and recognize your gentle fullness cues.
For a good description of the hunger scale, check out this article on mindful eating exercises.
Mindful Eating Exercises
If you had a look at the article mentioned above, you will have noticed several good ideas for exercises that help you establish a good routine with mindful eating.
These exercises are guided techniques to try before, during, and after meals to help you succeed with eating mindfully, including practices like a balanced plate, describing each bite, chewing intentionally, rotating bites of food, and putting down your fork between bites.
One exercise not mentioned in the article is called the raisin exercise, where you contemplate the shape and feel of the raisin and mindfully pay attention to the taste and texture while you are eating it. This practice helps you form a habit for mindfulness as you eat. A downloadable PDF describing the exercise is available here.
By practicing these exercises, you will learn to implement mindful eating techniques, which can lead you to feel satisfied after meals.
For further inspiration, explore these mindful eating techniques.
Mindful Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep
Part of eating mindfully involves your food preparation as well as shopping for the food you are going to eat. Some helpful tips for shopping with intention and mindfulness include planning your meals before you go, eating a healthy snack before you shop so you are not shopping hungry, and making produce a priority.
Shopping on the outside edges of the grocery store is where you will find healthy, fresh food, rather than in the inner aisles where processed, sugary foods are shelved. Be proactive in making healthy choices before your food even gets to your plate!
Bible Verses & Prayer Support
Incorporating faith while practicing mindful eating is absolutely essential for the Christian woman who wants to honor God while fostering a healthier relationship with food.
The scriptures listed early on in this article can serve as helpful reflections on mindful eating principles, along with practices such as praying before meals and having an attitude of thankfulness for all that God has provided. Taking time to be thankful is a good way to make eating an intentional act of worship.
Overcoming Mindful Eating Obstacles
We all dream of a peaceful relationship with food, but sometimes the path gets bumpy. Don’t worry, it’s completely normal. Here are some common challenges you might face on your mindful eating journey, and discover ways to navigate them with kindness and understanding.
Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is probably one of the most common obstacles to mindful eating and any attempt at weight loss.
Strategies to break the cycle of emotional eating include identifying triggers that cause you to overeat or eat emotionally, establishing alternative coping mechanisms to deal with your emotions or your stress instead of food, emphasizing your other senses to gain relief—sight, sound, smell—instead of relying on the taste of food, and most of all, seeking God’s comfort instead of reaching for a snack.
If emotional eating is a major challenge, these 4 steps can offer additional guidance and support.
Mindless Munching
Mindless snacking is an obstacle to be faced, in much the same way as emotional eating and stress eating are an obstacle.
Eating out of a package will often lead to mindless snacking, so try measuring out a portion for your snack rather than eating out of the bag – this way, you’re not tempted to overindulge.
Removing temptations instead of relying on your own willpower is also important.
This Mayo Clinic article on sensible snacking instead of mindlessly munching has some great ideas for healthy snacks.
Perfectionism
Don’t let setbacks discourage you. Perfectionism is an obstacle that you might be putting on yourself. It is easy to become discouraged when you don’t meet your own high standards for how you want your eating habits to go.
It is much better to remember progress over perfection. No one is perfect, but you can still make progress even when you have setbacks, and you learn from your mistakes. Remember, too, that setbacks are normal for everyone!
Eating Out and Social Events
Eating out and social events are big obstacles to you as you try to navigate mindful eating. It is one thing to manage your food when you are at home and in control of what you have to eat, but outside of your home, things are out of your control to some extent.
There are still ways to manage, however. The practice of mindfulness can still be maintained whether you are at home, in a restaurant, or at a church potluck.
Some tips for navigating such situations include:
- Plan Ahead: Be your mindful eating champion. Look at menus online and choose healthy options beforehand. This way, you’re not making decisions when you’re already hungry and tempted.
- Tame Hunger Pangs: Have a small, healthy snack before going out to avoid overeating due to extreme hunger.
- Slow Down and Savor: Eat slowly, savor each bite, and put your fork down between bites. This gives your body time to register fullness cues.
- Portion Patrol: Be your own mindful eating detective! Consider asking for a doggy bag at the start of the meal. This helps with portion control and prevents overstuffing yourself.
Don’t feel pressured to try every dish. Choose what you truly want to enjoy and skip the rest. Remember, mindful eating is about enjoying food, not filling your plate out of politeness.
By following these tips and approaching yourself with compassion, you can overcome these obstacles and develop a healthy, mindful relationship with food. You’ve got this! And remember, we’re all on this journey together!
Mindful Eating for a Lifetime
Once you have established the habit of mindful eating you will be prepared for a lifetime of healthy benefits. A long-term habit of eating mindfully goes beyond weight loss and weight management, and becomes a foundation for a healthier lifestyle.
When you connect the practice of mindful eating to honoring the body God gave you, eating can become an act of worship and gratitude for what God has provided, and your enjoyment of His provision will increase and add joy to your eating.
Self-compassion is essential for a sustainable journey, so that you can enjoy food without guilt; give yourself grace if you stumble along the way. Forgive yourself for the inevitable mistakes and the lapses in judgment, and remember that you are seeking to make progress, not trying to gain perfection.
Having a supportive community as well as other resources that support, encourage, and provide motivation is essential as you seek to approach your food in a more mindful, compassionate way. See below for some links to helpful articles and resources.
If you are interested in being part of a community of like-minded women who are traveling the same path, consider joining the Facebook Community – Christian Weight loss for Women.
FAQ’s about Mindful Eating
How long will it take to see results with mindful eating?
The answer to this most likely depends on the individual and will be different for each person working towards mindful eating. Read this article discussing the question of how long it takes to learn to eat mindfully for some ideas of the process.
Can I still eat my favorite foods mindfully?
Yes, you can still eat your favorite foods as long as you are paying attention to what you eat and making sure you eat in moderation. Eating mindfully will even allow you to enjoy your favorites more than ever, because you are savoring them in a conscious way as you make good decisions about how much you will eat and when you will eat it.
What if I have a busy schedule and find it hard to slow down?
The whole point of learning to be mindful involves learning how to slow down in spite of a busy schedule. It is quite likely that eating in a hurry is contributing to being overweight, and eating while doing many things at once in order to “save time” reduces your satisfaction with your food and may cause you to keep eating in order to be satisfied.
Try some of the practical tips for mindful eating listed above and work at slowing down bit by bit to become more mindful in spite of your busy schedule.
How do I handle feelings of guilt or shame when I slip up?
The best thing you can do when you feel guilt or shame is to confess that you overate or ate poorly and ask God for forgiveness. Don’t beat yourself up for a moment of weakness.
In addition, try to understand what led you to eat in a way that was not mindful, so that you can be more aware when you find yourself in a similar situation again. Don’t let it keep you from continuing to learn to eat mindfully!
The more you learn to eat mindfully, the more you will understand about your body’s needs and what you enjoy, and there will be less “slipping up.” This article talks about how food guilt gets in the way of mindful eating; it may be helpful in dealing with feelings of guilt.
Is mindful eating right for everyone?
Mindful eating may not be right for everyone. For those with an eating disorder, it might be possible to take mindful eating in a direction it is not meant to go. However, in general, the principles of mindful eating can be helpful to anyone who wants a better relationship with their food, even if you only are able to implement some of them on a regular basis. Since mindful eating can be applied to any lifestyle or approach to food, it is a very versatile and useful way to relate to food.
In summary, mindful eating is a way of approaching what you eat so that you are more aware of the experience of eating because you are paying more attention to your food and to your how your body feels as you eat your food.
Eating slowly, savoring each bite, tuning into hunger and fullness cues, eating without distractions, and discerning between emotional hunger and physical hunger are some of the key mindful eating principles. Also important is to approach your food with an attitude of gratitude, since food is a gift from God:
“Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”
1 Timothy 4:4-5
Remember, mindful eating is a way to honor God by being a good steward of your body and aligning your eating with His principles. When you approach your meals with a heart full of thanksgiving, you will be well equipped to make better food choices. Your food is not just a form of nourishment, it is a blessing given by God to be treated with respect as you make intentional healthy choices in your eating.
Mindful eating is one aspect of weight loss maintenance, but it requires ongoing effort and long-term mindset shifts. With an established habit of eating mindfully, you will be in good shape for the long haul.
And you are not doing it alone — God is with you, providing the ability to choose healthy habits, offering His support and strength during challenges. In return, as you practice mindful eating, you will be expressing self-love and gratitude for God’s gift of your body.
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