Mindful Eating is a Practice

I’m just back from a week long meditation retreat, and one of the things I noticed was how challenging I find it to eat mindfully! Luckily, even some attention makes a difference.

In retreat, one of the things we do is to just pay attention. Life gets slowed down and very simple, so it becomes much easier than normal to notice our habitual patterns. Here are a couple of the things I noticed about my eating – and I’ll bet some of you can relate to them.

The biggest surprise was the automatic response to want more of something I like. It is like a knee-jerk reaction. I taste something – it’s good – and I immediately think I want more.

I first noticed this with a sweet, juicy piece of watermelon. It was so good that I wanted more. I found that so interesting. What was that about? How does more make it better? It seems like less would make it better and that more would just dilute it.

When I stayed with the feeling of wanting it a little longer,  I found that it was actually just right. I didn’t need more: more would have been too much.

I think a lot of us have an automatic “more” response. This is good to recognize, because then we can pause and let it pass. We don’t have to act on every impulse we get. It helps to see that it is only that, an impulse that passes.

I also noticed how fast I eat. As soon as I put a forkful of food in my mouth, I’m scooping up the next forkful. Once the fork is ready for action, I tend to swallow what is already in my mouth – whether it is fully chewed or not.

As an experiment, I waited to load my fork until I had chewed and swallowed the previous bite. That actually worked really well – when I remembered to do it. It was a lot like meditation; my mind would drift and I’d forget. Then I’d remember and come back to the practice.

I found it curious how challenging it was to stay mindful even under ideal conditions: a silent retreat where the big focus is on paying attention! Luckily we don’t have to do this well to get value – whatever we are able to do is enough.

Mindful eating is a process. I don’t think I’ll ever be perfect at it, but that doesn’t matter. Every time I am able to tune in and fully participate in the experience of eating, it is a good thing.

With mindful eating, like meditation, as my mind drifts away, I just keep bringing it back. No judgment or angst is needed. When I can do this, I find I enjoy the food more and eat less.

What do you notice when you pay attention to how you eat? How does paying attention help you?