Learning to savor the food we eat can help us to learn a new, reflective experience with our food. Emiliya Zhivotovskaya writes about how her first experience with recovery from her eating habits was to eat one meal in complete silence while learning to savor each bite.

She writes:

“I went on to use what Bryant and Veroff call anticipatory savoring, basking, and thanksgiving. I turned gratitude into a meditation tracing the origin of my meal down to its roots. I expressed gratitude to my mother for preparing the meal… to the grocery store for offering the ingredients… to the vendor that sold the produce to the grocery store… to the people and machinery that picked the produce in the field… to the earth that gave rise to the produce… and to the sun for making the growth possible.”

I have been using this technique for awhile and it has helped me learn to pay attention to the food I am eating. Mindfulness teaches us to learn how to stay in the moment and savor what life is giving us every moment of our lives.

For help with mindfulness and eating:

TCME is the center for mindful eating and includes these components:

• (1)  Learning to make choices in beginning or ending a meal based on awareness of hunger and satiety cues;
• (2)  Learning to identify personal triggers for mindless eating, such as emotions, social pressures, or certain foods;
• (3)  Valuing quality over quantity of what you’re eating;
• (4)  Appreciating the sensual, as well as the nourishing, capacity of food;
• (5)  Feeling deep gratitude that may come from appreciating and experiencing food

Mastering the Mindful Meal by Stephanie Vangsness begins with the following:

“Eating while multitasking, whether working through lunch or watching TV while eating dinner, often leads us to eat more. On the other hand, eating “mindfully,” savoring every mouthful, enhances the experience of eating and keeps us aware of how much we take in.”

“Our fast-food culture is one where meals have become yet another task we squeeze in during the day. It is all too common to hear of people grabbing breakfast on the run or attending a lunch meeting, where business is front and center and food is merely the bait to get people there.”

Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating is a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The study found that people who used yoga practice with mindful eating were less likely to be obese.

“The researchers found that people who ate mindfully – those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full – weighed less than those who ate mindlessly, who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. The researchers also found a strong association between yoga practice and mindful eating but found no association between other types of physical activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating.”

Mindful eating links:

The Center for Mindful Eating

The CAMP System: The Joy of Mindful Eating

Mindful Eating

Mindful Eating: Get Out of Autopilot

Emindful: Live Interactive Online Classes