Eating Mindfully Helps You Meet Your Weight Goals

by Maggie Vink (Subscribe to Maggie Vink's posts)
Jan 3rd 2009 12:00PM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

So many things we do are by habit. When you brush your teeth in the morning, you're probably thinking more about the plans you have for the day than you are about brushing your teeth. The same goes for eating. Meals and snacks are such a day-to-day routine that -- even if you're dieting -- the act of eating can become somewhat mindless.

Being mindful of eating habits is important for all of us, but especially important when you're trying to lose weight. I just watched a Ruby rerun where she was upset after gaining weight during her vacation. She thought she had done really well with her nutrition plan. Then she sat down with her nutritionist and realized that the "protein bars" she was snacking on were really high in calories. What Ruby experienced is easy for all of us to do; we can trick ourselves into thinking we're doing great, when really we're falling short of our nutrition goals.

Oprah.com has some great tips on how to eat mindfully:

Buy in bulk. In these tough economic times, it makes good sense to buy certain items in bulk. But be sure to measure out pretzels or other snacks; don't eat out of the bag because you might eat more than you planned.
Eating with people. Believe it or not, the more people you dine out with, the more you're likely to eat. It has more to do with the amount of time you spend at the table. Avoid the bread basket and divide your meal in half -- one half to eat at the restaurant and the other to take home. Be sure to eat slowly and enjoy your meal.

Skip the seconds. Pre-plate your meal in the kitchen instead of a family-style meal.
Buffets. When at a buffet, put only two items on your plate at a time. You may make more trips, but you'll eat less in the long run.
Table it. Don't eat in front of the TV -- it distracts you from what you should be concentrating on. You should think about your food as you're eating it. Not only will you be more cognizant of what you put in your mouth, it also makes your meal more enjoyable.
Emotional eating. This is a toughie but if you're an emotional eater, you need to learn to recognize the signs. Real hunger develops gradually, but emotional hunger can come on suddenly.

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Comments (1)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 1-03-2009 @ 9:42PM

Brian Wansink's "Mindless Eating" research is brilliant and offers great advice. I imagine he would probably disagree with buying snack foods in bulk. His research shows that buying in bulk makes people subconsciously consume significantly more calories than normal.

I agree that some foods are wonderful to buy in bulk (especially fresh produce that can survive being frozen or pre-frozen fruits and vegetables with nothing added), but I would recommend that people never buy snack foods in bulk. It creates a lose-lose situation. If you eat it all, it's bad for your body. If you have your friends and family eat it, it's bad for their bodies. If it doesn't all get eaten somehow, it's bad for your wallet, and wasting food is bad for the environment.

Don't put yourself in a bad situation. For snack foods, just get a small or regular-sized bag, savor it, and enjoy it slowly. After all, it's a snack food and should be taken in moderation. Seriously, do people really believe that consuming that huge bulk bag of snacks counts as moderation? If you believe you have to trick yourself into limiting consumption of a food by measuring it out first, then I'd argue that you shouldn't be buying that item in bulk in the first place. The measuring trick is still great advice and works just as well on small or normal-sized bags of snacks.

Brian Wansink's research is fascinating, and while I question some of the marketing tricks that resulted from his findings, I would still recommend people read more about Wansink's work directly.