Mindful Eating Miniseries: Part 1

Imagine it is Friday night and you are at the movies. You sit down with your dearest friend beside you and as you chat you dig your hand into a jumbo bucket of buttered popcorn. The lights dim, the previews begin, and before the beginning credits roll… your hand hits the bottom of the empty bucket! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? It doesn’t only happen in the dark at the movies. Popcorn may not be your thing.  Be it the bowl of ice cream, bag of chips, or dish of candy- sometimes it just seems to disappear.

I dare sa, it has happened to all of us.

In our defense, we live in a society of multitasking. We seem to be in a constant state of juggling thoughts and actions. It is not uncommon to be juggling ten tasks at once. It is difficult to keep track of what we are doing. Many times we multitask in a mindless way; we do not even think about what we are doing. Somewhere there is a balance in opposition of multitasking and mindlessness, this balance occurs in mindfulness.

Mindfulness involves bringing one’s full and deliberate attention to what you are doing at the time you are doing it. Think about that- full and deliberate attention. Do we ever put full attention to one task? When was the last time you can recall concentrating on only one thing? When have you completed just one task before you move on to thinking about the next one? Undivided attention seems to be a rarity in our days.

If we turn our thoughts about mindfulness from tasks and activities to our eating habits, I challenge you to think of the word as mind-full-ness. How do we know when we are FULL? If we are so distracted by the other tasks we are completing and still others we are contemplating, how can we possibly notice the signs that we are full?

Over the next few lessons, I will incorporate ideas from the TOPS Program, Mindful Eating Mini-Series to illustrate the importance of bringing full and deliberate attention to our eating. Mindful, or mindfull, eating is a powerful strategy that can impact not only your calorie consumption but many other aspects of your life. There are many roots and branches of mindfulness practices, all involve being in the moment. Mindfulness embraces a moment by moment awareness of the thoughts, feelings, and surroundings of ourselves and others.  Mindfulness includes acceptance, an awareness of our thoughts and feelings without judging them. Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness, even for a short period of time, can bring physical, psychological, and personal/social benefits.