Eating is a natural, healthy, and pleasurable activity for satisfying hunger. However, in our food-abundant, diet-obsessed culture, eating is often mindless, consuming, and guilt-inducing instead. Find out how NLP and Mindful eating skills can resolve your love-hate relationship with food

 So, what is mindful eating?

Mindful eating is eating with intention and attention:

·         Eating with the intention of caring for yourself

·         Eating with the attention necessary for noticing and enjoying your food and its effects on your body

As you can see, mindful eating is much more than “eating slowly, without distraction.” While that’s certainly an important part of it, mindful eating encompasses the entire process of eating:

·         Awareness of your physical and emotional cues

·         Recognition of your non-hunger triggers for eating

·         Learning to meet your other needs in more effective ways than eating

·         Choosing food for both enjoyment and nourishment

·         Eating for optimal satisfaction and satiety

·         Using the fuel you’ve consumed to live the vibrant life you crave

This broad application makes mindful eating a powerful tool for developing a healthier, happier relationship with food.

How does mindful eating help solve eating issues?

Many people who struggle with food react mindlessly to their unrecognized or unexamined triggers, thoughts, and feelings. In other words, they re-act-repeating past actions again and again-feeling powerless to change. Mindfulness increases your awareness of these patterns without judgment and creates space between your triggers and your actions.

For example, whenever you notice that you feel like eating and pause to ask the question, “Am I hungry?” you are able to observe your thoughts and choose how you will respond. Instead of reacting mindlessly, mindfulness gives you response-ability. That is how mindful eating empowers you to finally break old automatic or habitual chain reactions and discover options that work better for you.

 The Mindful Eating Cycle

These are the questions the Mindful Eating Cycle helps you answer.

Why? Why do I eat? Or in other words,   what is driving my eating cycle at any given time?

When? When do I feel like eating? When   do I think about eating? When do I decide to eat?What? What do I eat? What do I choose   from all the available options?
How? How do I eat? How, specifically,   do I get the food I’ve chosen into my body? How Much? How much do I eat? How much fuel   do I consume?
Where? Where do I invest the energy I consume? Where does the fuel I’ve consumed go?7 skills of a mindful eater

1.    Awareness

2.    Observation

3.    Being in the moment

4.    Being mindful of the environment

5.    Being non-judgemental (don’t beat yourself up!)

6.    Letting go

7.    Acceptance

What about NLP – Neuro linguistic programming

By using a number of NLP techniques we can ensure the mindful eating process becomes a new behaviour or habit much more quickly… the mindful eating skills are great however some people can find it difficult to practice at first.

From an NLP process point of view the more we can work with your mind, its current programming, your senses (the way we experience reality) and un-useful beliefs and so forth and bring these in to balance the easier it will be.

Next Steps

Check out our weight management pages and see how we incorporate mindful eating into the programmes.  I would be pleased to discuss how our programmes, consultations and Mindful eating sessions may work for you, so please contact me.

References

Read Eat, drink and be mindful, Susan Albers see http://eatingmindfully.com/mindful-eating/

Own notes NZ Dietitians Conference 2016

Own notes NLP Master Practitioner training