Mindful Eating, Approaching Food with Patience

Mindful Eating: What Does This Mean Exactly?
It sounds niche and almost ideological, but it's actually a simple practice to enhance your relationship with food.

Before we dive into improving your relationship with food, let’s talk about my own past struggle. My relationship with food was marked by constant overeating without even considering what I was eating in the first place. Here’s a great example: whenever my family and I went to a place like Red Lobster (good lord, I miss this place), we’d see how many of those cheesy bread rolls we could devour before our actual food arrived. If you’ve been to Red Lobster, you know how amazing those are. Got me hungry just thinking about it! But anyway, we’d devour those rolls without really tasting them. Then our food would come out, and we’d jump right in, not even pausing to think about whether we were already full.

So, What’s the Problem?
Like a lot of things in today’s distracting reality, this way of eating completely ignores our hunger signals. We’d rush through food without actually tasting, enjoying, or recognizing when we’d had enough. Our hunger signals didn’t have time to catch up with what our bodies were consuming. The more you ignore these signals, the easier it is to overeat without even realizing it.

Another huge distraction from body awareness is watching TV or scrolling on your phone while eating. I don’t know the science behind it, but it’s clear that you can snack way more when you’re watching your favorite show. Why? Because your attention is focused on the show, not on the eating. Essentially, you’re turning off your brain for one action while you’re fully engaged in another. The result? You overeat—a lot.

I used to do this all the time. There’s nothing like getting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (Americone Dream, if you know, you know) and going to town on it while you binge your favorite show. Sometimes, it feels like a work of art. But the problem is that we often overindulge. We watch TV during every meal, distracting ourselves during every snack session. Soon, we’re overeating at every meal. You see where this becomes a problem, and for me, it got out of hand quickly.

So, How Can We Change This?
How can we make sure we’re not overeating? Here are some tips to get started with mindful eating:

How to Practice Mindful Eating

Slow Down Your Eating
Put down your fork between bites, chew thoroughly, and take breaks to slow down, giving your body time to register fullness. This helps when you’re eating with others, too! If you’re out with friends and chatting, it’s easier to slow down and enjoy your food.

Eliminate Distractions
Avoid eating in front of the TV, computer, or phone. Focus entirely on the food! This actually helped me enjoy foods I once thought were bland, as I realized I wasn’t cooking them properly because I wasn’t taking the time to really taste them.

Listen to Your Body's Hunger Cues
Differentiate between physical hunger and emotional cravings. Ask yourself if you’re truly hungry or just eating out of boredom, stress, or habit. When I’m bored at home, my first instinct is to check my calorie count to see how much I can eat. Nowadays, I pause, recognize the urge, and let it pass. That feeling usually goes away within 20 minutes.

Engage All Your Senses
Before eating, observe the colors, shapes, and smells of your food. As you eat, notice each bite’s taste and texture. Now, I know this sounds like “food awareness” nonsense, but it works. You start to realize what you like and dislike. You start choosing foods that taste good and make you feel good, often leading to healthier choices. The more you practice this, the less you eat into a coma, and the more you realize which foods make you feel bad.

Portion Awareness
Serve smaller portions and pay attention to how much you’re eating. Simple, easy, effective.

Practice Gratitude
Take a moment to appreciate the food in front of you, its source, and the effort that went into preparing it. Gratitude can increase your enjoyment and satisfaction. This is why I’m such a fan of cooking. When you cook, you enjoy the food so much more because you made it! I could probably tell a five-star chef I like my food better just because I put in the effort.

Try some of these simple tips to start revamping your relationship with food!