Raising Mindful Eater
The terms mindful and intuitive are being thrown around the nutrition world a lot right now. I personally don’t belief you can have intuitive eating without mindfulness. The term mindfulness means to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Mindfulness is something we all naturally possess but sometimes have to tune into or practice. Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re experiencing by using your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. How does this relate to eating?
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is being in the moment when eating and drinking. It means smelling and tasting. It means observing how the food makes you feel and the signals your body sends about taste, satisfaction, and fullness. Mindful eating requires you to simply recognize and accept rather than judge.
Mindful eating isn’t about being perfect, always eating the right things, or never allowing yourself to eat on the go again. It’s about focusing all your senses and being present as you shop, prepare and eat your food.
What are the Benefits of Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating has many benefits, such as encouraging a mind-body connection and a positive relationship with food. These benefits are not only valuable for adults but also for children. This can be done by encouraging kids to pay attention to how they feel as they eat—the tastes of each mouthful, their body’s hunger and fullness signals, how different foods affect their energy and mood.
Many families are on autopilot, bouncing from work to extracurricular activities to homework. We find ourselves eating on the go, eating in a hurry or parked on the couch watching TV. When we eat mindlessly, we often end up overconsuming. We often eat for reasons other than hunger—to satisfy emotional needs, to relieve stress, to cope with unpleasant emotions such as sadness, anxiety, loneliness, boredom or just because it’s mealtime.
Being mindful when we eat can promote better digestion, promote understanding of internal body cues and increase their satisfaction around eating.
How do we teach Mindful Eating to our Kids?
There is no one size fits all way to do this especially when we are talking about busy families. However, here are some things to try:
Eat around a table without distractions; turn off the T.V., put away the toys and try to make this a place that is inviting and enjoyable. Encourage conversation, a great time to encourage manners such as putting down your utensils while chewing.
Share the responsibility to get kids involved in planning, shopping, growing, preparing and cooking food. This helps them to understand the foods that we eat and why.
Set meal and snack times this will help kids to come to the table hungry; when they’re hungry food tastes better.
Avoid food restriction. Restriction often makes those “forbidden” foods ever so appealing. It also doesn’t help to teach kids how to consume these foods in moderation. We should be encouraging kids to be eating a wide variety of foods and as close to their whole natural form as possible and that treats are ok.
Trust. In both them and themselves. When kids say they’ve had enough instead of saying 5 more bites. Gently remind them that this is their time to eat. Are they sure they’ve had enough? Maybe even let them know when the next opportunity to eat will be.
Lead. Remember kids learn best by watching, mimicking and listening (even to the whispers). If you are mindful in the way you shop, cook and eat. They will become mindful too.
I know what you are thinking are you crazy trust my kid; they’ll be asking for a snack 10 minutes later, we just don’t have time to sit around the table or set a meal and snack time just doesn’t work. I get it I have 3 kids. Often meal times can be one of the most stressful chaotic times of the day. Think of meals as a time to gather with an offering of food. Instead of a time we all HAVE to eat. Often when we shift in the mindset we shift the results!
Encouraging a Healthy Food Relationship
Food has a huge effect on your overall well-being. It affects the way you feel physically, emotionally and mentally. It can boost our energy and outlook or it can drain us and make us feel sluggish and moody. For the most part, we all have a good handle on the foods that we should eat more and less of. Somehow simply knowing this isn’t enough. If it was we’d all be in optimal health.
Eating mindfully allows you to be more attuned to your body. We can start to notice how different foods affect us physically, mentally, and emotionally. Encouraging conversation about how certain foods benefit our body is important. For example, fats help nourish our brain or protein helps our body heal after we've been sick. You can also ask questions. How do you feel after you eat? Why do you think you are having trouble focusing? Helping to draw connections between mood, behaviour and emotion and food is helpful in their learning.
In conclusion when we have learned to listen to our bodies, know how food makes us feel and which food support our mood, energy and health. Then we can trust our intuitions to feed us properly. It’s not about perfection. It’s about conversation, balance and using the different tools we have to build health in ourselves and our kids. The best tool we have is to lead - with compassion, kindness and balance.
