Have you ever watched TV with a family-size bag of chips that was half full one minute and empty the next, leaving you wondering how they disappeared so quickly? How about grabbing a piece of candy every time you walk past the candy jar at work? 

Learning how to eat mindfully will help you to reduce/eliminate these mindless eating habits so you can take control of your food choices.  

What is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating is a way of eating that helps you pay attention to the food you’re consuming and how it makes you feel. It’s an opportunity to practice self-care by being present in the moment and enjoying your food rather than over-indulging and not feeling your best. The key to mindful eating is listening to the signals your body sends about taste, satisfaction, and fullness. 

Fundamentally, mindful eating involves: 

• Eating slowly and without distraction
• Listening to physical hunger cues and eating until you’re satisfied
• Distinguishing between true hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating
• Engaging your senses by noticing colors, smells, sounds, textures, and flavors
• Learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food
• Eating foods that are both pleasing and nourishing
• Appreciating your food 

Mindless Eating: The Other Side of the Coin

A mindless eater eats without paying attention to what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They don’t question their choices or consider how their choices make them feel either immediately after eating or later on down the road. When we eat mindlessly, we tend to eat more than what our body really needs because we are distracted by other things and don’t pay attention to our hunger cues.

Mindless eating looks like this: 

• Rushing through meals
• Eating while distracted
• Alternating between starving and uncomfortably full 
• Labeling food as “good” or “bad” and restricting choices
• Eating food just because it’s there

So what can you do to be a mindful eater? Here are some tips to practice:

1. Eat without distractions.  Turn off the TV/cellphone/computer while eating, and just focus on what’s happening in front of you— your food! You’ll notice flavors, enjoy your meal more and feel fuller faster when there aren’t any distractions around.
2. Chew thoroughly and eat slowly. Did you know that It takes approximately 20 minutes from the time you start eating for your brain to send out signals of fullness? This is why eating slowly is so important! 
3. Pay attention to your hunger & fullness cues. Take pauses and check in with yourself while you’re eating to see how full you are, and honor when you reach that point.
4. Eat consistently. Going too long without eating will cause you to become ravenous, which may lead to the quickest and easiest food choice, not always a healthful one. It will also cause you to eat faster than usual because you’re probably starving. Avoid this by eating consistently, every 3-4 hours and don’t skip meals. 
5. Engage all senses. Eating is much more than just tasting; it’s also about feeling textures, smelling aromas, looking at colors and shapes of foods, hearing crunchy foods or sizzling sounds—and listening to others’ conversations while enjoying their company at dinner parties or family gatherings!  Pause periodically to engage these senses. 

What does the research say? 

The severity and frequency of binge eating episodes may be significantly reduced by mindful eating.1 According to one study, obese women who participated in a 6-week group intervention experienced a reduction in binge eating episodes from 4 to 1.5 times per week.2 The severity of each episode decreased as well.2

Mindful eating methods have also been shown to reduce emotional eating and external eating (in response to environmental, food-related cues, such as the sight or smell of food) as well.3 

The overwhelming majority of studies concur that mindful eating aids in weight loss by changing eating habits and lowering stress.4 Additionally, participants in a 6-month seminar on mindful eating lost an average of 26 pounds without any weight regain in the following three months.5

For those new to mindful eating, it may be helpful to choose one or two tips above to practice per week. It’s unrealistic to expect to eat mindfully at every single meal, but the more you intentionally make time to eat mindfully, the more natural it will become.

References: 

1. Katterman, S. N., Kleinman, B. M., Hood, M. M., Nackers, L. M., & Corsica, J. A. (2014). Mindfulness meditation as an intervention for binge eating, emotional eating, and weight loss: a systematic review. Eating Behaviors, 15(2), 197–204.
2. Kristeller, J. L., & Hallett, C. B. (1999). An exploratory study of a meditation-based intervention for Binge Eating Disorder. Journal of Health Psychology, 4(3), 357–363.
3. O’Reilly, G. A., Cook, L., Spruijt-Metz, D., & Black, D. S. (2014). Mindfulness-based interventions for obesity-related eating behaviours: a literature review: Mindfulness interventions for eating behaviours. Obesity Reviews: An Official Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 15(6), 453–461.
4. Daubenmier, J., Kristeller, J., Hecht, F. M., Maninger, N., Kuwata, M., Jhaveri, K., Lustig, R. H., Kemeny, M., Karan, L., & Epel, E. (2011). Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: An exploratory randomized controlled study. Journal of Obesity, 2011, 651936.
5. Niemeier, H. M., Leahey, T., Palm Reed, K., Brown, R. A., & Wing, R. R. (2012). An acceptance-based behavioral intervention for weight loss: a pilot study. Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 427–435. 

Life is too short to eat food that doesn’t taste good, and that doesn’t make your body feel good after eating. For people who have food sensitivities or food allergies, sometimes it’s hard to find the combination that fits both of those requirements – nourishment and deliciousness.

I developed this chocolate chip cookie recipe out of need – out of necessity for a client that needed help maneuvering the problematic space of eating away from home in a social setting and not having much “control” over what was going to be served or provided. This client still wanted to choose the best foods for their body, but enjoy the experience and the food. They wanted a dessert they could bring and enjoy without feeling like they were on a diet and missing out on the experience, but also a dessert that also made their body feel well after eating it.

Easy Recipe Substitutions

Chia seeds are high in fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats and mild in flavor, which is why I chose them for this recipe. Chia or flax seeds can be used for egg substitutes and are my go-to’s for many recipes – and you could definitely use flax seeds (in the same ratio) as well for this recipe.  If you don’t have xanthan gum, you can also try using more flax-seed or chia for a substitute – use approximately 1 TBS with 2 TBS water (versus the usual 3).

Dairy-free chocolate chips by Enjoy Life are my favorite – especially the dark chocolate and are an allergy-friendly option. Find them here. As I have stated before, I like to use oat milk for baking and incorporated it into this recipe vs. cow’s milk. Butter was substituted with Olive oil, and cane or coconut sugar can be used as well.  However, my kids did prefer the cane sugar version versus the coconut sugar when I did experiment with both variations.  All of these available recipe substitutions make it easy to fit any diet need you may have.

Food has many purposes.

Food was designed not just to eat to fuel or to provide physical nourishment for our bodies. Food was also intended to provide enjoyment, comfort, and sometimes a much-needed distraction.  So if you want dessert – eat it, satisfy the craving/need and move on.   Don’t beat yourself up for could beat yourself for “cheating,” and tell yourself all the standard “diet things.”  You shouldn’t have eaten that extra piece of that dessert!” “Those cookies are bad for me.” “That has too much sugar in it.” Blah, Blah, Blah…

The point is, that if you do negative self-talk – especially in social and higher stress situations – all it really does is make you feel bad about yourself and leave you feeling defeated.  Which does nothing to help improve your health or your relationship with food, and your body.

You are normal.

Emotional eating, stress eating, social eating, or eating while you are distracted are NORMAL. Yes, it is NORMAL to do these things. Wanting the cookies and wanting the cake is normal too. Those foods contain sugar and fat – our bodies and taste buds were designed to enjoy those things. Eating with friends and families should be fun and enjoyable too – not stressful because of our food choices.

When food becomes off-limits or “restricted,” that makes most of us crave it more. So, when treating food sensitivities with elimination diets – there has to be a balance of foods that we are easily attracted and can “crave” and foods that are not causing our immune system to go into attack mode.

Go In with a plan. You are in charge – not control.

To accomplish this balance, I always recommend my clients to PLAN AHEAD for social events and when eating out. Go in with a plan. Pick foods that you bless your body, plan your plate well- so you have energy after, and leave room for dessert. If you plan ahead and know that you are in “charge” versus feeling like you are having to “control” your appetite and choices – the outcome for your emotional state and body will be much better.

Personally, in my family, my daughter has a Wheat Allergy, and I made a choice early on that I was not going to let her feel restricted with her food choices. Foods are available that I know (and she knows too) will bless her body.  Desserts with the right ingredients for her will always be available.  Since we always go into a social setting with a plan and a Wheat-Free/Gluten-Free dessert – events can be enjoyed and low-stress for everyone involved.

Get the recipe below.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies - Dairy, Gluten & Egg-Free

May 15, 2020

Servings: Makes apron 18 cookies

Prep: 10 min

Total: 35 min

Print This

By: Jenny Kling, RD

Ingredients

• 1/2 C Olive Oil
• 2 TBS Dairy Free Milk
• 1 C Sugar
• 2 TBS Chia Seeds + 6 TBS Water
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 C Rice Flour
• 1/2 C Tapioca Starch
• 1/2 C Oat Flour
• 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 C Chocolate Chips
• Parchment Paper
• Baking Sheet

Directions

• Step 1 Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Step 2 Mix chia seeds and water in a small bowl. Let sit for 5 – 10 minutes until gel is formed.
• Step 3 In a mixing bowl add oil, DF milk, and sugar.
• Step 4 In a separate bowl combine flour, xanthan gum, and baking soda/baking powder.
• Step 5 Add chia seeds to sugar/oil mixture and mix well.
• Step 6 Gradually stir/mix in flour mixture while mixing until dough is formed.
• Step 7 Line baking sheet with parchment paper and drop dough into 1 – 2 inch balls, aprox. 2 inches apart.
• Step 8 Bake in oven for aprox. 18 – 25M.
• Step 9 Let cool on baking rack and enjoy!