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I have written before about the importance of mindful eating
Click. It is
the secret to both lifelong weight control and full enjoyment of the eating
experience. Mike Alafaci's Provision, Choose Your Speed
Click,
applies to eating as well as it does to every other area of life. There are times to
go fast and times to go slow. Unfortunately, in eating as in most other arenas,
we find ourselves stuck in high gear. Even when there is no rush to finish our
food, we seldom take the time to slow down and savor the experience.
This certainly contributes to the overweight and obesity epidemic of the modern
world. Two recent studies, at Duke University and Indiana State, taught
participants to listen to their bodies so they could better feel when they were
hungry and when they were satiated. The result? Although eating less and weight
loss was not the goal, that was exactly what happened as participants learned to
enjoy their food more and to eat only when their bodies were hungry.
The key, of course, is to recognize the difference between what Judy Wardell
has called "stomach hunger" and "heart hunger"
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Trying to satisfy "heart hunger" with food is a hopeless task. When that
happens, we always overeat. Food cannot satisfy "heart hunger." One helpful
technique is to rub your stomach while asking yourself the question, "Am I
hungry?" This can bring "stomach hunger" into focus.
To decide whether or not to eat, and how much to eat, Wardell suggests ranking
your "stomach hunger" on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being empty, 5 being
comfortable, and 10 being stuffed. You can do this periodically throughout the
day and even throughout a meal. By rubbing your stomach and gauging your
physical hunger, you will automatically make better decisions when it comes to
food.
Such mindful eating works not only by increasing our awareness of "stomach
hunger" but also by postponing the urge to eat. As you pause to ask yourself
that question, "Am I hungry?", you give your metabolism a chance to catch up
with your urge to eat. It takes about 20 minutes for the food we eat to increase our
blood sugar. Those 20 minutes represent the danger zone, when we are most likely
to overeat because we still feel hungry even though we have consumed enough
food. Mindful eating can help us get through the danger zone until we again feel
comfortable.
Mindless eating has the exact opposite effect. We put food in our mouths without
even realizing it, often while doing other things such as driving, watching
television, or working on the computer. This always leads to overeating. It's
possible to eat mindlessly, even when we knowingly sit down to eat a snack or a
meal. By going to fast, and failing to pay attention to our "stomach hunger," we
shovel in far more food than we realize.
Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch have written about this in terms of "intuitive
eating." Blasting all diets as ultimately counterproductive, they too want us to
learn how to listen and trust our bodies in terms of when, what, and how much to
eat. That's the intuition they want us to develop. But it will only happen with
mindfulness. Until we learn to slow down and to feel our hunger, we will never
master the art of lifelong weight control and eating fulfillment.
Coaching Inquiries: Do you choose your speed when it comes to food? How often do
you choose to eat slow? Do you eat on a schedule or only when you are physically
hungry? What could assist you to become more of a mindful eater? If you rub your
stomach and gauge your hunger right now, what do you learn?
 To reply to this Pathway, use our
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Wellness Coaching programs and to arrange for a complimentary wellness coaching
session, use our Contact Form or
Email Bob.
May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.
Bob Tschannen-Moran
LifeTrek Coaching International
121 Will Scarlet Lane
Williamsburg, VA 23185-5043
U.S.A.
Telephone: 757-345-3452
Fax: 772-382-3258
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