During my disordered eating days, I had huge fear of hunger — I was incapable of leaving the table without clearing my plate and the physical pain associated with being uncomfortably full. Mindful eating wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind.
On top of the physical discomfort, and I was constantly drowning in guilt/ fear over what I had just eaten — all while already planning my next meal.
I was a mess.
A dramatic shift happened, although, surprisingly, it felt super subtle at the time!
I was eating — and for the first time in my life, I was experiencing freedom and felt like I had choices — rather than focusing on the fear and anxiety I usually harbored around food. (And, let’s be real, every minute that I wasn’t even around food aka all the damn time!!)
I began to take note of my hunger, rather than fear it, and began to realize that I actually do have a say in how much I want to eat.
I started to take note the subtle change in flavors and enjoyment and the way they waned with time. As I fueled my body, taste of food (even the most delicious off limits “bad bad bad foods”!!) were losing flavor.
I COULD TAP INTO MY OWN FEELINGS OF SATIETY FROM A BODY AND MOUTH PERSPECTIVE.
I hadn’t realized yet, but I’d been mindful eating — or rather, a version of it.
I started studying mindful eating to complement my own journey, and I could really see how this was a new approach to eating that so many could benefit from — but a big part of me knew that it also felt… dated.
In my early to late twenties I didn’t want every single bite of food to be savored. I didn’t want to use smaller plates to “trick myself” into portion control.
Traditional mindful couldn’t be applied to my real life- I actually didn’t want every meal to have such an intense focus on the food — after all, I was doing that already, just in a different light.
I just wanted to be able to eat to nourish, eat for pleasure (even if the food wasn’t as nutritious), and be able to expand my headspace to encompass thoughts outside of just food.
I wanted to LIVE — to go on dates, spend time with family, and hang with friends and laugh over a glass of wine without “tuning in” to every bite of food.
How could I bring some of the amazingness of traditional mindfulness and mindful eating life, while also keeping up with the attention span of someone like me? How could I encourage nutritious foods without labeling them as good and bad and empower others to trust their bodies internal wisdom?
TRADITIONAL MINDFUL EATING FUNDAMENTALS ARE KEY — THEY CANNOT BE IGNORED OR STEPPED OVER.
They help us to cultivate appreciation for food, draw important connections, establish peace between the body and mind, and learn to listen to our body’s feedback signals.
BUT there are two principles of Traditional Mindful Eating (TME) that I find limiting, which is why Modern Mindful Eating (MME) is different, more approachable, and more sustainable for many.
In 2019 and beyond, it just makes sense that we recognize we were born to do more than intensely worry over what/how much we eat.
TME: Before you eat, you must ask yourself WHY to ensure that hunger is what is driving the decision.
MME: Before we eat, we still ask ourselves the question of WHY we’re eating, but we know that hunger isn’t the only reason we eat— and we deserve food always.
We eat to socialize, because something tastes/ smells/looks good, and in some cases, we eat on behalf of our future self who we know needs fuel/nutrition, even if we’re not feeling physical signs of hunger.
Without this “hunger pressure” we can actually eat for pleasure (rather than eating for pleasure which quickly turns to guilt).
With MME, we even recognize that emotional eating happens from time to time, but we also work to develop tools to understand our own triggers and new ways to cope without using food (I call this your ‘self soothing tool box’).
TURNING TO FOOD DOESN’T MEAN WE’VE DONE ANYTHING BAD
We’re always working to expand our own unique self-soothing tool box (other ways to soothe/calm ourselves down without using food), but we recognize that turning to food doesn’t mean we’ve done anything bad. In fact, MME can look like actively choosing to turn to food to as a short-term solution. note: this involves recognizing that food isn’t the answer to your problem, but we accept that it can lessen the pain we feel otherwise, bring us short term pleasure, and work as a bandaid until we muster up the strength to work through our problem head on.
TME: Each bite of food should be chewed slowly and thoroughly, savored, without external stimulation present.
MME: We believe that there’s a time and place to savor food and slow down, but there’s also a time where food/eating is second to good conversation or whatever is going on in our environment. Sometimes life (our social lives, our jobs, etc.) don’t allow for the intense focus to be on food — being able to eat without overthinking is key to MME. Sometimes eating bagel with cream cheese while on the way to work is just what you need in order to focus on the morning meeting.
Have you tried Traditional Mindful Eating? What was your experience?
What about Modern Mindful Eating? How does it show up in your life?
Leave your comments below!
Wanna learn more about how to put modern mindful eating to practice? Check out my Modern Mindful Eating online course F*RK THE NOISE Fundamentals
