How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits Through Mindfulness

Eating healthy on a consistent basis can be hard. Our busy modern lifestyles may lead us to picking quick and filling foods that often don’t deliver as many nutrients as our body needs for optimal health. But a well-balanced and nutritious diet is essential to helping keep both your body and mind feeling vibrant and energized.  

You may have tried to stick to a healthy way of eating just to return to an old routine in a matter of days or weeks. It happens to many of us and it can be frustrating. Yet changing eating habits for the better on a consistent basis is not something that can be done overnight.

But did you know that practicing mindfulness can make it easier to stick to healthier eating habits without depriving yourself of your favorite treats? Here, you’ll learn how mindfulness can help you make healthy eating a more natural part of your lifestyle.

Overcoming the most common challenges to better eating habits

One of the reasons that it can be easy to get caught up in a cycle of unhealthy eating is not being aware of the underlying causes that lead to overeating or poor food choices. Mindfulness offers a way to help you become more conscious of the thoughts and beliefs you have about food, eating, and your health in general. These can ultimately shape the decisions you make when selecting between that fresh green apple or a quick hot dog from a convenience store.

Yet while food selection plays a large role in healthy eating, portion control and timing is just as important. Overeating, undereating or eating for emotional reasons when you’re not hungry can often be caused by stress – which mindfulness may help reduce.

Integrating mindfulness into your life can help you manage common eating challenges like:

• Reaching for food when stressed, upset, fearful, or overwhelmed

• Not listening to how your body feels before/during/after eating something

• Self-criticism and judgment for eating (or not eating) certain foods

Let’s look at a few ways to address these and build better habits with mindfulness.

Stop emotional eating with self-compassion

When you’re in the middle of a stressful situation or experiencing difficult feelings and find yourself reaching for an unhealthy snack, take a few deep breaths. First, this will help you feel more centered and relaxed. Second, it will allow you to get familiar with the urge to eat when you’re not hungry so that you can recognize it and make a more conscious decision about what to do instead of reaching for food (perhaps go for a walk, do some stretching, listen to some music etc.). According to science, an urge typically lasts 15 minutes and if you pay attention, they will be gone before you know it.

After taking a few deep breaths when you’re feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or stressed and about to reach for an unhealthy snack, offer yourself some self-compassion. You can wish yourself well by saying things (in your mind or out loud) like “May I be healthy, happy, and safe.”

Repeat these comforting or affirming statements to yourself a few times and notice if you still feel the urge to eat. You may find that you weren’t physically hungry, but simply needed to nourish yourself on the emotional level, letting your mind know that you’re safe.

Keep a healthy balance by examining your mindset about food

Most of us live in a culture that’s focused on fad diets and quick ways to lose weight rather than establishing a habit of healthy eating. This can make it easy to label certain foods (or food groups) as bad and others as good. 

The downside of a mindset where you see certain foods as bad is that it might lead to an imbalance in your diet. You may unintentionally deprive yourself of macronutrients, vitamins, or minerals from foods that your body might need more of such as healthy carbohydrates or healthy fats.

Your body responds to each food differently than the person writing that diet book, however. So rather than feeling you shouldn’t eat something that you enjoy, allow yourself to treat yourself to what your body craves but practice balance. Let go of a fearful or guilt-based mindset and become aware of how you’re feeling before and after you eat the food that you’re craving. Slowing down as you eat can be super helpful in making sure you don’t eat too much.

Practice being in tune with your body’s natural cues

Bringing mindfulness to eating means being in touch with your body and the sensations it sends you. Your body is highly intelligent and provides almost immediate feedback after you eat or drink something. You may feel sluggish, weak, full, or irritated after eating certain foods. But without paying attention to how each meal is making you feel, it may be hard to identify what exactly is causing these feelings.

Healthy eating habits start with knowing what kinds of foods your body likes and doesn’t like. One thing that can help you get more in tune with this is keeping a food journal. Try it out for a week: Write down what you’re eating throughout the day and how your body and mind feel after each meal. 

You’ll then be able to look back and notice patterns so you’ll have the information you need to make changes as necessary. This can help you eliminate foods that don’t make you feel good and replace them with ones that give you more energy. You might start to notice that you feel sluggish, tired or have digestive troubles after you eat a certain food like dairy, sugar or fruit. You start to realize that you get brain fog, sad, or even irritated with certain foods. How the body reacts to foods is different for every body.

Journal prompts to improve your eating habits

Here are a few journal prompts you can use to bring mindfulness to your thoughts, feelings, and habits when it comes to food so that you can become aware of changes that may need to be made.

Do you see food as a source of pleasure, nourishment, or both? How would you define your relationship to food in general? Is eating a source of joy or do you find it frustrating and time-consuming? 

Notice how these ways of looking at food can shift the foods you choose to reach for. If you see food as a reward for example, you might reach for ice cream when your body is really craving nutritious fruit or vegetables. 

The following prompts can help you get into better touch with how a food makes you feel rather than your mind’s narratives about the food:

Are there certain foods that you judge yourself for eating? If so, what is your mental narrative or story in your mind about this food? What messages do you most frequently hear from society or social media about this kind of food? Compare this mental narrative with how this kind of food makes you feel when you eat it in balance.

Slow down to transform your eating experience

With today’s fast pace of life, many of us rarely take the time to slow down enough to fully enjoy the experience of eating. This results in reaching for unhealthy snacks or gulping down a whole meal in front of the computer or phone, resulting in indigestion and poor eating habits. 

While it may be hard to slow down in the midst of a busy day, try it by setting aside at least half an hour to consume your food mindfully and slowly. Smell the aroma of your food before you put it in your mouth. Notice the flavor and texture of every bite.

To integrate mindful living into daily life in practical ways, one of the first mindfulness exercises my students try out in my Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program is mindful eating. Mindful eating helps you slow down so that you can make eating an interactive experience that incorporates all the senses – sight, touch, smell, sound, taste.

Boost your eating habits with better self-care

Recognizing your own worth plays an important role in establishing stronger self-care habits like healthy eating. When you love and embrace yourself, it’s much easier to practice a loving kind of self-discipline that helps you make choices that are good for your mind and body. As you practice self compassion regularly, it becomes natural to make healthier decisions for yourself.

Want to learn fun new ways to boost your self-care through mindfulness, massage therapy, preventing burnout, and overcoming your inner critic so you can be kinder to yourself? Join me in the next Stress Management Program so you can start building better habits to treat your mind, body, and soul with the care they deserve.