I tried mindful eating – this is what I discovered

I couldn’t believe it – I was struggling to finish my second slice of beans on toast. Normally, I’d bolt the whole lot down before jumping back on the computer, but within a few days of practising mindful eating, I was feeling far more satisfied with my food.

I’m not a fan of fad diets, and tend to eat fairly healthy food anyway, but after months of dodgy digestion and fighting the 3pm energy slump, I knew something wasn’t right. If it wasn’t the type of food I was eating, maybe it was the way I was eating it?

Then I heard about mindful eating; a way of eating that comes from the wider practice of mindfulness. Slowing down and paying attention to what you eat, and focusing on how you feel while eating it, can help you build a better relationship with food. Research shows mindful eating could also help you maintain a healthy weight.

After reassuring my husband that I wouldn’t be eating endless salads or counting out grains of rice, I decided to try mindful eating for seven days. I was surprised at how easy it was – and the results at end of the week.

What is mindful eating – and why should you try it?

First things first: mindful eating isn’t a diet. It could even be called an ‘anti-diet’ as you’re encouraged to think about how and why you eat, rather than what, when or how many calories to eat.

Mindfulness means being aware of the present moment and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and environment in a non-judgemental way. With mindful eating, you bring that awareness to your food and the experience of eating, and to the signals your body is sending you, like hunger.

By focusing on internal cues – such as the taste or feeling full – rather than external ones, like how much food is on your plate, you can develop a more intuitive way of eating. This could help prevent overeating, as you start eating smaller portions, and improve your digestion.

Studies show that mindful eating can also tackle emotional eating and help you choose foods that are more nourishing and satisfying to eat. Over time, mindful eating can help you create a more positive attitude towards food and yourself.

How to start mindful eating

There’s lots of advice available about how to eat more mindfully, but there are no strict guidelines or a set of instructions to follow. After doing some research, I found the exercises below most helpful, but something else may work for you.

Think about:

• How hungry you feel – are you actually hungry, or is it just ‘dinner time’? Are you bored or stressed? Tuning in to your hunger can help you work out how much to eat, but try to do this without judgement. And don’t wait until you’re ravenous, as this makes it tough to slow down and enjoy your food.
• Getting rid of any distractions – watching TV or scrolling through your phone during a meal is mindless, not mindful, eating. In fact, studies show the more TV you watch, the more you're likely to eat at the same time. So, give yourself time and space to properly focus on your food.
• Eating with all your senses – before you start, think about how your food looks on the plate, all the different colours and shapes. Does it make a noise when you bite into it? Do you notice any textures? Focus on the taste and smell too; what individual flavours or ingredients can you identify?
• Slowing down – chew each mouthful properly (you could even put your knife and fork down between each bite) and swallow it before putting the next one in your mouth. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to signal to the brain that you’re full, so don’t rush it.
• Where your food comes from – consider the journey your food has made, from where it was grown to your plate. Who helped produce it? How did it arrive in your kitchen? What went into preparing it? Be thankful for all the people involved in growing, transporting and cooking it for you.

Armed with all this information, it was time to start my seven-day mindful eating plan.

My mindful eating experience

For my first mindful meal, I was feeling quite overwhelmed with all the things I had to remember. So I decided to focus on one or two exercises – eating slowly and using all my senses – for the first couple of days before adding in more. By the end of the week, everything felt much easier.

I really enjoyed thinking about all the different ingredients in my meals and where they came from – it helped me feel better connected to my food, and I’m now a lot more appreciative of all the effort that goes into preparing a meal. My husband, who does most of the cooking, is also enjoying the extra appreciation!

By focusing on the different tastes and flavours, I found I was eating a lot less; I felt satisfied with smaller portions because I was getting more out of each one. When I ate ultra-processed foods, they tasted either completely bland or overwhelmingly sweet or salty. The textures were horrible too, so I’m now eating a lot fewer of them.

When I was feeling stressed or only had a short time for lunch, I fell back into eating mindlessly. Food was just fuel; I couldn’t even tell you what was in my sandwiches. But as the week went on, I realised that taking a proper break to focus on my meal gave my mind a break too, and I went back to work feeling far more refreshed.

I did struggle with identifying how hungry I felt before eating (I’m either hungry or I’m not) and switching off all my devices – pizza does taste better with a movie – but now I don’t have my phone on the table during mealtimes. It means I’m actually connecting with friends and family around the table, too.

Will I stick with it?

My job is split between working from home and in the office – I found it much easier to stick to this new way of eating at home. I have more time to prepare meals and fewer distractions when sitting down for lunch. Plus, the quality of my food is better as I’m not relying on meal deals or grabbing something to go.

Overall, it was fairly easy to eat more mindfully. In just seven days I was eating smaller portions, taking more time over each meal, and my energy was no longer dipping in the afternoons. Even better, my bloated, grumbling stomach seemed to calm down, but that could’ve been from eating less junk food.

I didn’t lose any weight, although I might if I stick with mindful eating a while longer, which I am planning to do. That's because focusing on what I’m eating is far more enjoyable than simply stuffing in a sad sandwich or filling up on biscuits in the evening. For me, it does feel like I’ve rebooted my relationship with food.