When I quit my job back in December ’06 to go to Australia, there were many changes I was excited about putting into action — having time to spend with my hubby, exercising more, and hopefully time to experiment in the kitchen.

It turned out, we had lots of occasion to get outdoors and eat well together, despite being extremely busy over there, too.

Prior to our move to Australia, I had been working full-time, and I have to admit at times, I didn’t eat the way I knew I should be. Busyness gets the better of you sometimes.

You may be in a similar situation, perhaps not eating breakfast until you get to work, or sitting at your desk during your lunch break, rather than taking a proper break.

These are things we’ve all done, but if this is your habitual manner, it could become a problem.

Getting away from the 9 — 5 grind (and starting this blog!) taught me to appreciate my health more, and allowed me to focus on eating mindfully – although I wasn’t aware that’s what I was doing at the time.

Thankfully, you can remedy your eating habits too. It does take a bit of determination and consistency, but I know you can manage that!

How mindful eating can help…

• If you constantly feel stuffed and bloated after meals, mindful eating can help.
• If you’ve piled on a few extra pounds, mindful eating can help.
• If you’d like to enjoy your food more, mindful eating can help with that too!

So, what is mindful eating exactly?

Have you ever noticed how easily your mind wonders when you try to concentrate? Well, the same thing happens when we eat.

Eating mindfully helps you to eat with awareness — take notice of what food is on your plate, what it tastes like, and how your stomach feels (empty, comfortable or full).

I’m the master of multi-tasking in our home, but it doesn’t always pay off. In terms of eating, we need to stop thinking about meals as a task we can squeeze into our day.

It’s not acceptable to grab breakfast on the run, eat lunch at our desk, and eat dinner in front of the TV — at least not for every meal.

Registered dietitian, Stephanie Vangsness, recommends the following practise to help master the art of mindful eating:

• Take one bite of an apple, close your eyes, but don’t begin chewing yet.
• Try to ignore the ideas running through your mind, just focus on the apple.
• Notice anything that comes to your mind about taste, texture, temperature or sensation.
• Now begin chewing slowly.
• Your mind will probably wonder, but keep coming back to the chewing.
• See if you can stay present and notice the subtle transition from chewing to swallowing.
• Then try to follow the food moving towards the back of your tongue and into your throat, until you can no longer feel any sensation of the food remaining.

What did you notice when chewing? Was the food no longer tasty? Were you bored?

So, what’s the point of this practice?

The idea is, it will help you discover a few things about your own eating habits. Perhaps you’re like me, and you eat too fast, this is a good practice to slow you down a bit.

A good tip is to use this practice with the first bite of each meal. This will help set your mindfulness throughout the course of the meal as a whole.

5 tips for mastering the art of mindful eating:

#1 Start small, be realistic — choose one meal per day, then commit to focusing on mindful eating at that time.

#2 No multitasking — it’s impossible to focus on eating if you’re doing other things. So, sit at the table, with no distractions (i.e. TV, radio, newspaper), and eat — what a novel idea!

#3 Focus on each mouthful — remember the exercise above, focus on flavour, texture, temperature, other sensations, and what you like or dislike about the food.

#4 Chew well — now we’re not talking mastication here, but make sure your food is well broken down before you swallow.

#5 Choose quality over quantity — smaller amounts of good quality food can be really satisfying, and can help to reduce the likelihood of eating too much.

Other useful resources on mindful eating:

• 7 Mindful Eating Tips
• Dietriffic — the hunger scale
• Dietriffic — mood and eating

Do you struggle with this, share your experiences in the comments below…