By Francesca Wilson, B.A. Exercise Science, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach

We are often bombarded with information about food, about cuisine, about fad diets, about cooking, about the latest restaurant. What is healthy? What is best? What is good? What is bad? What the hell is keto?! How much alcohol? So dark chocolate is ok? Are eggs bad again?! Plant based? High protein? Ugh. There is a lot of information out there that seems contradicting.

As much as we talk about food we rarely talk about the act of eating itself. We talk about food until we are blue in the face. Yet… not how that food gets into our face. Your eating behaviors can be a key component in becoming healthier. Bringing these automatic ways of ingesting food into mindful habits is a great step towards weight loss and lifestyle improvement.

HOW you eat and WHY you eat is more important than WHAT you’re eating, especially when you are starting out changing eating habits. If you focus on how and why, I find the ‘what’ and the ‘how much’ tend to fall into place a whole lot easier for my clients. We often hear the adage “everything in moderation” especially in regards to diet. Oscar Wilde knew what he was talking about guys. I firmly believe there is no good and bad when it comes to food. Nothing is that binary! Narrowing in on our eating behaviors is incredible because it allows us to more easily live in the “moderation zone”. Through becoming a precision nutrition coach I have learned that paying attention to HOW you tangibly go about the eating process from preparation, to setting a table, to savoring your meal, down to the specifics of chewing and swallowing yields great results.

Talking about eating behaviors can be hard for many reasons. Some of us do them very unconsciously so we don’t even have a vocabulary to work with. Some of us have many emotions attached to eating. Some of us are very disconnected from our bodily sensations. Some of us completely hate food waste (hi… it me 🙋🏼‍♀️). Some of us have family traditions and heritage that go hand in hand with food. Some of us have strong opinions about what is “good” and what is “bad” when it comes to eating. So let’s get uncomfortable and talk about eating!

There are fairly common issues in western culture eating behavior that I help clients work though. Here are some strategies that promote pulling prevalent eating behaviors out of the subconscious and into the forefront of your mind:

Pace yourself to the slowest eater – If you are in general trying to be more mindful of eating behavior this strategy works really well. When in social restaurant situations I enjoy using this technique myself quite a bit. I admit… I’m kind of an eating creeper now 😉. I highly recommend trying to find the slow eater in a dinner group. If you are having a tough time recognizing “normal eaters” (I hate the word normal), these are people who listen to their body, this exercise may help you find a frame of reference. Pay a little extra attention to them. Are they chatting and engaging with others a lot during the meal? Are they pausing to set down their fork or to drink water? Are they commenting about the quality of food? Are they smelling their food? Play around with this exercise! Noticing how other people eat is a way to open a window into reflecting on how you eat.

Use H.A.L.T – Recognizing emotion when it is attached to eating is big and if left unchecked can lead to more harmful disordered eating. This strategy takes a lot of mindfulness and a strong desire to change. There are 3 common emotional states that people often intertwine with eating: Anger, Loneliness and Tiredness. So if you think you are using food to manage feelings use this acronym “HALT. Hungry? Wait… am I Angry? Lonely? Tired?” Recognizing and naming a feeling is the first step towards making better choices for yourself and utilizing different coping skills besides food.

Stop and rest after meals for 5-10 minutes – For working on getting connected with your body, feeling physical satiety and the sensation over-fullness this is a good exercise. Take a break after eating to just sit with the feeling of “I ate too much”. Recognize that sensation in your chest and midsection. It actually feels pretty 🤢 …yucky right? If you don’t recognize when you are getting full, you probably don’t stop eating when you are physically satisfied so you are probably often over-eating. Learning to perceive being over-full is a great first step.

Do something between bites – Some of us struggle with eating very quickly. A great way to work on this is to try a between bite habit. Here are some easy ideas: Setting down your utensil during chewing, switching utensils between each mouthful, wiping your mouth with a napkin (even if you feel you don’t need to), taking a sip of water, taking 2-3 deep breaths, focus on table conversation. Yes between each bite!!! In my experience, for clients who have chronic GI issues like heartburn and gas utilizing these between bite habits has been the most helpful small change they could make.

📝Keep a journal of hunger and fullness throughout the day – If you eat to the point of discomfort at most meals or conversely do not eat until your tummy is loudly gurgling and there is an empty ache then a journaling strategy is for you. Noticing the physical feelings in your body and the cycle of “starting to get hungry”, “hungry”, “ravenous” to “no longer hungry”, “satisfied”, “over-stuffed” as it is happening is very helpful. I have clients start with a 2 hour journal entry on the even hours of the day plus writing a quick note about how you feel before and after a meal. You can also use this method with thirst to improve hydration.

Eliminate distractions during meals – Multitasking, commuting, TV, social media, checking email. Any of these sound like a familiar accompaniment to your last meal? If food leaves you unsatisfied and an hour after a meal you feel that you “could eat again” you are likely not savoring your food. Eating is an experience that is greatly enhanced if we use our nose, eyes and mind in conjunction with our mouth! So “wine taste” your food by smelling, slowly chewing, tasting and even describing and discussing the flavors of your food. Yum! When we eat without full attention not only do we miss satiety cues, we also miss other uncomfortable body indications and issues that may be happening due to specific foods. Most importantly when we are distracted we are less mentally satisfied with our food and likely to eat again sooner than our body needs us to.

I want to emphasize that the above eating behaviors are considered “typical” and if you feel you have a disordered eating pattern that disrupts your week to week life I recommend that you seek a qualified health care practitioner, counselor or specialist in disordered eating. Some examples of disordered eating behaviors include:

• Feeling out of control around food
• Feeling compulsions or compulsive around food
• Restricting food when you are hungry
• Bingeing when you are not hungry
• A thought preoccupation or fixation involving food
• Intense urges in regards to food
• Compensation for eating via another behavior (exercising/purging/fasting)
• Following numerous rules in regards to food
• Strong aversions or vigilance to ‘bad’ food
• Hyper awareness around food

Keep in mind that a single incident of any of the above behaviors is typical of the human experience and totally OK. I have experienced some of these thoughts and behaviors myself! Skipping a meal because you are busy or forgot, not being able to say no to grandma’s lemon bars, eating a giant burrito in 6 minutes flat or having 2 extra helpings of turkey at Thanksgiving even though you are full are all eating behaviors that sometimes happen to all people. However, if your eating behaviors are not first meeting bodily physiological needs but instead first meeting emotional or physiological needs you should talk to a professional who specializes in this area.

Lets all get out there and pay attention to HOW we eat this week not WHAT we eat. Take your time, listen to your body, savor and enjoy. CHEERS! 🥂