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Mindfulness
The Mindful Eating Hack You Won't Find in a Monastery
Your imagination can prime you for eating less. No more guilt, and it's easy.
Posted December 1, 2024 Reviewed by Tyler Woods
Key points
- Research shows that imagining food consumption reduces actual food intake.
- Mental practice produces feelings of satiety.
- Don't get down on yourself if your meal goes differently than you planned or veers in an unexpected direction.
I learned a lot of life-changing mindfulness practices in a monastery from Burmese teaching monks. But what I'm about to share with you in this blog wasn't one of them.
Holidays are that fabulous food time of year. It's the time when we can be tempted by all sorts of rich foods, buttery dishes, and sugary sweets. And that's just the main course! As much as we may salivate at the thought of the holidays, there is also the downside: Overeating at multiple meals, strong feelings of guilt and self-loathing, and dealing with the extra 5 or 10 pounds that stretch our belts to their limits.
But what if it didn't have to be that way? What if there was a way of reducing your appetite at holiday meals—or anytime you felt the need to stress eat or binge?
First, let me share a real-life story of a client who often binged on potato chips whenever she was stressed. I had read fascinating research about a way to reduce appetite, and thought I'd put it to the test.
I had my client bring in a bag of her binge-worthy chips. It was an extra large bag, I might add. She set the bag in front of her. Then, I guided her through eating several chips. But instead of eating each chip in a fast, binge-eating manner, I had her eat each chip with mindful awareness.
This meant lifting up each chip, feeling it in her hand before taking one small bite at a time, and chewing slowly while tasting it in various parts of her mouth. Then, I had her intentionally swallow each bite and follow the masticated chip all the way down her esophagus and into her stomach. As you can imagine, each chip took around three to five minutes to eat.
When we got to the seventh chip, I said, "Okay, that's all. You can stop eating now."
"Thank God," she uttered in relief. "I couldn't eat another chip!" Her reply almost made me laugh.
The thing is, the bag of potato chips in front of her was still unopened. She had not touched a single chip. She had only imagined eating them. And yet, when I asked her if she wanted one of the actual potato chips, she declined and said she felt full.
Feelings of satiety after mentally imagining eating food is exactly what the research had shown. In fact, researchers in the above-mentioned study wrote, "Repeatedly imagining oneself eating a certain food was shown to decrease subsequent consumption of the same food."
Why not take this a step further, I thought. Why not use this practice as a technique for dealing with holiday meals, as well as other times when we might be tempted to overeat or binge? The key here is that people tend to habituate to food after a while. The more you eat, the less flavor you sense, and so you need more to compensate. This is especially the case if you are stress-eating or distracted.
In the guided practice below, you'll adapt your mental practice to the foods you'll be facing at that holiday meal. You'll also be bringing mindful eating into the equation so that you will really feel and taste the meal. Happy mealtime mental rehearsal.
Visualization and Mindful Eating Practice to Stop Holiday Overeating
When: Start your visualization about 15 minutes before the meal. You could even do this while you're sitting in the car before going in for a meal.
How: Take a few soothing breaths to begin. Then, imagine yourself very slowly eating. Picture yourself taking small bites and having a high degree of self-control as you eat. Chew each imagined bite very slowly. Let yourself taste it in detail. Where on your tongue do you most vividly taste the flavor? Also, feel the texture of the food in your mouth. Is it hot, crunchy, soft? Imagine smelling the food. If you really do this in great detail, your brain can't tell the difference. It thinks you are eating and your body reacts as if it were.
Taste the foods one at a time. Spend about five to ten minutes eating with your imagination. At this point, you should feel a sense of fullness or satiety. That's a good signal. That's why mindful eating helps with moderation. It slows you down and lets you be fulfilled with food rather than simply being filled up.
Now, when you are finished with your imaginary meal, take a couple more calming breaths. In addition, set the intention to bring that same sense of self-control with you as you eat your actual meal. Stay mindful with the actual meal and you will feel the difference both in your appetite and eating behavior.
Conclusion
Don't get down on yourself if your meal goes differently than you planned or veers in an unexpected direction. Mindful eating, whether real or imagined, takes time and practice. If you're seeking additional mindful eating practices, my book Simply Mindful Meal by Meal has over 100 engaging mindful eating tools that will show you how to deeply appreciate and experience each bite and morsel.
Always remember that mindful eating isn't about being perfect. But it is about being compassionate and accepting of where you and your eating behavior are at right now. Besides, you can always practice again at that next meal.
