Do you want to stop dieting and learn how to take charge of your food choices? The number one fear with practicing mindful eating is gaining weight.

Yes - your body might change, but when you learn to eat mindfully you are in charge of your food choices which means you begin to listen more to what your body needs and develop a healthy relationship with food.

Here are a few tips to consider as you eat mindfully.

1) Your Body Might Change

When you start listening to your body and eating mindfully, your body might change. If you were rigidly monitoring what foods you ate and restricting for a while, you might gain weight. If you were on a eat “good” Monday-Friday then binge out on weekends cycle, you might lose weight. Or your weight might not change at all.

There’s no way to predict what will happen to your weight when you begin to eat mindfully, but I do know that your mindset will experience a huge shift. You will feel free and less consumed by obsessive food thoughts.

I know this might be extra hard for those of you who have been meticulously tracking your weight and you feel good when the scale is at a certain number. But also think about the stress associated with living your life under such rigid weight constraints.

Imagine letting go of all the rules and allowing your body to be the weight that you feel most comfort, peace, and freedom? A weight where you easily enjoy your life, food, activities, without obsession.

Is a few pounds difference worth continuing obsessing over? I know it’s scary to let go of the control around food, but the freedom you gain when you do let go is so much more satisfying and peaceful than seeing a certain number on your scale.

And really, who is the number for anyway? Besides you, who even knows your exact weight? Think about it.

2) Body Acceptance

We all come in different shapes and sizes, and part of the process is learning to accept the way your body is formed.

Try to surround yourself (and your social media) with positivity around body size. Many accounts focus on all different body sizes instead of the perfectly crafted accounts showing a fantasy world that diet culture wants us to believe.

Take captive any negative thoughts you have about your body and counter them with the truth. Take time to journal your thoughts and notice any negative patterns. Practice identifying the negative thoughts and speaking out something true about your body.

We are all beautifully made! Take it one step at a time. Maybe at first, the only thing you find beautiful about yourself is your hair. Use that to channel a positive image of yourself when the lies start creeping in.

With time, you will continue to find the beauty of your body and embrace who you were made to be. I truly believe you are what you think and so by saying “I am beautiful” over and over again you are going to cultivate that beauty from the inside out.

3) You Can Be Healthy At Any Weight

Truth: Certain weights do not equal healthy and eating mindfully does not mean eating chips, cookies, and ice cream all day, every day.

When you eat mindfully (intuitively), you are going to crave a variety of foods. Nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, fruits, and proteins, satiating foods like healthy fats and whole grains, and fun foods like chips, cookies, and ice cream. That’s what a healthy relationship with food looks like - all foods fit!

Once you begin to allow “forbidden” or “scary” foods, you will eat in a more balanced way - nixing the binge eating and probably avoiding excess weight gain. You’ll also be more healthy overall!

Studies show there is a significant positive relationship between mindful eating and mental well-being (1). Research on mindful eating techniques is associated with improved glucose levels, lipid profile, and blood pressure (2).

This supports the theory that you can be healthy at any weight. Instead of investing your energy in weight loss, you should focus on your overall health which means ensuring your blood biomarkers for glucose, lipids, cholesterol, and blood pressure are within normal limits.

This means less stress around the scale and more time focusing your energy on the things you enjoy.

4) Finding Your Body’s Weight Set Point

Trying to establish a body size that isn’t your body’s weight set point is not only harmful both mentally and physically, but very difficult. It’s like squeezing your size 8 foot into a size 6 shoe. Yes, you may be able to do it, but it is going to feel so uncomfortable and you probably will only be able to wear the shoes for a very short time.

If you need to follow a restrictive diet, cut calories, and follow a rigid exercise schedule to maintain your weight, that weight is probably not where your body naturally wants to be.

Respecting and accepting the genetically determined size and shape of your body will help you easily maintain your weight and your overall mental well-being.

Your weight set point might change every few years due to normal hormonal variations that occur throughout life.

Weight fluctuations are normal and it’s unrealistic to expect your body to stay the same shape and size your entire life.

You’ll know you have reached your body’s natural weight set point when you: eat a variety of foods, honor hunger and fullness cues, your weight stops changing, and your clothes still fit even though you have eliminated any external control of your weight.

5) What Are You Investing In?

As you learn to eat mindfully you will discover that maybe after eating 2 Oreos you feel good, but if you have 3 or 4 you feel sick. It’s learning to experience these uncomfortable food sensations and then using them in the future to decide if you want to feel full and uncomfortable or pleasant and satisfied. You are in charge, not food!

This will lead you to eat in a balanced way and understand the value in what you put in your body.

I like to use this analogy. We all like to invest in what we put on our outward appearance - nice clothes, designer handbags, fun shoes. But what if we learned to see the value in what we invest on the inside of our bodies? Meaning fresh fruits and veggies, organic meats, a water filtration system, nourishing and healthy snacks.

This will get you the biggest return on your investment - good health, a long life, and fulfilling all of your dreams and desires!

References

1. Fletcher, M. (2010, Spring). Understanding mindful eating. Weight Management Matters, 7(4).Retrieved from http://wmdpg.org/wpcontent/uploads/2010/11/Spring10_CPEU.pdf

2. Hayashi LC, Benasi G, St-Onge MP, Aggarwal B. Intuitive and mindful eating to improve physiological health parameters: a short narrative review of intervention studies. J Complement Integr Med. 2021 Dec 16. doi: 10.1515/jcim-2021-0294. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34913327.