Ep 35b- Interactive Mindful Eating Experiment: Day 2

October 04,2024

Listen to the 5 Day Mindful Eating Challenge to Stop Binge Eating!
Today you’ll learn an interactive mindful eating experiment- do a hands on practice session where we savor a small piece of food together.

All right, so we are on day two of our mindful eating challenge. Today, we're doing an interactive mindful eating experiment. So for today, you will need a piece of food that you can eat. Something small that you can practice with, and I want you to actually do this. If you're listening to this on replay, Make sure you pause it and go actually get a piece of food because we learn by doing so much better than we just learn by listening.

This is why so many of us will listen to podcasts and read books for years and years and years without any change happening because we don't actually implement that advice. Coaching is something that can help you implement that advice, but something we're going to do today is just learn this experience for ourselves.

So if you want to put in the chat what food you're doing or if you need a second to get the food, let me know. Otherwise, we will begin. So, research has shown that slowing down while eating increases our satiety and reduces our overeating. So, the experiment we're going to do today with our food allows you to really tune into What do I actually need?

Do I actually need a whole bar of chocolate? Do I actually need to eat the whole bag of chips? Or could I be satisfied by as little as one of these things? And again, this experiment is going to be so powerful to show you, one, that you might be able to be satisfied with a lot less than you think, but two, also that you're in charge, that you're in control, because when we do this in a small, controlled way, you With structure and support, we're able to slow down our thought process to catch what's happening instead of just being mindless with it.

Alright, you have a small piece of chocolate. Fantastic. Alright, so there was another study that was done in the Journal of Obesity that found that people who practice mindful eating on average ate 33 percent fewer calories without feeling deprived. So many of us will try to cut back our calories and try to restrict, but then we feel so deprived and we don't feel like we're getting enough, and so we end up overeating anyway.

So this will help you feel satisfied and reduce that amount you're eating. So like I mentioned, this is classically done with like a raisin or something. I've seen this done many different ways, but you can have any food. Just something that is small so we can just practice eating it without impacting your hunger fullness too much.

Okay, so let's begin. The first thing I want you to do is to take this piece of food that you have and I want you to look at it. We're gonna start by using our vision. Our vision is one of our most powerful senses. It's the one we rely on the most. If you have heard this study with blind people. They use their hearing and their smell so much more than we do, and it's so much of a stronger sense.

So, if we do not see our food, we don't actually get a very important visual cue about what we're about to eat. So, I want you to, I should have had a piece of food with me. I'm going to take a piece of gum just to exemplify what we're doing here. Okay, so you're going to take your piece of food. Looking at it, is it smooth?

Is it bumpy? What is the color like? And how does it feel in your hands? What's the texture like in your hands? See how much you can notice just about what it looks like. Does it look yummy? Does it not look yummy? Are there any imprints in it or dents?

Feel free to put in the chat as well what you're noticing. So we're going to go to our next sense, which is our sense of smell. So this seems a little funny at first, but this is going to help us tune in more. Smell your food. What does it smell like? Do you like the smell of it? Does it smell chemically?

Does it smell fresh? Does it smell like something you'd want to eat or not want to eat? Does it remind you of anything?

Taking a moment to write down these observations or sharing them in the chat.

Then we're going to move on to actually eating it. So now we're going to go to our taste buds. But I want you to start by taking the smallest bite you can, the littlest nibble, and don't chew it right away. I want you to let it melt in your mouth. Let it sit in there, depending on what it is. Maybe it will melt in your mouth.

Maybe it's just going to sit there for a second. Now by taking this really small bite, We are 10x ing the amount of food we get to taste and the amount of time we get to spend enjoying this food. Most of us usually take the food and just pop it in our mouth and then it's gone in seconds. So what if we could expand that experience, get more out of it?

So now you can move on to your second bite. A little a snivel, we're gonna see how many bites we can make this piece of food last. Again, letting it melt in your mouth and seeing what you notice. Is it sweet? Is it salty? Does it have a temperature? Crunchy or smooth? Is

there any flavors you can taste to it?

Again, taking another bite, this time maybe try chewing it and seeing what that experience is like. As you chew it with your mouth, does it change that experience?

Letting it start to fade away from your mouth before you go in with your next bite. Okay with the chocolate, it's smooth and sweet, chocolatey. And see if you can even go more deep with what kind of chocolatey is it. Is it a rich, dark chocolate that's kind of bitter? Or is it a lighter, softer milk chocolate?

And I want you to continue doing this, continuing to take these little nibbles until you're finished with your food. And take your time with this. Letting it expand out, this experience, seeing what you notice. And notice how different of an experience this is. From how you might normally eat this food.

Most of the times with these more, what our brain labels as off limits foods, the only time we eat them is when we're frantic and we just, we're overeating. We rarely sit down with these foods and actually notice them. Our relationship with these foods is fast and frantic and in a rush. And not present, and so we want to start to change it.

And so by doing this experiment right now, where you're slowly doing it, nibble by nibble, you're changing your relationship with this food. You're becoming a different person in the way that you interact with this. I also like closing my eyes as you're taking these little bites. Right, because again, when we stop our vision, sometimes we can notice more about our taste.

And sometimes I look like a bit of a weirdo when I'm eating my food, my eyes closed, but I'm enjoying it. And that's all that matters. It's funny. I do like, you know, Instagram reels and videos and things. I often have the background of them with me eating food mindfully. And you'll notice I do kind of like start to close my eyes and I'm like, because that is me savoring the food and enjoying it and truly noticing it.

So I want you to start to write down your observations. What are you noticing that's different? about this experience and anything you want to share in the chat.

How is this experience different than how you might normally eat this food? And what might happen in this new experience? Change for you.

So your action step for today is to finish up this experiment. And then I want you to try to do this experiment the next time you eat too. Using all of your senses and seeing what new things you notice. The more we can notice the changes, the more they're going to cement in our brain. So even though you might be satisfied from this food, if you're not noticing the satisfaction because you're so zoned out while you're eating, it's not going to actually hit the same.

And that's when we end up in the cabinets going back for more and more because we never got the pleasure out of it the first time. So this is the kind of freedom and control that That you're going to want to feel around food. And this is exactly what we solidified in my confident eater program. And I want you all to know that I'm currently taking on three one on one clients, but I only have space for three.

So I want to make sure you guys get access first. And I'm also offering a really special fun bonus right now, which is a free custom journal when you join within the next week and a half by next Friday. There are a lot of people who've signed up for this challenge, over 50 people have signed up, which is my biggest challenge to date, which is so fine, um, but I'm expecting these spots to fill up really quickly because I know people are really excited about this challenge and having the possibility of stopping binge eating and food freedom.

So I'm going to put the link to work with me in the chat. Um, and there's also going to be the link in the replay or in the show notes, depending on where you are watching this. All right, in your observation from today, seven tiny bites from your chocolate rather than one or two, not feeling like I need more.

That is amazing. Thank you for sharing that because that is what I want you to experience of like, wow, what if I could just be satisfied with one piece? How do I know I need two pieces? Who decided that? We don't know until we try. So let's see, what could we possibly be satisfied with? And maybe you normally have a lot more pieces of chocolate.

So you take seven bites, but this time you still get those same seven bites, but with less chocolate, which is going to help you feel better overall. There's nothing wrong with having chocolate and we can definitely have more than one piece at times, but just noticing how You know, we can feel our optimum with a lot less if we start paying attention.

All right, that's what I have for you today. So have a good rest of your day. Practice this mindful eating experiment and we'll be back for tomorrow, day three, where we are going to be talking about our mindful meal guidelines. So these are the guidelines I usually only give my private clients, but I'm going to teach you all of them tomorrow.

So don't miss out on it. Talk to you later.