A pendulum moves deliberately.  Thoughtfully.  Mindfully. 

A yo-yo?  Not so much.  It’s either all the way up or all the way down.  (Unless you are a master at manipulating a yo-yo.)

Take this example and apply it to the food you eat.  Try to view eating more like a smooth pendulum.  Pendulum eaters, or mindful eaters, are in charge–not just in control–and they are fully aware of the eating event.

Another component of eating mindfully: withhold judgment.  No need to grade something as “good” or “bad.”  Eat what you want when you want it.  Focus on true physical hunger, and honor that hunger with real food.  You’ll eat less and feel better.

Learn more at The Center for Mindful Eating and at eMindful.

When it’s cold outside and not much going on, some of my clients tell me how bored they feel–or lonely, anxious, depressed–and the one thing that comforts, the one constant, is food.  Especially sweets.  I usually explain that turning to food must serve some purpose, and I ask about the perceived purpose and the resulting impact.  How do you feel during the eating episode?  Then what about after?  Always the sequence of responses:  great/dizzy/occupied then guilty/stressed/anxious. 

The cure? Eat, and repeat. 

But we know this doesn’t work because it leads to binge eating (either a subjective or an objective binge), and when the episode is over the client feels worse–not better.  The very thing/feeling that made her or him eat in the first place is still there.  The boredom or the anxiety or the loneliness or the depression never went anywhere.  It was masked for a moment.  I encourage clients to explore this with me and/or with a psychotherapist, if appropriate.

Geneen Roth wrote recently (Good Houkeeping magazine, July 2009): “After having devoted a lot of my life to being anxious about things that never came to pass, I’ve finally realized that worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair all day and thinking you’re actually going somewhere.”  Geneen’s solution, which I adore: “[Notice], on a daily basis, everything that you don’t have to worry about. Everything that is already fine, vibrant, thriving.”

To close, as I tell my clients, when thinking of reaching for food, first identify if it’s from physiological hunger or from emotional hunger.  Then proceed accordingly. 

Strict dieting for weight loss doesn’t work. The concept I encourage my clients to follow is intuitive eating developed by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Take a moment and peruse their 10 principles for healthy eating: http://www.intuitiveeating.com/. Reflect on #6: Discover the Satisfaction Factor. Enjoying quality food requires less food so you feel satisfied sooner. Earlier satisfaction equates to fewer calories consumed.