Savoring the Moment: The Life-Changing Power of Mindful Eating

Have you ever tried savoring a single bite of food, blocking out all other distractions? The task is surprisingly tough, yet immensely rewarding. On the latest episode of the Dirobi Health Show, we're stripping back the complexities of everyday life to focus on mindful eating, a practice that offers a plethora of benefits while costing nothing but a bit of attention. I share my adventure into this practice, revealing how, amidst a barrage of daily thoughts, turning my focus to the textures and flavors on my tongue has become a grounding ritual, transforming the way I interact with my meals and, by extension, my overall health.

We unravel the research-backed transformation that mindful eating can bring, such as reducing your food intake by 20%, increasing meal satisfaction, and decreasing the frequency of binge eating. I take you through the concept of observing your thoughts like cars on a highway—learning to detach and let them pass without letting them sweep you away. This episode isn't just about savoring your food; it's about changing your relationship with eating, turning each meal into an opportunity for presence and reflection. Tune in and join me on this journey to a more mindful approach to what's on our plates and, ultimately, to a more balanced lifestyle.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Diary of the Health Show.
We live in a fast-paced world.
We have quick meals, wemultitask, we rush, rush, rush
everywhere, and that is the norminstead of the exception for
most people.
And mindfulness and mindfuleating are no longer buzzwords.

(00:32):
They are very popular.
We've all heard about them,we've seen them on the cover of
Time Magazine, we get blog postsabout them in our email, we
have friends who've startedmeditating.
We've probably all dabbled init.
However, I have come to believethat mindful eating one of the
top health habits we all know bynow, hopefully is
simultaneously the mostdifficult and the simplest of

(00:56):
all health habits.
It's the simplest because it'sinstantly accessible, it's very
easy to understand, doesn't costany money and we get to
practice it every single day,every single time we put
something in our mouth.
Simple it's difficult becausewe're human beings that have

(01:18):
somewhere between 20,000 and80,000 thoughts a day, including
multiple thoughts, while wechew a single bite.
If you've ever, if you've never, paid attention to this, try it
next time you're eating.
Try to take one bite of foodand think about nothing but the
smell, the taste, theconsistency and the overall

(01:43):
experience of chewing that onebite, and see if you can keep
all other thoughts out of yourmind while you chew one bite to
the consistency of applesauce,and I bet, like me, you will
discover that you probably can't.
Another little thoughtexperiment.
If you don't believe me, youcan try, right this second and

(02:04):
pull out your watch or some sortof timer, set it for 10 seconds
and try to have no thoughts inyour mind just for 10 seconds.
Remember that the very thoughtoh, I'm doing good, oh, this is
easy.
Well, that's a thought that'sabout, that's a thought about
what you're doing.
Trying to have zero thoughts for10 seconds is actually a very,

(02:27):
very difficult thing to do.
Now, importantly, we don't haveto turn off our thoughts.
As a matter of fact, that is afool's errand, and anyone who is
an experienced meditator willtell you that even the best
among us, those at controllingtheir thoughts, the most
experienced Zen Buddhist on theplanet, who's experienced the

(02:48):
highest level of enlightenment,still has thoughts come into
their mind.
But the relationship to thethoughts and not letting the
thoughts take over or captivatethem or completely distract them
is the difference between theexperienced practitioner and the
rest of us.
It's kind of like if you have aflat tire on the freeway and

(03:09):
you're on the car side of thecar trying to on the driver's
side of the car and the trafficis rushing by you and you're
trying to fix this flat tire,you will think of not much, your
thoughts will be racing aboutthis entire experience, you'll
feel a sense of danger, etcetera.
But if you move to the otherside of the car, fix the flat on
the other side, not near as bad, you don't feel like you're

(03:30):
about to be run over everysecond, but still fairly
mentally traumatizing.
Now, if you move 50 feet awayfrom the car, boom all of a
sudden you feel quite safe andthe wind isn't rushing at you
quite how it was and the noiseand the sense of impending doom
goes down.
But if you are a mile away, ina high rise, watching someone

(03:52):
change a tire on a car on afreeway and watching the little
ant-like cars go by, it's apeaceful scene and in all
instances those are the sameexperience being observed from
different places.
And so, in a similar way, theway we experience the thoughts,
whether the thoughts feel urgentand rushing and have a sense of

(04:18):
impending doom or I have to dothis or I got to do that.
I got to change my plan I gotto go here, I got to go there
versus allowing them to come andgo with a minimal amount of
emotion or attachment.
That's the key.
Now let's bring that back tofood.
How does that relate to food?
Well, we know from research now.
There's been a lot of researchon mindful eating and

(04:38):
mindfulness generally, and weknow that the practice of being
fully present and engaged in themoment, without judgment, with
our eating, can help us eat 20%less, helps us enjoy our food
more.
They have found, when testingpeople who tend to binge eat,
that they binge eat less afterbeing taught how to eat
mindfully.

(04:58):
And also emotional eating goesdown when a person is trained in
mindful eating.
On the flip side, mindlesseating has been correlated to
anxiety, overeating and weightgain.
So mindful eating is a worthyand healthy goal and
simultaneously instantly simpleand accessible, as I mentioned,

(05:22):
and very, very difficult to do.
But rather than beat ourselvesup about how our last meal was
rushed and anxious, we simplyfocus on the present and
bringing ourselves back.
We just try more often and withmore bites to be mindful.
We don't beat ourselves up whenwe realize we've been lost and
thought for the last fiveminutes and completely down to

(05:43):
corn dog that we didn't evenmean to eat.
Instead, we just slow down,smile at ourselves, look at that
last bite and decide oh, I'mactually feeling pretty good,
I'm full, I don't need that lastbite of corn dog, throw in the
trash, move on and next time wetry again.
So we just keep bringingourselves back and celebrate
when we bring ourselves back.
Don't so much beat ourselves upevery time we get distracted.

(06:07):
We are human beings.
So here's a couple of thingsthat we can do.
We, first of all, ought to tryto prepare our food mindfully,
ideally by being more mindfulabout what we eat.
We tend to make our own foodmore.
We tend to spend more time inthe kitchen, and that is, in
itself, a healthy habit, and somindful preparation of food or,

(06:30):
if you're out and about or youlive a very fast paced life
where you eat most of your mealsat restaurants, being mindful
about your restaurant choices isalso a great place to start.
Next, being mindful about thechoice of foods, of course,
trying to eat whole foods asmuch as possible, cutting back
on those foods that are high incalories, sugar, too much, fats,

(06:52):
etc.
All of those things are a partof the process that we mindfully
prepare to eat.
Next, mindful eating is aboutexperiencing food more intensely
, which is fantastic because, ifyou think about it, most health
regimens are about denial,they're about less, they're
about eating stuff you don'tlike.

(07:13):
But mindful eating is not.
Mindful eating is simply eatingin a very mindful way, without
distraction, engaging all of oursenses to enjoy each bite fully
.
What's the downside?
There is none.
There's no downside to mindfuleating, even if we're not eating
the best thing that we could beor we're having a treat that we

(07:33):
don't have that often.
But even with the treat, weshould be eating it very, very
mindfully.
The dirobe undiet emphasizes theimportance of eating solely and
mindfully, suggesting practicessuch as eliminating
distractions during meals, sotrying not to eat in front of
the television, although eatingwith other people is a great
habit and so other people mightbe considered a distraction.

(07:55):
But we do also know from thestudies of the blue zones that
people who eat with their family, and especially
multi-generational meals withgrandchildren and parents and
children and grown-ups together,is actually a very healthy
habit and adding some socialityinto our eating.
But other distractions, such asreading the paper or, worse,

(08:18):
everyone looking at their phonewhile they should be together.
Those are distractions we couldget rid of.
So eating chewing our food tothe consistency of applesauce is
one of those habits.
That is a very worthy goal.
Also putting our utensils downbetween bites so that we are

(08:41):
more likely to chew our food tothe consistency of applesauce,
and by doing these things we'llhave increased satisfaction with
our food.
We'll also better digest ourfood, which, of course, is
critical.
We have a digestive and gutmicrobiome crisis really right
now going on in the country, andif you slow down eating, that

(09:02):
actually can make a majorcontribution to your gut health.
You'll tend to eat about 20%less and you'll digest the food
better and absorb all thenutrients out of it.
You'll also reduce overeating.
Again, I mentioned this earlierpeople who eat mindfully eat
about 20% less.
So overall, our enjoyment offood will go up.

(09:23):
It'll be easier to stick toother health habits.
We're less likely to make badfood choices.
And so a few more tips Avoideating while standing up.
That's one of the ones I need towork on.
I try to.
You know, if I sit down, I'mmore likely to focus on the food
.
Also, while driving, I try,unless it's really you know, if

(09:45):
we're going on a long journey orsomething like that.
Sometimes it's just notpractical to not eat in the car.
But if you think about it, howmany times do we eat in a car
that we really don't need to?
It's just because we're alwaysin such a rush.
Right, mindful eating andmindful living are both very,
very worthy goals.
Preparing our food early enoughto enjoy it slowly and

(10:07):
mindfully, to then leave in timethat we don't have to eat in
the car is another way ofapproaching this.
Do your best to focus 100% onyour food and not multitask.
Another thing we can practice isgratitude for our meal, and
another aspect of gratitude forour meal is to take a minute and

(10:30):
look at your plate and thinkabout where each food came from.
If we trace it back, somebodygrew the food, somebody worked
in the fields to cultivate thefood.
Somebody drove a truck todeliver it to some food lot or
marketplace.
Somebody else sailed with itacross an ocean.
In some cases.
People work, often at low pay,to make sure that the stores

(10:52):
near us are always stocked withfood so that we can easily
access it, and so bringingawareness to the people in the
process and sending out somelove to them.
Thank you for growing this food.
Many of these people reallysacrificed and don't make a lot
of money in the food supplychain to provide us the modern

(11:13):
conveniences we have, and sospending a few minutes just
throwing out some gratitude tothe universe for these wonderful
people who make it so that wecan eat this delicious food on
demand from all over the worldis a nice practice.
Mindfulness and mindful eatingare powerful practices.
They can enhance our weightloss journey, making it more

(11:35):
enjoyable and sustainable.
By being fully present andengaging with the active eating,
we can improve our relationshipwith food less emotional eating
, less binge eating and lead tohealthier choices and more
lasting weight loss.
So remember the goal isprogress, not perfection.
Start small, be patient withyourself.
Even if you only one mindfulmeal a day, that could be an

(11:57):
improvement over what you'vebeen doing right.
And make sure and download ourfree DiRobi undi it the seven
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(13:44):
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Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you got something out ofthis episode and also enjoyed
my dog, kiki, in the backgroundfor parts of the episode.
She doesn't join us every time,but sometimes someone comes to
the door or makes a noise, orAmazon comes by, whatever, and

(14:04):
she likes to make herself known.
So until next time, this isDave Sherwin, wishing you health
and success.