Mindful eating practices help create a healthier relationship with food during eating disorder recovery. Utilizing sustainable mindful eating tools lets you improve your habits and build a balance over time. Learn how to reconnect your body and mind and why it can work for you.
Connect Mindful Eating with Eating Disorders
Eating disorders can lead to unhealthy relationships with food and harmful eating habits. With mindful eating, you learn to limit these behaviors, including starving oneself, binging, mindless eating, and over-exercising. It is possible for you to let go of food rules and have flexible, relaxed eating habits. Start by asking yourself if you know what it means to observe your hunger. And remember it is a way to listen to your biological needs to feed your body and honor your natural instincts to sustain your body. Making this connection can help you realize that there’s no such thing as good and bad foods and that it’s okay to eat what you like if you’re able to.
Benefits of Mindful Eating During Recovery
Mindful eating is a practice used in recovery from eating disorders to manage signs and habits as well as improve balanced eating. It works by helping you change your approach around eating by increasing your trust in yourself and letting go of guilt. It is a huge step away from feelings such as loss of control or depriving yourself of your needs. There are reliable steps you can integrate into your day-to-day life to help you through your recovery.
When you implement mindful eating, you will:
- Choose nourishing foods that you enjoy eating
- Rely on all your senses to observe food while eating
- Be aware of thoughts & feelings around food without judgment
- Acknowledge physical hunger cues
- Recognize what triggers your eating disorder responses
Ways to Exercise Mindfulness
Habits to Practice
Useful Tools
Hunger & Fullness Meter
The hunger and fullness meter is a scale used to understand how you feel before and during eating by checking in with your body before and while eating and recognizing when you feel satisfied enough.
Visualization
Add the foods below to your plate for each meal. Think about how they got there starting with where they originate and how the plant is grown and harvested.
- Bread – make avocado toast for breakfast
- Rice – have a chicken, beef, or seafood bowl for lunch
- Pasta – enjoy spaghetti and meatballs for dinner
Asking Questions
Ask yourself questions throughout the day to keep you present and aware of your needs and hunger levels in the moment:
- “How do I feel about eating that that food right now?”
- “Am I hungry/thirsty?”
- “What emotions am I feeling before this meal I’m about to have?”
- “Do these negative thoughts have anything to do with food?”
- “Which part of me has the biggest need right now: stomach, mind, heart, etc.?”
Mindfulness Journal
Keeping a mindfulness journal as a personal daily diary can help you make sense of your emotions, especially with triggers, and refocus your mind on the goals you’re working on during recovery.
Try this mindfulness journal
Dalila Mumic
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics