After you have been eating mindfully for a while, you might find that it isn’t effective for
you. If this is the case, there might be some small and very common mistakes you are
making. Luckily, these are super easy to fix!
Using it as a Way to Diet
The first mistake you want to avoid with mindfulness is to avoid using mindful eating
techniques as a way to diet. Unfortunately, both mindful eating and intuitive eating can
be used as a way to control food and eat lesser quantities, which does nothing for your
relationship with food.
If you want to truly benefit from mindful eating, you need to learn to get rid of all those
dieting and food control thoughts, and just let everything happen naturally. Otherwise,
there is no point to being more mindful in the first place.
Only Using One or Two Senses
Everyone uses their sense of taste and often sense of smell when eating, but there are
more senses you should be using for each meal. The reason why you are told to not
have a lot of distractions while eating is in part to help you focus on the present moment
during your meals and really pay attention to each of your senses.
This means not just taste and smell, but the feeling of it in your mouth and texture of
your food, the sound of crunching chips or biting into a peach, and how your food looks.
The more senses you utilize while eating, the more mindful you will become.
Speeding Through Your Meal
Even if you don’t have distractions, eating too fast can disrupt the benefits of mindful
eating. You need to take your time to stay in the present moment, use grounding
techniques, and pay attention to both your food and how you feel while eating it. Plus,
eating slower also helps to prevent digestive issues, so there are many benefits to this.
Not Reflecting on the Moment of Eating
Another mistake with mindful eating is not really reflecting on each moment or
experience of your meal. You can gain a lot of clarity about yourself and your own
eating habits by going through these reflections, and even writing down notes or in a
journal as you go through your meals. What did you decide to eat? Did you know when
you got full? Were there flavors you weren’t a fan of? This is all important.
