Today, we’re diving into the effects of stress on our eating and 5 Ways to Eat Mindfully. This year it is especially important. Moving to what is hopefully the backend of the pandemic, the health stats that resulted from COVID-19 are staggering. We weigh more, sleep less, and are out of shape. Today we look at one particular reason…Cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone released when we are under stress. It has a myriad of effects both positive and negative. On the positive side, cortisol helps regulate the body by assisting with pancreatic functioning to balance insulin levels, rises and falls to facilitate sleep, and mediates the body’s inflammatory response. However, when there is too much cortisol, as happens when we are under chronic or intense levels of stress, we experience weight gain, poor sleep, and impaired impulse control. Cortisol’s impact on our eating specifically? First, it activates an elevated drive for quick and easy food sources. They’re called high reward foods that include high salt, sugar, and fat content and they lead to weight gain. Second, we’re less satisfied with meals we are eating. Third, it causes us to seek out unhealthy foods again and again in an addictive manner. Let’s take a look at some particulars when it comes to our health and eating.
Mindless Eating vs Mindful Eating
When we consider ways to eat mindfully, we need to take into consideration why we may be eating mindlessly. This is where cortisol comes in. We are biologically hard-wired to find the easiest source of food as we go through our day. As mentioned above, those foods are not always the healthiest. So, how we think about food matters. And, we think about what we are going to eat 250 times per day. The practice of mindless eating, eating when emotions are intense and urges are hard to resist, is more likely when we are stressed. Instead of eating for nourishment at this point, we are mindlessly eating for comfort and pleasure. Consider this, 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. We spend $60 billion a year on ways to lose weight in the US. If you Google “How to lose weight” you will get 131,000,000 suggestions. And none of them is likely to work if you don’t first get mindful about eating. Let’s look at 5 ways to eat mindfully.
5 Simple ways to Eat Mindfully
- Know your internal environment prior to eating a meal or snack. Before you eat, identify your mood. Are you stressed, unhappy, angry, or bored? Address your mood prior to eating.
- Check in with your body. Before you eat, do a body scan. Are you really hungry? Are you eating on a full stomach? Honor your body’s needs and and perhaps go for a walk or try a yoga practice prior to eating and only eat when you are hungry.
- Spend time understanding and identifying foods that trigger mindless eating – likely high sugar, fat, and salty foods. Eliminate them from your refrigerator and pantry. Make yourself have to work to get them.
- Slow down when eating. Set yourself up to succeed and notice the meal or snack and the effect it has on feelings of satisfaction.
- Get help if you cannot do this alone. Supports come in many forms from professionals like dieticians and nutritionists to counselors and therapists. There is also value in understanding the body and mind more through yoga, and meditation.
Do you need assistance with mindful eating? I invite you to set up a private session with me either by Zoom or in person here.
Love, Light, Prayers, and Peace!
Alyson Phelan, CYT 500, CMMT, TRCC
Certified Yoga Teacher 500 hour
Certified Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher
Trauma Responsive Care Certified
