Hello and

our nutrition diva podcast I'm Monica Reinagle your host

and our topic this week is mindful eating and some of the ways that we can get it wrong.

Mindful eating is super trendy these days.

It's supposedly linked to all kinds of benefits,

everything from healthier eating habits to weight loss to better digestion.

But many of the people I work with say that they try mindful eating but find it irritating, unpleasant,

boring, or weirdly stressful.

Just like meditating and gratitude journaling and a daily yoga practice, mindful eating is supposed to make us healthier, happier, and more relaxed.

But instead, we often end up feeling stressed and guilty about not doing it.

If you hate eating mindfully, you might be approaching it wrong.

And here are a few ways that we often misunderstand what mindful eating is really about.

First, we mistakenly think that eating mindfully means that we should eat only in order

to satisfy our physical hunger and for no other reason.

Now, being aware of our hunger and satiety signals is definitely a big part of eating more mindfully.

Taking a moment to assess whether or not we are hungry or still

hungry can help us recognize when that urge to eat or to continue eating is due to something else such as boredom, fatigue,

or sadness. And this in turn gives us the opportunity to think about whether eating

is really the best way to respond to those feelings

or whether there might be another response that would serve us better.

On the other hand, sometimes the urge to eat is not about escaping from unpleasant feelings,

but rather about being attracted to pleasurable experiences.

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