Mindful Eating and Portion Control: Tools to develop a healthier relationship with food.
Having a healthy relationship with food is an important aspect of maintaining overall health and well being. This is not about DIETING! Restriction often leads to bingeing. This is about developing tools that help you look at food and eating in a healthier way.
Let’s begin with portion control - what exactly is it and what is a simple way of thinking about portions.
Imagine a well-balanced plate resembling a vibrant canvas, where colors and textures harmoniously blend to create a visually appealing and nutritionally rich masterpiece. Picture half of the plate adorned with a rainbow of vegetables, featuring a medley of greens, reds, yellows, and oranges, conveying a diverse range of vitamins and minerals. The remaining space is divided between a palm-sized portion of lean protein, perhaps grilled chicken or fish, symbolizing the essential building blocks for muscle health. On the side, a serving of whole grains, such as quinoa or brown rice, occupies a quarter of the plate, contributing fiber and sustained energy. This picturesque arrangement not only delights the eyes but also serves as a practical guide, ensuring a balance of nutrients and a visually satisfying representation of healthy portion sizes for a nourishing and satisfying meal.
Now, what about mindful eating? Mindful eating is a practice that involves paying full attention to the sensory experience of eating, cultivating awareness of one's thoughts and feelings around food, and fostering a non-judgmental awareness of the present moment during meals. It encourages individuals to engage with their meals in a more intentional and conscious manner, promoting a healthier relationship with food.
One tool that is easily adopted is a hunger scale. A hunger scale is a tool that helps individuals gauge and assess their level of hunger or fullness on a numerical scale. The scale typically ranges from 1 to 10, with specific descriptions assigned to each number. Here's a general guide to using a hunger scale:
1-2: Starving - Weak and Dizzy: This represents extreme hunger. You may feel weak, lightheaded, and unable to concentrate. It's ideal to avoid reaching this level by eating when you're moderately hungry.
3-4: Moderately Hungry - Stomach Growling: This is a good time to start eating. You're hungry but not overly so. Your stomach may be growling, and you're aware of your hunger, but you're not feeling urgent discomfort.
5-6: Satisfied - Comfortably Full: This range indicates a moderate level of fullness. You've eaten enough to feel satisfied and energized, but you're not overly full. It's an ideal stopping point during a meal.
7-8: Full - Uncomfortably Full: This is the range where you start to feel uncomfortably full. You might experience bloating or discomfort. It's a signal to slow down or stop eating to avoid overindulging.
9-10: Stuffed - Very Uncomfortably Full: This represents extreme fullness, where you feel overly stuffed and may experience discomfort, indigestion, or even nausea. Ideally, you want to avoid reaching this level.
To use the hunger scale effectively:
Check-in Before Meals: Before you start eating, assess your hunger level. If you're at a 3 or 4, it's an optimal time to begin your meal. Try not to wait until you are at level 1 or 2, when you are extremely hungry. This can easily lead to overeating.
Pause During Meals: Periodically pause during your meal to assess your current level on the hunger scale. It helps you make informed decisions about whether to continue eating or stop.
Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to the physical sensations of hunger and fullness. Stop eating when you're around a 6 or 7 on the scale to avoid overeating.
Using a hunger scale promotes mindful eating, helping you establish a healthier relationship with food by tuning into your body's natural signals of hunger and fullness.
As portion sizes have grown (supersize fountain drinks, bigger juicier burgers, muffins, sugary coffee drinks) and processed foods contain even more quantities of salt, sugar, and fat to increase the “craveability” of food, it is crucial for us to return to the practice of actually listening to our bodies AND increasing our awareness of what fills up our plate.
In conclusion, you can never go wrong with eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, reducing consumption of processed meats, and switching to whole grains for those energy producing carbs.
Listen to your body. Watch your portion size. You are on the way to a healthier relationship with food.