Ditch the Distractions

Hello, and welcome to Lesson 7 of Mindful Eating. Today we're going to be talking about how to notice our habits and triggers that distract us from mindful eating. And what to do to pull us back to the present moment. How many times have you eaten a meal while reading a book, watching TV or looking at your phone? Many of us have developed eating habits that disconnect us from our bodies. When we eat while distracted, we don't hear the body's messages of fullness or experience pleasure from eating. When we multitask, we're generally on autopilot. We simply eat because we see food nearby. How many times have you walked past the refrigerator and looked inside to find something to eat, even though you weren't hungry? Or you saw an ice cream commercial on TV and decided you needed some. It's estimated that people make on average 200 decisions a day about when and what to eat. If you are in a hurry or otherwise occupied these decisions are not going to be made very consciously. Our emotions can also trigger our food decisions. In order to avoid feeling difficult feelings, we may turn to food to make the feelings go away. Granted food is pleasurable and may make us feel better in the moment, but the difficult emotions will still be there when we're done eating. Only now you're also full and maybe even feeling a little guilty for what and how much you ate, making you feel worse than when you started. Emotional eating is neither good, nor bad and even the most mindful eaters can be triggered from time to time. But mindful eaters are more likely to work through those emotions directly by putting their feelings into words to help them feel better instead of ignoring them with food. So allow yourself to just sit there and eat what you're eating, without any distractions and with an understanding of what emotions you're bringing to the table....