Jenifer La

April 15, 2015

TOPS: Mindful Eating Outline
Objectives:
Define mindful eating
Learn the steps to practice mindful eating
Identify hunger versus satiety cues
Learn easy tips to incorporate mindful eating into our daily schedule
Materials
Flip Chart
Handouts
Fruit Salad
~ 5-7 minutes Introduction: Hello! My name is Jen, and I am a dietetic intern with Keene State
College. The topic I will be presenting on today is a subject called mindful eating.
~2-3 minutes Transition/Icebreaker: Where are we today? A culture of Multi-tasking
Go around the room and ask the group, where and how did you eat your breakfast
today? is it in the group setting we are in now? Are your way to TOPS?
We often pair eating with other activities, such as driving or working at our desks
Purpose/Preview Statement: It seems like we are all pretty knowledgeable about the subject of
mindfulness, and what I want to provide for you today is to give you the tools to practice and
introduce mindfulness into our relationship with food and eating.
~ 10 minutes Teaching/Lesson Plan via Flipchart:
Flipchart topics:
What is Mindfulness?
Deliberately paying attention
Being fully aware of what is happening
Awareness without judgement or criticism
What is Mindful Eating?
Eating with awareness
o Being present for each sensation of the experience of eating
o Having nonjudgmental awareness of physical and emotional sensations associated
with eating
Being aware of each sensation of the experience of eating
Acknowledge chewing, tasting, and swallowing food moment by moment
Why Practice Mindful Eating?
Over the past 25 years mindful practices have been shown to have a positive impact on
psychological and physical health, including stress, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and
heart disease

There is evidence that mindful eating helps with treatment of obesity as well as binge
eating disorders
The benefits of mindful eating are not restricted to physical and emotional health
improvements; they can also impact ones entire life, through a better sense of balance
and well-being
Adults in the U.S. devote an average of 1 hour and 12 minutes per day to eating, yet send
2.5 3 hours per day watching television
When our min is tuned our during mealtime, the digestive process may be up to 30-40%
less effective which can contribute to digestive distress such as gas, bloating, and bowel
irregularities
The mind-body connection plays a pivotal role in our ability to accurately assess hunger
and fullness
We eat meal after meal, snack after snack, barely aware of what were eating and how
much were consuming
Mindful eating is powerful it keeps you in the present and can help you facilitate
change
The Basic Mindful Bite
Core of mindful eating
Activity 1 fruit salad kabobs? Raisins?
Domains of Mindful Eating
As we were approaching mindful eating with our fruit salad, we were practicing the 4
domains of mindful eating
Arriving
o Arriving at food means that we become aware before a meal or snack that food
has come into our personal space.
o This sounds simple, but actually it's more difficult that you might think. Food is
so abundant in our society that we're scarcely aware of it and we can be eating and
not even know that we've made a choice to eat.
o Before you begin eating any meal or snack, become silent for 30 seconds. During
this 30 seconds:
o Take a close look at the food. Notice colors, shapes and arrangements.
o Name to yourself all the foods you see.
o Name to yourself all the plants and animals that are represented in the food.
o Bring your face close to the food and detect all the odors in the food.
o Think about the human effort it took to get the food to you.
o Imagine yourself eating each food attentively and on purpose.
o If you do this activity seriously, you will have truly arrived at your meal. This sets
the stage for you to continue your mindfulness during your eating.
Awakening- Activity 2
o Awakening to food means that we pay attention to all the aspects of food
o When we awaken, we notice the sensations of the food, such as taste, change of
flavors, texture and aromas. We can also look deeper to see the effort, resources
and sacrifices within each food as well.

o A mindful eater spends at least one moment during each bite waking up to some
aspect of the food.
o Lets look at our fruit salad again- take a bite
Bite #1: What is the shape of the fruit salad? What was the color?
Bite #2: What was the flavor of the fruit salad? What was the aftertaste?
Bite #3: Texture
Bite #4: Sound
Bite #5: Gratitude
Tuning in to the body
o Mindful eaters pay close attention to themselves as they eat.
o Become aware of how many chews it takes for you to chew your food completely.
o Have a baseline number of chews for eat bite
o Notice your emotions when you eat
o Notice how your body feels as you eat
o With mindful eating there is no bad food, and no guilt associated with eating
Service with food
o Mindful eating includes being aware of all the activities that surround food and
eating.
Setting the table, clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, putting away
leftovers I recall someone last month sharing that one of you has a ritual
during meal times
o When we adopt a careful, deliberate way of behaving with any action involving
food, we help ourselves stay in the moment and heighten the degree by which we
honor food.
o Approach the task not as an obligation but as a wonderful opportunity to dwell in
the present and to honor yet another aspect related to eating. Dont put away the
dishes just to get on to something else. Rather, put away the dishes to put away
the dishes, fully aware of each moment.

Hunger vs Satiety
How do you know when its time to eat?
How to tell if you are hungry
o Physical signs
o The desire to eat doesnt go away
o The desire for food intensifies over time
o A non-favorite food even sounds good
o Do not ignore true hunger
o Most people need to eat every 3-4 hours while awake
o Metabolic rate
o Blood sugars
o Mood
Hunger vs Cravings
What is a craving?

o No physical hunger pains

o The thought of eating goes away if distracted
o You feel emotional about eating that food
o You want something specific: crunchy, sweet, salty
Its normal to feel cravings
But we want to relate to them mindfully and not get blinded by them
We can learn to become aware of our cravings and their messages

Eating Cycle
Mindful Portions
Normally, we think of portions as how much food is on the plate.
But in mindful eating, portions include:
o How often we eat
o How much food is on the spoon or fork
o How long we take to chew our food
o How often we stop during a meal to find out if we really need more food
o How much time we pause between bites
In the 1950s, fast-food restaurants offered one portion size.
Today, portion sizes have ballooned a trend that has spilled over into many other foods,
from cookies and popcorn to sandwiches and steaks.
o A typical serving of French fries from McDonalds contains three times more
calories than when the franchise began.
o A single super-sized meal may contain 1,5002,000 calories all the calories
that most people need for an entire day. And research shows that people will often
eat whats in front of them, even if theyre already full.
How to Incorporate Mindful Eating
o Breaking an eating habit and forming a new one is difficult, but I can tell you all are
super motivated
o Food is enjoyed in the mouth, eat slowly!
o Suggestions to try:
o Eat sitting down
o Create an ambiance
o Eat without TV, newspaper, computer or work
o Chew your food 30-50 times per bite
o Watch the clock; try to make the meal last at least 20 minutes
o Dont eat from a bag or a box
o Keep extra food away from the table
o Use smaller plates at meals
o Do not skip meals
o Plan meals and snacks ahead of time
o Keep a mindful eating journal
o Try a two-plate approach
Use a second plate to eat from, taking only half of the food

~ 10 minutes Activity 1 The Mindful Bite

Practice Mindful eating
o Sit comfortably in the chair
o Place the fruit salad/raisin in your hand
o Examine the fruit as if you had never seen it before
o Imagine where the different fruits have grown from, and how they were picked in
nature
o Become conscious of what you see:
Shape
Texture
Color
Size
o Bring the fruit up to your nose and smell it
o Are you anticipating eating the fruit?
Is it difficult not to pop it into your mouth?
o How does the fruit eel? How small is it in your hand?
o Place the fruit in your mouth, become aware of what your tongue is doing
o Bite ever so lightly into the fruit and feel its texture
o Chew three times and then stop
o Describe the flavor of the fruit, what is the texture?
o As you complete chewing, swallow the fruit
o Sit quietly, breathing, aware of what you are sensing
Activity #2 Practicing Awakening

Lets look at our fruit salad again- take a bite

o Bite #1: What is the shape of the fruit salad? What was the color?
o Bite #2: What was the flavor of the fruit salad? What was the aftertaste?
o Bite #3: What was the texture of the fruit salad? How did it feel/mouth feel?
o Bite #4: What sound did the fruit make? Was it loud? Crunchy?
o Bite #5: Gratitude how did the fruit salad make you feel? What taste buds were
running through your mind?

~ 1 Minute Summarize/Evaluation Review:

Take Home Message
o Mindful eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking,
both inside and outside the body.
o Mindful eating helps us learn to hear what our body is telling us about hunger and
satisfaction.
o Eating mindfully can improve our overall health.
o Try it at lunch and at home today!

> 10 minutes Closing/Handout Review/Call to Action: Mindful Eating Journal

On the handout we have one side giving the tips on how to continue practicing mindful eating at
home as well as a sample journal entry that you can fill in during/after you practice mindful
eating.
On the journal, the first line we have is titled goal. Lets start a small goal for ourselves and
gradually practice mindful eating over the next few days until we reach practicing it at every
meal. By small goals, I mean perhaps is setting the ambiance with no distractions for at least one
meal a day if youre already there.. Perhaps your goal is to begin overall awareness and
reflecting on the food. So, lets spend the next few minutes brainstorming what goals we have for
ourselves and for our TOPS teams in terms of practicing mindful eating to reach our overall
weight goal!
Closing:
Thank you so much for having me here today, and Im looking forward to all of you reaching
your goals with mindful eating and your overall weight goals through TOPS!