Why Are You Eating?

One of the things that has most improved my diet is simply practicing mindful eating. Mindfulness is having an awareness for what you’re doing and what’s happening around you. This means that mindful eating is an awareness for the details of how much you’re eating, what you’re snacking on, and how healthy the choices you’re making are.

Practicing mindful eating has transformed my health. I used to snack a lot during the day, causing me to feel more bloated and sluggish than I needed to. So I cultivated an awareness about it and now have great control of my snacking.

Even this past Friday I was out at a party and there were bar bites on the table. A past version of me would have kept taking mindless bite after mindless bite, enjoying them socially, only to realize how much I ate when I got home with a stomach ache. But because of the work I’ve done in this area of my life, I was able to be more thoughtful about my choices and try just one bite.

The primary purpose of eating food is to provide our body with the nutrients it needs to function. But many of us have a more complicated relationship with it. That’s why one of the most powerful questions to ask yourself, offered by author and researcher Michael Easter, is “Why are you eating?” 

He says that “80 percent of eating is driven by reasons other than physiological hunger.” Among these reasons are to emotionally soothe stress or sadness, alleviate boredom, acting from a belief system that it’s bad to waste, and to socially enjoy. But often when we eat for these reasons, we disagree with our choice and wish we would have made a better one.

This is exactly what I’ve had to work through myself. Everyday in my personal performance tracking system, I reflect on my eating - The level of overall nutrition of my meals, amount of snacking, and portion control. I have a standard for myself that I need to answer to which holds me accountable. Reflecting on your eating daily is what I call a Super Habit, and if you want to incorporate it in your life to radically improve your diet, among other life-changing Super Habits, then check this out!