Mindful Eating: Enjoy a Healthy Relationship with Food

Emma Randall: One-To-One Sessions, Talks And Support Groups

Overeating, poor food choices and obesity is a common phenomenon. Our environment constantly bombards us with cheap, delicious food, often in the form of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and without the skills, self-awareness and knowledge to deal with these temptations it can be a constant battle. As well as all the food temptations many of us have sedentary, and often stressful lives. Stress can increase appetite, adding to the problem. It’s no wonder obesity has become such a common phenomenon! What’s needed is a holistic approach that empowers people with more awareness, knowledge and skills to help them feel more in charge of their eating, helps them to understand and address their relationship with food, provides them with better nutritional knowledge and inspires them to approach their daily living in a way that’s realistic, flexible, enjoyable and sustainable.

“After years of yo-yo dieting, I felt lost with food…”    “Thanks to Emma a bad food day doesn’t scare me.”

Find out more about my webinar ‘How To Stop Binge Eating For Good’.

A Person’s Eating Habits & Relationship With Food: The Whole Picture

Each individual has their own needs, preferences, skills and challenges, so a highly personalised approach can be very beneficial, and more effective than generic plans. Each person also comes with their own unique history and past experiences, which is a key factor when exploring the root of any issue. For a person to improve their relationship with food, address overeating, feel more in charge of the food environment, lose weight, improve their mental health and self-worth, and set up long-term healthy eating habits, it’s really important to look at the ‘whole picture’ in depth. This includes exploring their:-

~ Eating habits

~ Body image

~ Lifestyle, including stress levels and sleep patterns

~ Mental health and general well-being

~ Physical health

~ Self-esteem / self-concept

~ Past experiences /childhood

~ History of dieting

~ Personality

~ Life satisfaction

Many people feel a lot of guilt and shame around their eating. but in many cases it’s not simply about giving in to the diet or being greedy. Once you become aware that binge eating or even mindless eating/grazing is often a symptom of something- an inner struggle, or psychological pain of some kind- you can start being kinder to yourself and find more targeted ways to tackle your relationship with food.

More Than Just Calories: The Insulin Factor

What’s caused the obesity and diabetes Type 2 epidemic is not people eating too much fat, but the body producing too much insulin too often in response to the frequent eating of processed foods- foods stripped of their natural fibre (including white flour-based foods), often with added sugar: biscuits, cakes, pastries, breads etc. Insulin is vital for keeping blood sugar levels at a safe level, but in excess it can lead to fat storage in the body and insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes). This is why it’s important to look at the composition of meals and snacks, not just the calories they contain. Unfortunately cheap, ultra-processed foods are manufactured in a way that makes them irresistable, even addictive, and very easy to overeat (to make us buy more), whereas foods in their more natural state don’t have that effect, making it easier for us to eat them in moderation.

“I was a victim of 1980s dieting”

We cannot just think of the overly simplistic approach of calories in, calories out and relying on willpower to restrict food intake. The factors (listed above) can have a significant influence on our mood, the way we think and our physiology (hormones such as insulin, cortisol, leptin and sex hormones), which can determine weight management ability, happiness levels, motivation levels, energy levels and general health and well-being, which in turn influences how, what and why we eat.

Disordered Eating: Addressing Faulty Thinking

My services are not limited to weight management, but are also helpful for individuals who aren’t overweight but who are battling with disordered eating habits, including binge-eating. I help clients to address unhelpful thoughts, feelings and beliefs around food, dieting, body image, and their own self-concept. Examples include thinking that you’ve totally ‘blown’ it after eating a piece of cake (food guilt, or catastrophic thinking), that you must clear your plate (this often stems from childhood eating experiences), or eating in a highly restrictive way midweek and overeating at weekends (all-or-nothing thinking and behaviours). Body dysmorphia is another area that might require exploration. Feeling guilty after eating certain foods, as well as all-or-nothing thinking and behaviours are very common issues that I help clients to address, as is low self-worth.

“Emma has helped me so much with understanding my relationship with food.”

The Problem With Quick Fixes

Many people get trapped in a cycle of yo-yo dieting, losing weight and then re-gaining the weight they’ve lost. Not being fully aware of their mindless eating habits or underlying (emotional) eating triggers, not knowing how to change their former, pre-diet eating or their body having a ‘rebound’ response to rapid weight loss can put individuals at risk of weight re-gain; I’ve experienced this with many clients who have approached me following quick-fix commercial diet programmes. Many weight loss plans offer a weight loss solution only, and don’t address underlying habits or a person’s relationship with food. Identifying unhelpful beliefs and thought patterns and deeper-seated drives to eat compulsively is a key part of helping clients to improve their eating habits and relationship with food, giving them a much better chance of achieving sustainable, balanced eating patterns, and long-term weight control. Read my blog post: ‘How To Boost Your Weight Loss Motivation‘.

“I wanted a way off the yo-yo diet roundabout but couldn’t see a way out on my own. Mindful eating is not a quick fix but has helped me explore and understand my relationship with food“.

Mindful Eating: Learning To Genuinely Enjoy Food, Guilt-Free

I teach clients a more ‘middle-way’, flexible approach to eating, to help them escape the yo-yo dieting trap and to reduce feelings of guilt around food, which can result from an ingrained categorisation of foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or past criticism for eating choices or body size/shape. Mindless eating is often linked to overeating, and overeating doesn’t necessarily equate to enjoyment. My aim is to help people to start enjoying less food more by teaching them concepts of mindful eating. As they address issues such as emotional eating, they start to find that their need to overeat or eat in secret diminishes, as does the need to go on strict diets in an attempt to control their eating. Attuning to, and meeting your basic needs is a cornerstone of addressing your relationship with food. You can read more about a person’s relationship with food HERE.

“I’d binge eat then restrict myself and was always on a diet. I realised I’d always categorised food into ‘good’ or ‘bad’”.

How Mindful Eating Differs From Dieting: No More Need For Diets

From my experience of working with clients, the problem with a short-term diet where all the thinking is done for you in terms of what to eat/not to eat, and where each day’s food intake is rigidly ‘prescribed’ in a calorie-controlled format is that the diet will inevitably end, after which it’s easy to return to old ways of eating and potentially re-gain all the weight that’s been lost. For many people it can be so easy to re-gain weight a few months after losing weight, especially if they’ve followed a ‘quick fix’ rapid weight loss plan- this is because following weight loss, a smaller body requires less food and so it’s easy to gain the weight back if you return to your former eating habits, such as eating large portions or making unhealthy food choices. Too many food rules can also make it hard to stick to diets and can lead to food cravings and overeating. What’s needed is a more personalised way of eating for each individual, taking into account their needs, lifestyle and preferences.

Mindful eating is about paying attention to the eating process itself (being present with food), making conscious decisions before and during eating to help you make better food decisions (type of food and amount of food), and cultivating eating habits that are in your own best interest so that when you’ve finished a meal, you have a good sense of well-being, knowing that you’ve made an enjoyable, satisfying and nutritious food choice without feeling stuffed. It’s also about being aware of how and why you eat, and adopting self-care practises. It’s not about perfect eating, but approaching food with a flexible, relaxed mindset. Many people I meet don’t trust themselves around food and have a strong inner critic which can make them feel bad about themselves, drive feelings of guilt or cause them to self-sabotage. I take into account the whole picture when exploring a person’s relationship with food- their eating habits, knowledge and skills, lifestyle, body image, mental health, personality and past experiences. My blog post, ‘How To Eat Better Through Mindful Eating’, illustrates some of the key concepts I use to help clients. I also introduce how I help clients in this short video.

“Emma encouraged me to allow myself to eat nutritional (but high calorie) foods that I wouldn’t normally allow myself to eat as I had become so fixed on a certain commercial diet’s way of eating.”

We Can’t Rely On Willpower Alone

If a person has a history of dieting and they don’t trust themselves around food, it’s easy to fall into the rut of thinking that the only way to lose weight or control their eating is to go on a strict diet, and that they must rely on willpower to do it. The problem with relying on willpower alone is that willpower is like a battery- it runs out! This is why many people find it hard to stick to diets for more than a few weeks, because they’re denying themselves their favourite foods. We can’t stick to a diet that’s full of rules, especially as food forms such a central part of our lives; we have to make multiple food decisions every day, and many social events revolve around food. I help clients to adopt a range of techniques that help them to feel more confident around food, based on giving themselves more choice and permission.

The Dual Approach

Many people I meet describe themselves as having disordered eating. Depending on the client’s needs, I work with them to focus on a particular area. Everyone has their own individual challenges; one client might want to focus more on improving their knowledge of nutrition, explore meal ideas, or build skills for better food planning and preparation, whereas another person might need to focus exclusively on addressing their relationship with food and emotional eating.

“I was eating totally the wrong things before, leaving me hungry all the time and still putting on weight. I’ve now lost over a stone in 4 months. I emphasise that this is not a diet! This is about just making better decisions about food”.

Health, Not Just Weight Loss

With the obesity epidemic and the increase in obesity-related health issues such as pre-diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, cancer and cardiovascular disease, it’s vital that overweight individuals have access to services that help them lose weight and achieve long-term weight control. My service educates and empowers individuals by offering personalised dietary advice and supports them in becoming more mindful eaters. Losing weight can have a significant positive impact on health and medical conditions, and not only can it help to improve specific medical conditions, individuals can also benefit from improved overall well-being such as better energy levels, improved digestion, better sleep, improved mood and better mobility. By adopting sustainable, healthier eating habits and attitudes towards food, clients are able to work towards and achieve a better relationship with food, better weight control outcomes and better health- for life.

A More Personalised, Tailor-Made Service

My Mindful Eating service is therefore useful for individuals who have tried the traditional weight loss clubs, or who have perhaps not managed to  overcome disordered eating, and who now require a much more personalised, targeted approach. It moves away from the restrictive, often unsustainable, quick-fix approaches and instead focuses on long-term behaviour change. Providing a unique opportunity for self-focus, my one-to-one sessions help clients to build the self-awareness and skills that will enable them to address their mindset in relation to food and adopt a way of eating that is flexible, sustainable and enjoyable- I call it ‘food freedom’.

My Services

One-to-Ones: SPECIAL OFFER: buy three sessions up front and get a 4th session HALF PRICE (£30). Contact me via email HERE.

Webinar: ‘How To Stop Binge Eating For Good’.

Fortnightly online support group: More information about my support group can be found HERE.

Talks: If you’d like to attend any of my other talks, please click HERE for a summary of all topics.

Click HERE to see the events schedule and to purchase tickets for any of my events via Eventbrite.

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For tips, information and advice see my blogs.

I also provide short video tips and advice on my YouTube channel.

FREE Phone Chat

Call me for a FREE chat to find out more about my services, or email me to book sessions or to ask me any questions (Emma Randall): 07961 423120 ; email: info@mindfuleating.org.uk