Mindful Eating: Enjoy a Healthy Relationship with Food
Emma Randall MSc, PG Dip, BA Hons, Dip Raw NT
If you want to transform your eating habits and relationship with food, my Mindful Eating service can help you to do that.
- Are you battling with mindless eating or binge eating?
- Would you like to fix your relationship with food, but don't know where to start?
- Do you enjoy healthy foods but find it hard to eat in a balanced, consistent way?
- Are you done with dieting, and in need of a fresh approach for real, lasting change?
- Are you overwhelmed with or confused about all the nutritional information and diet advice out there, and wanting some clear, common sense advice?
- Are you ready to do the mindset work that diet plans haven't taught you, and discard any unhelpful beliefs, attitudes and behaviours around eating, nutrition and weight loss that have been keeping you stuck, so that you can start eating normally without guilt, food rules and calorie counting?
Start Changing The Way You Think And Behave Around Food
Welcome! If you’re tired of all-or-nothing cycles of restrictive dieting, or you have a difficult relationship with food, I’m here to help. I offer more than a weight loss solution, delving deeper than many diet programmes which don’t address the complexities of food psychology- the psychological, emotional and social factors that influence what, why and how we eat, and the physiology and neuroscience, which offers insight into how the body responds to the food we eat and how it uses the nutrients from food to support health and well-being. I can help you to set up new, sustainable eating habits and enable you to confidently let go of calorie counting, diet rules and food guilt.
The reason many weight loss diet plans are hard to stick to isn’t just due to lack of willpower- it’s because they’re often too restrictive, and when you combine this with an impatience for quick results and a lack of knowledge of mindful eating, emotional eating and nutrition, many diet plans inevitably don’t work. It can be a complete waste of time and effort trying to rigidly stick to a diet plan if, once the weight has come off, the person goes back to their usual eating habits. This is the problem with methods that provide a weight loss solution only, without considering all of the other key elements that might need addressing too.
My Three-Pronged Strategy
I encourage clients to explore three key areas in relation to their eating habits and relationship with food, to provide a more effective, sustainable outcome:-
1. Mindless habits: teaching mindful eating concepts and practises
2. Emotional eating: helping a person to understand and address why they eat- if food is used as a coping mechanism; it may also include exploring body image issues
3. Nutrition and physiology: improving the client’s knowledge about important biological processes which play a crucial role in weight management potential, happiness levels, motivation levels, energy levels and general health and well-being, which in turn influences eating habits. These include insulin, fat storage mechanisms, stress hormones, appetite hormones, sex hormones and even gut health. It can really help to motivate a person to make better food choices once they’ve gained deeper insight into the benefits of healthier options, whilst knowing that they don’t have to completely cut out any particular foods.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is mindful eating?
Mindful eating focuses not just on what you eat, but how, and why you eat. By engaging the senses to savour food, tuning in to your hunger and fullness cues, you can cultivate 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, even peace, knowing that you’ve made an enjoyable, satisfying and nutritious food choice without feeling stuffed. It’s not about perfect eating, but approaching food with a flexible, curious and relaxed mindset. Eating mindfully is about giving yourself choice and permission around food- contrary to common belief that this might just lead to overeating, it can actually help you to feel more in charge of the food environment. My blog post ‘Principles of Mindful Eating’ illustrates some key concepts.
2. How can mindful eating help me to lose weight? How will your approach help me to achieve long-term success?
Yes, it absolutely can help with weight loss, and I have helped many clients to lose weight. Mindful eating is not a specific type of eating plan or diet. Mindful eating coaching can help you to break the diet mentality and liberate you from yo-yo dieting cycles. Whilst weight loss can be a by-product of implementing new mindful eating strategies early on, building a firm foundation first is key, for long term success. I support people in improving their relationship with food, which puts them in a better position for weight loss and, crucially, long-term weight maintenance.
Mindful eating encourages you to move away from restrictive, unsustainable food rules which can lead to overeating, and helps you to embrace the idea that a more moderate, balanced approach to food will be in your own best interest long-term. Not only that, but it can help to put an end to cycles of rapid weight loss and weight re-gain. When you trust yourself more around food, you’ll be able to manage the food environment with confidence. ‘Data-driven’ eating (constant calorie counting and tracking), tends to only lead to short term results.
Instead of avoiding food temptation, you learn to manage food temptation, so that you feel in charge of food, rather than feeling at the mercy of external food cues. I call it ‘managing choice’. Mindful eating teaches people about 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 categorising foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Relying on willpower alone doesn’t work, and food rules and restriction can lead to bingeing, which is why mindful eating teaches a more middle-way approach.
3. Do I need to have a specific health goal, like weight loss, to work with you?
Mindful eating not only supports clients wanting to lose weight, but some clients are not overweight, and might seek help with addressing emotional eating, mindless eating, managing food cravings, food guilt, gaining better nutritional knowledge to help with general health and well-being or body image issues, or and work on nutritional and lifestyle strategies for stress management or improved mental well-being. It’s common for individuals to seek support in relation to a number of things, not necessarily a single health goal, or they might attend the session with one issue and then find other areas would benefit from looking at too.
4. How can you help me with emotional eating or binge eating?
I regularly support clients who are emotional eaters or binge eaters. Tackling food issues such as binge eating requires getting to the root of the problem, not just simply trying to stop the behaviour through rules or willpower. Food and eating can symbolise different things to different people. For example, eating can be a way to relax or have a break, it can be a way to connect socially, it can have a calming, numbing or distracting effect when things feel difficult or overwhelming, it can be a way to reward oneself, a way to put things off (procrastinate), it can be something to do when feeling bored, lonely or unfulfilled, and it can even be a means of rebelling, ‘rule breaking’ or self-punishment.
Mindful eating can help a person to start distinguishing between physical hunger and emotional hunger. It enables a person to develop emotional regulation skills, to help them respond to stress or other triggers, where their knee-jerk reaction might be to turn to food. The problem with emotional eating is that it doesn’t solve problems- it can distract a person from addressing their true needs. It can put a delay between something they don’t want to do or address, or be an escape or relief from discomfort. As people start to problem solve and address their needs, they often find that their compulsive eating diminishes.
5. What does a typical one-to-one session look like?
Through a range of questions, I gain insight into a person’s current eating habits and relationship with food. Awareness is power, and by helping you to become more insightful you’ll be in a better position to start making positive changes. Together we will identify any mindless eating triggers, help you to distinguish between ‘real’ hunger and non-hunger eating, as well as different types of eating (such as stress eating, boredom eating and reward eating). It’s important to become more aware of the root cause of eating habits, a person’s poor self-concept, or body image issues, and this can involve looking at childhood experiences because the past can have a very powerful influence. Once a client becomes more aware of any unhelpful attitudes and beliefs they have around eating, weight loss, or in relation to themselves, and we’ve pinpointed any knowledge gaps in nutrition and healthy eating, we then come up with strategies for the client to practise between sessions. I can offer Whatsapp or email support between sessions.
6. How many sessions will I need before I see change?
Building new habits can take time, and everyone is different, depending on what they need to work on. Clients often notice immediate shifts in awareness after just one or two sessions, but implementing and embedding new habits can be a longer process, and the length of time will depend on the individual, and how consistently they’re implementing those new habits. I recommend a minimum of six sessions, with fortnightly sessions being popular. Some clients choose to have occasional check-in sessions further down the line, as it can help them to stay focused, re-inspire them if they’re struggling, and offers accountability.
7. Will I have to give up my favourite foods if I work with you?
Definitely not! Mindful eating places an emphasis on avoiding labelling foods as good or bad. The goal is to learn how to enjoy all foods in a balanced way, without guilt or loss of control which is often associated with ‘forbidden’ foods. Permission, rather than restriction, opens up a whole new approach to managing the food environment, and can help tackle food guilt.
8. I have a very busy life, and so I don’t have much spare time. What will be the time commitment?
Sessions are one hour (apart from the initial 90 minute session). There is no expectation to attend weekly sessions, and fortnightly sessions allow time for practising exercises and new habits. The main ‘homework’ is practical, implementing specific mindful eating strategies agreed upon in the session. I might also encourage journaling, depending on individual preferences.
9. How do I know these sessions will be right for me?
If you’re still undecided, I offer a free chat. You can also try one session, with no obligation whatsoever to commit to further sessions.
10. What qualifications and experience do you have?
My qualifications include an MSc in Health Psychology and a diploma in Nutritional Therapy. I have also attended obesity, food addiction and eating disorder courses, workshops and webinars, and regularly keep my academic knowledge up to date with CPD events. I have supported clients, run groups and given talks since 2007.
