What Does Mindful Living Have to Do With Emotional Eating?

In past posts, I have talked about how mindful eating can help with weight loss, but today’s post is a little different. Today I wanted to talk about Mindful Living. Mindful living even when you are NOT currently eating, can benefit multiple areas of your life including emotional eating?

In other words, mindful living can help with weight loss even when food is not directly involved. Let me explain…

You are probably not surprised when I say weight struggles are usually more about our emotional struggles that anything else. Life is HARD. Sometimes we have more stress than we can bare. We need a way to cope, and overeating can feel like a quick fix. Bottom line, stress and other emotions are a major player in weight gain. But what does this have to do with mindful living?

What Does Mindful Living Have to Do with Emotional Eating?

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First, What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is about being in the present moment. The past is gone and the future has not happened, but the present is HERE and NOW. Think about it. What do we spend most of our time stressing and worrying about?…The past and the future. Think about how much less stress we would have if we learned to focus on the present moment. Mindful eating is about focusing on eating and enjoying every bite. Mindful living is about focusing and enjoying whatever you are doing in that moment. Mindfulness is also about having a grateful approach to life. When we are mindflully living, we focus on the positive and what we are thankful for in the present moment. For me, mindfulness is about focusing on God’s presence in our lives at every moment and focusing on the beauty in God’s world. Sounds simple right? Yeah, I know. It is a lot easier said than done. Sometimes we will still worry about the past and future, but fortunately mindfuless exercises can help us live in the present a little more often.

Does the Bible Have Anything to Say About Mindfulness?

The characteristics of mindfulness are making space for quiet time and rest, living in the moment, having a gratitude attitude, and (for me) pausing to focusing on God’s presence in our every day lives. Turns out the Bible has a lot to say about these characteristics. I listed a few of my favorite Bible verses about Mindfulness in the infograph below.

The characteristics of mindfulness are focusing on the present (and for me, the presence of God in each moment), being thankful, makng space for quiet time, and pausing during the day. That pause helps with self control and relieves stress. My favorite verse is “Be still and know that I am God.” When I hear this verse, I hear, “be still, stop frantically running around, relax, and stay calm, because don’t you realize that I AM GOD…I got this!”

So How Does Mindful Living Help with Emotional Eating?

Our emotions usually come from either worrying about the past or future. Mindfulness helps us cope with the stresses of life. By living mindfully, we can focus on the present instead of worrying about the past and future. So if you find that you often emotionally eat ( and many of us do including me), perhaps adapting some, if not all, of these six daily mindfulness techniques will be just what your soul has been longing. Perhaps these techniques can take the place of emotional eating as a way to cope with the stresses of life.

Daily Mindfulness Exercises: What does a Mindful Day Look Like?

Hopefully we have established the characteristics of mindfulness, but how do we incorporate mindfulness into our daily lives?

For me, a mindful day would look like this:

1. Pause, Breath, and Pray Before Entering a New Place

Pause…take a moment to breath and mindfully pray before entering a new environment. When I pray, I ask God to help me remember to show love and kindness in this current environment. I then thank God for being with me, and I pray that I hear and mindfully listen for God’s guidance while I am in this place. So pausing and praying before entering a new environment means, I pray on the way to my kids school, before entering the grocery store, or my friends house. I pray before a family reunion or a meeting at work. By doing this, I remember God is with me everywhere. By pausing, breathing, and praying, I better focus on the moment and on God everywhere. This act keeps me calm and comforted and helps me react in a more loving way in different situations. I actually have a cool story about this here.

2. Use Your Senses to Focus on the People and the Place

Once you have entered each new environment, place, or building, focus on the people and the place you are in. In other words, use your senses to be present in the moment instead of thinking about all the things you have to do later. This is particularly important to me when I am with my children. Worrying about all that I have to do, doesn’t help me, and I miss out on beautiful moments with my kids when I worry about things I can’ do anything about in that moment.

You know, I recently caught myself worrying instead of being present. I was late for a meeting, and I was waiting on my daughter’s teacher to arrive so that I could leave for the meeting. While I was impatiently waiting, my 4 year old daughter was twirling and giggling. I suddenly realized that I was missing out on what was right in front of me. I couldn’t do anything about being late so why should I worry? At that moment, I stopped worrying and started twirling and giggling with my daughter. This moment of waiting ended up being a beautiful, special moment, all because I chose to live in the moment.

3. Practice Gratitude (There are Actual Exercises that Help!)

When we approach life with a grateful attitude and look for the good in life, the benefits are endless. According to “Time Special Edition Mindfulness: The New Science of Health and Happiness,” gratitude practices have been associated with improved kidney function, reduction in blood pressure, decreased stress hormones, increased energy levels, and increased reports of happiness. When we focus on the positive aspects of life, we tend to have more compassion and kindness for others; thus, the the circle of positivity continues. Now the person you showed kindness to may leave feeling more grateful and positive. Now they will be more likly to pass it on.

Gratitude Techniques:

Keep a gratitude journal is a helpful gratitude technique. Every night, write down what you were thankful for that day. If that is too much, simply writing down one thing you are grateful for every day. Again, according to “Time Special Edition Mindfulness: The New Science of Health and Happiness,” even this small exercise is also helpful.

Don’t want to even write? Try this… You remember that moment you pause and pray before entering a new place? While you are praying, remember to thank God for something as well.

4. Making Time for Quiet Time

We all need to rest. We need time to clear our thoughts and feel the weight of responsibility lifted for a little while. When I take time to just relax in God’s presence, it feels like a chance to completely be myself with the only One who loves me unconditionally. The problems of the world are gone for a moment. I am safe, free, and at peace. My favorite ways to experience quiet time with God is through prayer, reading: either the Bible or uplifting faith books, and through journaling, which brings me to mindfulness technique number five…

5. Mindful Living: Journaling

You can do three of these five techniques in one with journaling. You can practice gratitude, focus on God’s presence, and have quiet time all through mindful journaling. Keeping a journal has been a part of my life for years, but I truly saw the dfference in my outlook on life when I focused on God and gratitude as I wrote.

In my mindful journal I now include:

All the positve things about the day (what I am grateful for)
Written prayers or letters to God
Any lessons I learned through either my experiences, reading, or Bible studies
Any questions I have about life
God moment stories: These are stories about when I notice God working in my life. One cool thing about taking the time to mindfully notice God’s presence every day is that…you notice God’s presence regularly. Since I started mindfully taking the time to notice God in the present moment, I have had so many “goose-bump” God moments. These are those moments that I think, ‘oh I will rememner this,’ but as time passes, I find I can’t remember the details. Before including these God moment stories in my journal, I would remember something pretty cool happened, but I couldn’t bring the vague memory to the surface in my mind. By including these God moment stories in my journal, I solidify these events to my memory, and if I do forget, I can look at my journal and experience the awe and wonder all over again.

6. Mindful Eating

Okay, I know I have been talking about non-eating mindfulness techniques that help with emotional eating and weight loss, but mindful eating techniques are a part of living a mindful day, and mindful eating can definitely help with emotional eating and weight loss. Mindful eating does more than help with weight loss though. Mindful eating is also a time to pause from the day and focus on God, feel grateful, and enjoy a peaceful experience. When I mindfully focus on God’s presence while eating, I do much less overeating. In fact, I like to say a little prayer before I eat. As I pray, I think about 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, “ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

My prayer before I eat goes something like this, “God, thank you so much for this food. Thank you for this time that I have to sit and enjoy the food you have given me. I want to eat for the glory of You, God.” After saying this prayer, I enjoy my food, and I enjoy my time eating in God’s presence. You can find more details about how to mindfully eat in my post, “How to Lose Weight Through Mindful Eating: A Step-by-Step Guide.”

And there you have it; six mindfulness exercises you can incorporate into your day. Adding these techniques to your daily life may just be what you were needed to reduce your emotional eating.

If you Liked these Mindfulness techniques then you may also like…

18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life

18 weeks to a healthier, happier, more purposeful life cover

18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life takes you on an inspiring and uplifting journey with dietitian, Lacy Ngo. Thanks to faith-based mindfulness and nutrition, Ngo went from being weight obsessed to feeling healthy and happy in her own body. Ironically, during the process, Ngo ended up, not only losing weight but also strengthening her walk with God. Now she feels healthier than ever AND she truly enjoys eating! She is able to feed her mind, body, and soul nourishing foods and feel good in her own body without weight obsessing. Get ready to get goose-bumps as you read this amazing true story.

*A Bonus Mindful Wellness Journal is Included!!!

what does mindful eating AND mindful LIVNG have to do with emotional eating, health, weight loss, and wellness

The Nourishing Meal Builder

The Nourishing Meal Builder and the included Nourishing Meal Builder Cards take the stress out of cooking nourishing, healing meals! Motivated by her son’s illnesses and her own symptoms, Lacy Ngo became passionate about providing an easy strategy that busy families could use to implement research-based nutrition into their daily lives.
After incorporating these strategies into her own life, Ngo was even more convinced that nutrition can change lives:
-Her mood improved
-Her seasonal allergies stopped showing up in the fall and spring
-Her energy improved
-Her acne went away
-Her family got sick less often
-Her son’s behavior and anxiety improved

What’s included in The Nourishing Meal Builder?
-Lists of nutrients and foods that boost mood; promote cognitive function, focus, attention, alertness, and memory; support the immune system; aid in weight loss; and reduce the risk of chronic diseases, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, joint pain, and even seasonal allergy symptoms
-A simple Meal Plan Checklist
-A faith-based mindfulness and mindful eating guide
-Printable Meal Builder cards

Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals” ebook

The “Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals” ebook not only includes more mindful eating strategies and techniques, but this ebook also includes a detailed freezer meal plan and weight loss guide!

Meal planning, weight loss, freezer meals ebook — Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals eBook

The “Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals” eBook has 22 Chapters full of helpful information and tips including:

The “What is Preventing You From Living a Healthier Life?” interactive quiz
Mindful Eating Guide
The Importance of Faith
A Complete Healthy Freezer Meal Plan: You will learn how to cook all of your breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for a whole month in ONE day. Don’t worry, I don’t just give you a bunch of recipes and tell you to cook them in one day. The ebook includes strategies and “Pro Tips” on HOW to efficiently cook your meals in one day.

The goals of cooking all of your meals in ONE Day are:

More daily free time,
A decreased grocery bill,
Healthier meals for the whole family,
Less daily stress, and
Weight Loss/Weight Maintenance

Learn more about the “Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals” eBook here.

How I Lost 55 Pounds Through Mindful Eating

Mindful Eating For Weight Loss: A Step-by-Step Guide

*If you would like to evaluate your own diet and determine which tips work best for you, please take the free DIY Diet self assessment and evaluation developed by a registered dieititian.

26 Clever Hacks for Eating Healthy While Eating Out

You do great at home, but when you go out to eat you seem to always overeat. Or maybe you eat out more than you eat at home so you need a plan that will work for your eating out lifestyle. If either of these scenarios sounds like you, then you may want to incorporate some of these tips. Pick and choose the tips that you think will work best for you.

This site contains affiliate links (See full disclosure here.)

When you order your food, ask for the waiter to bring a box WITH your meal. Before you begin to eat, put food into your box until your plate looks like a sensible amount of food.

When at a restaurant, ask the server to hold the bread, snack mix, or chips and salsa that might come before the meal.
After you eat out, have you ever said to yourself, “Whew, I’m stuffed. I’m not going to eat another bite,” but then you keep nibbling on your food because the waiter hasn’t taken the plate away? If this is sometimes you (it is totally sometimes me), then try popping in a MealEnders ender as soon as you feel full. MealEnders Signaling Lozenges–Conquer Cravings, Curb Snacking, Beat Overeating, and Master Portion Control–Helps You Stick to Any Diet Weight Loss Program, 25-count Pouch (Chocolate Mint) works in three ways. When you eat a Mealender, you first taste something sweet. Sweetness signals the end of a meal for many, so your mind will think that the meal is…well…ending. Second, sucking on a MealEnder takes longer than chewing so you will give your brain time to get the signal that you have eaten. Finally, the center of the MealEnder has a strong and refreshing mint flavor. The MealEnder’s strong refreshing mint taste cleanses your palette and stops those desires eat. Have you ever noticed that you don’t usually feel like eating after you brushed your teeth? Yeah, it’s just like that except tastier!
If you have a few favorite restaurants, research the menu BEFORE you go out to eat. Pick the best choices before you enter the restaurant.
Choose grilled or baked foods on the menu instead of fried.
Ask for the plate to be removed as soon as possible.
Choose turkey, chicken, or a plant-based protein as your source of protein.
Do you go out to eat because you don’t have time to cook? You could try another non-cooking approach. Perhaps try this. Stop spending money going out to eat or eating fast food and take out. Instead put the money towards nourishing pre-packaged healthy meals or frozen foods. You still don’t have to cook! Find the healthiest frozen dinners here.
Or perhaps you would like to cook at home, if you could learn how to create quick meals on the spot with the food you have in your house (no meal planning or prepping required). The Nourishing Meal Builder is perfect for you, if this is something you would love to learn how to do.
Share an entrée with a friend or family member.
Stop eating when you are full and focus on other pleasures like the setting, your family, and your friends.
Okay this is actually my #1 favorite tip (my #2 favorite is the “ask for the box with your meal” tip). Favorite tip: Mindful eating! Mindful eating techniques work well in almost any situation and with almost any weight loss barriers. You can use mindful eating techniques while snacking, eating out, at parties, and to help with portion control and emotional eating. To learn more about mindful eating check out the Mindful Eating Step-by-Step guide.
Ask for water. Refills on drinks can be a HUGE amount of sugar.
Choose the vegetable option as your side. I mean, antioxidants and fiber!!! Talk about foods that help your body thrive!

When eating fast food, choose options like smaller burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, cups or bags of fresh fruit, and bottled water.
Try a main dish salad for lunch. Go light on the salad dressing or use light dressing. Do this when you eat out often.
Try a green salad or vegetable sides instead of fries.
Limit eating out to only once or twice a week.
At fast food restaurants, ask for the nutrition facts and look for the healthiest choice.
Ask the server to recommend the tastiest nourishing meals. You could do this without even looking at the menu.
Ask the waiter for appetizer or lunch portions (even at night) with extra side of veggies.
Ask the waiter to wrap half the meal before bringing it to the table or ask the waiter to bring a box when he brings the meal, and you wrap up half the meal before you start eating. (Okay, I kind of said this twice, but it’s so helpful!)
When eating out, ask your server to point out the low calorie options. Only look at those foods on the menu.
Ask for the kids menu or a child’s size portion. An example would be a child’s drink or child’s popcorn at the movie theater, or a child’s chicken plate.
Don’t feel like you have to clean your plate; Take the time to enjoy your meal. Slowly eat and notice when you are full. If you don’t finish your food, you get to eat yummy leftovers for the next day!
Make sure you have vegetables on your plate even when you eat out.
Lastly, when you eat out, get tomato-based foods instead of cream based foods.

Photo by freddie boy

If you would like to evaluate your own diet and determine which tips work best for you, please take the free Christian Wellness Self assessment and evaluation developed by a registered dietitian.

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16 Weight Loss Tips

Weight Loss Tips That Work!

Make specific goals. Instead of saying, “I will eat less.” say “I will eat carrots for my afternoon snack.” Also, develop a SHORT time frames for your goals. For example, you might decide to follow your plan until your child’s birthday party in 4 weeks. Then when your child’s birthday party is over, pick another time frame to work towards like your families Christmas party. We can often make ourselves stick with something if we think of a short-term goal or time frames. We think, “ I can do this for 2 weeks until that wedding” and the wedding will also keep you motivated. When you give yourself a year until that wedding, then you can easily begin to tell yourself, “Oh, that wedding is a year from now, I will do better tomorrow.” When you reach for something coming sooner, then you can say to yourself, “this is crunch time!”
Have the same foods each week for breakfast and lunch to eliminate error. Find out the calories in a few foods and eat those foods for breakfast and lunch and then have more variety at dinner
Add one change to your diet each week. Use this Diet Self-Assessment for the one change that will benefit you the most.
Share your goal with someone for moral support and accountability.
Find a daily routine that works for you. We are less likely to error if our days follow a similar routine. Eat the same time and way every day. Write down specifics for your routine like, “I will only eat out two days a week and those days will be Friday and Saturday.” Add something fun to your routine everyday. That way you will have something to look forward to besides eating food. Also, your routine will not get too monotonous or boring.
Take a different route to work or to your daily places if you regularly pass by a tempting fast food restaurant.
Don’t skip meals. When you skip meals your body thinks it is starving. Your body will start holding onto your fat, making it harder to burn calories. In fact, one of the best way to lose weight is to eat 3 meals a day and healthy snacks in between meals. Make your snacks vegetables and fruit so that your snacks will take very little calories away from your meals. PLAIN vegetables are sometimes considered free foods because they have so few calories; however, fattening flavors and dips should not be added.
Get at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep most nights. Sleep deprivation changes hormone levels that regulate hunger in the body and causes an increase in appetite. Sometimes we eat when we are tired even if we are not hungry.
To prevent hunger and hungry overeating eat 6 small meals a day. If you eat 6 small meals a day, make each meal no larger than a fist size portion.
For maintenance, establish a weight threshold. In other words, continue to weigh yourself regularly and decide your weight limit. Tell yourself, ‘I will gain no more than five to ten pounds’, and be adamant about not exceeding that weight threshold. Have a set plan of action if you hit your upper limit like re-do your self-assessment and reevaluate your diet. When your weight is creeping up, perhaps adding another tip or exercise will do the trick. Make sure you haven’t slacked on your plan by letting yourself eat larger portions or grazing, etc.
Take control and make weight loss a priority. You need to develop a kind of “selfishness” about yourself and weight. Decide this is one of the your priorities. Too often other priorities go above our weight; so we never get to it. We see exercise as something we can cancel for our other priorities. However, if you are healthy you will have more energy to get things done, you will have more energy for your spouse, parent, children, and friends. You can increase your life span and thus the time loved ones have with you. Healthy eating and exercise improves our moods. A happier person is always more fun to be around. Plus, you are setting a good example for your children. Think of exercise as something you cannot cancel unless there is an emergency. By developing this “selfishness” you are actually being selfless.
Eat an apple before a meal. Apples make you feel full faster due to the high fiber.
Search the Apps for your phone for helpful weight loss, fitness, exercise, and calorie counting apps. I like the “myfitnesspal” app.

weights photo

To stave off hunger, eat natural sugars like fruit or complex carbohydrates like whole wheat bread, instead of refined sugars like donuts. Refined sugars will cause your glucose to peak and then crash, whereas complex carbs will help glucose stay steady for longer.

Learn to think differently about your trigger foods or associate negative thoughts to these types of foods. During Gina Willett’s “Food Addiction” seminar, Willett gives several example of how to associate your trigger foods to a negative thought. Below is a list of example:

When you see French fries, picture them as 24 day old sponges dripping with rancid grease

french fries photo

Learn how to love other things in life more than food. If food is your only source of pleasure, make sure to reconnect with other things you enjoy like sports, music, volunteering, or movies. Take up a hobby so that you can enjoy another activity in your leisure time besides eating. People who succeed at weight control tend to develop new hobbies, interests, and friendships. If food is your first and only way to make you feel better, it can be a major issue. For many of us, our lives revolve around food. Instead, we should try to make our lives revolve around other things. For example, when my husband and I first got married, eating was our major source of joy and the main way we spent time together. Now we fill our life with so many other things that food is secondary. We go to amusement parks, museums, walks around the park, canoeing, any may other activities together. We eat less and our lives are fuller.

If you would like to evaluate your own diet and determine which tips work best for you, please take the free DIY Diet self assessment and evaluation developed by a registered dieititian.