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Tuning in to your meal, body, and thoughts while eating, can help you establish a healthier relationship with food by encouraging you to appreciate the sensory experience of eating, notice hunger and fullness cues, and get in touch with the feelings you associate with certain foods. Ann Wairimu explores how to get started.

1. Practice coping mechanisms

Spending time with family members you don’t typically see can stir up emotions such as excitement, sadness and even anger.

Emotional eating is a normal human response, especially when we don’t have the skills and tools to manage our emotions.

But, don’t typically inventory your emotions at the dinner table? Recognising an unenjoyable eating experience can help you understand whether you are eating for the right reasons or in response to a particular feeling.

The negative emotions will typically still be there after you finish your food, along with some feelings of guilt, shame, or self-judgment. And that’s no way to end a meal.

Deep breathing or meditation can be helpful before you sit down to a holiday meal or whenever you need a break from the festivities.

This way, you will always have something to do besides eat in social situations when a go-to steam-blower such as running isn’t realistic. 

2. Resign from the Clean Plate Club

Many of us were brought up where we had to finish everything on our plate and were not allowed to leave the table until we were done. It’s okay to cancel your membership to the Clean Plate Club.

Consider packing leftovers, or just leaving the last few bites. Even though nobody likes to waste food, overstuffing yourself won’t help those in need!

3. Stick to a schedule

It’s tradition to save up for the big meal because holidays are the time when we are allowed to break food rules.

While you might think it’s smart to bank calories by skipping meals in anticipation of a holiday meal, forgoing breakfast or lunch could actually trigger mindless eating — and overeating.

We make more informed decisions about what to eat when we aren’t uncomfortably hungry.

4. Recognise signs of hunger

Do you feel tired, sluggish, nauseous, or faint? Is your stomach growling and your mind wandering to thoughts of food, making it difficult to focus on tasks at hand? These can all be signs of hunger that are often ignored.

It sounds simple, but recognising what actual hunger feels like can help you eat more mindfully.

To do so, think about the last time you ate. If it’s been more than a few hours or what you last ate was a lighter meal or snack, you are probably physically hungry.

5. Focus on sensory cues

This time of year, your senses can easily get overloaded by the sheer indulgence of the season, with its fancy cocktails, dazzling desserts, and nostalgic flavours.

Taking time to really focus on the scent, taste, texture, and temperature of food is one way to practice mindful eating.

If you can, pause in the beginning, middle, and end of the meal for a mindful bite or two when you can savour the food — identify a flavour you particularly like or appreciate the fluffiness of your sandwich.

The exercise will help you avoid slipping into the mindless eating mode that leaves you feeling stuffed.

Think of it like wine tasting your food. You don’t have to wine taste your entire meal, but even just a few bites can improve mindfulness.

6. Practice portion control with small plates

One of the best ways to practice portion control is to utilise those dishes that will force you to do so.

It makes sense that a dish with a smaller surface area or smaller silverware would only allow you to serve yourself a smaller portion of food at a single time.

The best way to avoid overstuffing ourselves is to start small, then go back for seconds if we feel our appetite hasn’t been satisfied.

7. Indulge outside of holidays

The holidays are not the only time during the year when you can enjoy good food and it’s important to be mindful of this fact.

If you allow yourself to have certain foods all the time, then you are more likely to be mindful of how much you are having.

Remember how chapatis were only cooked during Christmas, but now you can take them any day any time, whether for breakfast, lunch, supper or snack?

Just imagine eating mbuzi choma once or twice a month as opposed to enjoying it once a year — chances are, you will be less likely to overindulge when it’s time to sit down for a holiday meal. 

8. Slow down

It can take time for the stomach to send the message to your brain that you are full.

Eat too quickly and you could miss the memo until it’s too late — that is, after you’ve scarfed down your seconds or thirds. Put down your utensil or finger food between bites.

Many times people who overeat and feel guilty afterward feel out of control in the moment.

But eating more slowly puts you in control and helps you enjoy every mouthful, so you feel more satisfied and give yourself the opportunity to stop before you overeat.

Taking your time during meals may actually prevent obesity and reduce associated risks.

9. Enjoy

Part of eating mindfully is appreciating your favourite dishes. It’s essential to having a healthy relationship with food, even when the food you love is something you might not consider healthy.

There’s a reason we don’t eat spinach all day every day: Eating is more than the delivery of nutrients.

We have cultural and emotional connections with the food we put into our body and need to regularly eat foods we love to feel not just full, but satisfied.

So yes, your grand ma’s mukimo and your cousin’s pie can remain on the menu.

10. Cut yourself some slack

Real life dictates that we can’t always eat 100 per cent mindfully 100 per cent of the time. But mindful eating can still be a helpful tool.

It’s helpful to think of mindful eating as a spectrum rather than a thing you do or do not practice all the time.

It’s better off to eat more mindfully when you can than stress out over eating every meal and snack with utmost concentration, particularly during the holidays.

For many people, just worrying about getting through the holidays is enough. After all, eating mindlessly