132 Chapter 10: Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating Through the Lifespan EpicStockMedia/Shutterstock.com Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment without judg- ment. When we are eating mindfully, we use the medicine of mindfulness to cure the disease of desire. Paying attention in the moment allows our focused awareness to slow us down in ways that provide us the oppor- tunity to deeply look at our habits. Moments of mindfulness can help us break free from our automatic responses to mindlessly eat. When we mindfully decide to eat cookies, cake, or other "forbidden" foods, we be- gin to cultivate the wise concept of choice. This takes us off of automatic pilot, offering us a glimpse of freedom, hope, and opportunity. Arriving at the last chapter of Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating, you are coming to a new beginning! In this book, you have been invited to reflect upon your own life and relationship to food and eating and contemplate choices or changes. You have been reminded of the power of mindfulness practices, creating space for reflection and feeling. You may have noticed how the many habits of food and eating are adopted uncon- sciously with impact to us, our communities, and even our planet. With a more mindful approach, you may realize that being a certain weight or eating only certain kinds of foods may no longer be as impor- tant. You may now notice that learning more about food, its power for nourishment, and connecting us to all living beings through mindfulness may be more important than achieving a certain weight or body shape. If this is true for you, the journey of mindful eating poses wonderful opportunities for self- inquiry, self-improvement, and possibly improved health. Rather than focus on a destination, you may find the journey to be the more interesting path. 4 Step MAC Guide Mindfully acknowledge attention accept choose Mindful Eating Is The ability to look deeply at the food we eat. We see that it contains the earth, the air, the rain, the sun, and the effort of farmers and all of those who process, transport, and sell us the food. Eating with full awareness allows us mindfulness of all of the right effort required to provide our meals. This awareness can nurture our appreciation of the support we get from others and from nature. may It be exciting to contemplate a future of living mindfully, eating in tune with your body rhythms, your desires, and all of the natural world. A suggestion for your journey is to begin living and eating mindfully now, right this moment. This moment is all we have, so let's begin. Take a Mindful Moment Sit in an upright and dignified way, with your hands resting on your legs, palms open to the ceiling. Observe your breathing. Without changing or manipulating your breath just notice its natural rhythm. Breathing in, breathing out; noticing the pattern of the breath like waves on the ocean. As you breathe in, feel the belly expand; as you breathe out, notice its contraction. Easy breath in, and out. Chapter 10: Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating Through the Lifespan. 133 1. ut judg dfulness Ows our oppor- an help hen we we be- omatic Let's begin our meditation by practicing the ocean breath. Place your open palm close to your mouth. Breathe in and exhale through your mouth. Notice the breath on your hand. (Remember making window fog as a child with your breath). 2. Next--take a breath-inhale, then exhale with mouth closed-pushing the breath toward the back of your throat. (Notice the ocean sound on the exhale). You may notice softening in your body. If not, that's OK, resist the temptation to judge or analyze the experience of breathing. Bring your attention to the thought of your favorite food. Try not to judge any choice, simply notice what happens in your body. As you breathe in and out, riding the waves of your breath, just watch what happens to your body as you think about your beloved food. Follow this for six complete breath cycles; then, gently, open your eyes and come back into the room. Eating, nvited g and wer of 1 may acon- What did you notice? Take a few moments and jour- al some thoughts that came to mind as you sat with Breathe-reflect-notice-consider. your breath and thought about your favorite food. you 2por- cting at or self- may YOUR PASSPORT TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING & MINDFUL EATING life, I offer to you my 10 “travel tips” for the lifetime journey of mindful eating. In the spirit of a sustainable way to approach mindful eating throughout your These suggestions to promote healthful living and a more mindful presence are form of an offering to you, the reader. PASSPORT mly Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #1: Food as Energy: Know Yourself. Mj007/Shutterstock.com of America When we eat foods appropriate to our own individual needs we extract en- ergy from the environment in harmony with the natural world. Learning how to honor and respect your own body rhythms, you can become more skillful in eating what your body needs in the right amounts. Resist the temptation to run toward any one “diet” or approach to eating, Instead, contemplate the energetic nature of food itself, and understand how transforming this stored energy source can nourish you in ways that may seem unimaginable. Quick Tip: Begin a regular mindfulness practice. Research with compulsive overeaters suggests that mindfulness-based approaches reduce overeating, improve emotional and behavioral dysregulation, and promote internalization of change (1). 134 Chapter 10: Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating Through the Lifespan Sustainable living, mindful cating suggestion #2: Food as Fuel. Food as Fuel Checklist Food Yes No Satisfied with quality Looks like food? Cannot pronounce Quick slowly is habis notice be ac . stress Sustain fods. Food- cesses Use this checklist next time you go out to eat or when thinking about eating. You'll find this helpful in noticing if your food meets your body's requirements for supporting its growth and development, ther midis and of its own innate ability to self-regulate. Begin to pay attention to the food you are eating. Are you The body's ability to adapt in the face of always changing conditions is crucial, and only possible because with ingredients that you can't pronounce or understand. Remember that through eating we transform satisfied with the quality? Does it look like food? It may not be something recognizable, in a package plants and animals into mitochondria, our "cellular power plants” that generate the chemical energy we need to fuel all of our life's functions (2). Is your fuel premium grade, regular, or unleaded? Pay atten- tion to the needs of your own mitochondria and remember their job is immense: cell differentiation, replacement is an inside job, and your obligation is to provide nourishment needed to support your body's own innate self-regulation. Quick Tip: Read labels. Reading the nutrition facts label and utilizing the information it contains can help you improve your eating habits, fat, saneeraude tes who use the nutrition facts label tend to consuran fewer calories; less cholesterol, total fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar; and more fiber than people who don't make use of these labels, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in August 2010 (3). Once you are familiar with the information contained on food labels, it is easy to use them to change your diet for the better. Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #3: Understand how certain foods affect your emo- tions. Notice how certain emotions affect your eating patterns. From an early age, we learn that avoiding pain is associated with a food reward. As infants, we cry from hunger and we are calmed by Mother's milk. Our earliest associations before conscious awareness in- clude the urge for nourishment, involving pain, and suffering mitigated by sweet liquid goodness. This primal connection is necessary for life itself-we must have food to survive. With conscious awareness, we can begin to notice just how quickly, often, and without thinking we feed ourselves in response to any type of pain. Hunger pains are habitually addressed by feeding, even when we are not physically hungry. Chapter 10: Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating Through the Lifespan 135 Quick Tip: Slow down your eating or drinking. The hungrier we are, the more important it is to eat slowly with attention. Slowing down allows us to notice if we even are hungry. Since much of eating is habit driven, and often a response to strong emotions, slowing down provides the opportunity to notice what is happening in our bodies. This may help us see if it is beyond hunger. Stress is shown to be a cause of unwanted eating (4), so taking three slow, deep breaths before eating can help right the stress reflex. Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #4: Know the difference between real foods, fake foods, and junk foods. Choose skillfully. Food-like substances are processed foods made from real food that has been put through chemical pro- cesses and are filled with chemicals and preservatives. Junk foods have very little food in them. Instead, made with "refined white flour". Fake foods are made primarily of chemicals, and usually contain g they are made of highly processed foods, hydrogenated fats, chemicals and preservatives, and anything and sugar as fillers (5). Knowing more about real, whole foods and choosing them more often is a ticket to a lifetime of sustainable and mindful eating. gums Quick Tip: Avoid eating fast food. Research shows that eating fast food among children in the United States seems to have a negative effect on dietary quality in ways that increase risk for obesity (6). Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #5: Find ways to balance food and pleasure. Sustainable living and mindful eating for life involves pleasurable eating, too. Remember that it is not necessary to eliminate all of the less desirable food choices we make. We all enjoy the occasional cheese- burger, fries, Coke, or potato chips. When we begin to understand the consequences of changing an occasional treat into an everyday event, we can make skillful choices about how many of these "treats” we are willing to eat. Quick Tip: Find ways to work special foods into your diet. Remember that treats are designed for oc- casional indulgences; keep a food diary or journal to track the percentages of "healthy" versus less healthful food choices. Notice your own patterns with food and eating, and find ways to have a treat, or an indulgence, once or twice a week. Studies show that people who keep track of what they eat lose weight faster than those who don't. The researchers noted that the more detailed and consistent the food journaling, the better results you're likely see (7). Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #6: Limit your added sugar intake. Sugar added to foods really does appear to be a big problem (8). Foods with a lot of added sugar con- tribute extra calories to your diet but provide little nutritional value. In addition, added sugar is often found in foods that also contain solid fats. It is in all packaged foods. Over 80% of the food sold in the Eating too many foods with added sugar and solid fats sets the stage for potential health problems, mend no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar (for women) or 150 per day (for men). That's such as poor nutrition, weight gain, increased triglycerides, and tooth decay. Most experts now recom- about six teaspoons for women and nine for men. supermarket contains added sugar. 136 Chapter 10: Sustainable Living & Mindful Eating Through the Lifespan Most Americans get more than 22 teaspoons for 355 cale care af.dhed sugar a day. This can casily food instead, like fresh fruit, to help with cravings for sweet foods. a . Choose natural sources of suchy interventions may also red disease mort especially th The Dis che Dietary mendation position st health and but it is since that been sayi or protein calories), our body is not able to "register" our intake in the same way as if we chew whole anytime we drink calories (especially alcohol, which has 24 times the calories per gram as carbohydrates fee drinks, juices, and alcohol causing unwanted weight gain. Sugar calories are empty calories--they Don't worry about the "sugar" that is in fruit. Whole fresh fruit, or fruit that you use in a smoothie that you make yourself, doesn't appear to be a problem. The fiber that is also in fresh whole foods such which helps keep our blood sugar stable. If you pair some fresh fruit with a healthy form of fat or protein as fruits and vegetables acts as a "buffer" to natural sugars in foods, slowing down our digestive process (apple and nut butter, orange and nonfat yogurt, carrots and hummus) you benefit from this winning just add pounds (9). Quicl bles ars, real foo combination. For more "healthy pairings" go to The Mindful Nutritionists' YouTube page (10). Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #7: Give your food a face. Susta good or bad, we simply notice other things—how food makes us feel when we eat it; how we respond to Mindfulness requires of us that we wake up to what is. Rather than judging whether certain foods are values. This means that eating mindfully is facilitated by learning more about food—where it comes from, cravings, desire and strong drives for certain foods; whether or not what we eat aligns with our beliefs and how it is grown, who harvests it, how does it get to us (truck, train, plane), and how we prepare it. Since food a face. If your food comes from an animal source, how was that animal treated? Was it factory farmed, Min foll anc ist or humanely raised and butchered? If it is a plant, were chemicals used, or was it grown organically?" are good and animals are badjust take time to learn more about how your food gets to your plate. Honor yourself and the food that he is so your by giving it a face. This doesn't mean that plants Sustainable living and mindful eating asks this from all of us. It n 10 2 Quick Tip: What about GMOs? The issue is complex. Food that is genetically modified has the potential to contribute to allergies, as well as antibiotic resistance (11). The facts are that there have been no hu- man studies to see if eating GMO foods causes any problems for humans (12). For now, many experts recommend avoiding genetically modified foods and advocating for transparent labeling. With mindful- ness, once you notice you have the choice to change (or not). Unless foods are labeled as to how they are modified, you as the consumer have no choice. Non-GMO foods are voluntarily labeled, and more widely available than ever. Choose non-GMO foods until safety studies can demonstrate little or no risk to humans from consuming them. Sustainable living, mindful eating suggestion #8: Choose to eat a wide variety of whole, fresh foods, mostly plants. In the Permanente Journal last year, the official peer-reviewed publication of our nation's largest man- aged care organization, a "Nutrition Update for Physicians” was published, which concluded that "Healthy eating maybe best achieved with a plant-based diet,” which they defined as a diet that encour- ages whole plant-based foods and discourages meat, dairy products, and eggs as well as empty calorie junk. To quote their conclusion: “Research shows that plant-based diets are cost-effective, low-risk
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