Mindful eating: How to get started

December 31, 2012 / ktbuchs87

I hope that everyone had a FABULOUS Christmas! I know that I was doubly blessed this year and got to celebrate twice! Once on Christmas with my family and then Adam and I celebrated our very first Christmas as husband and wife yesterday. It was a great day filled with cheer, board games, presents, delicious food, and Christmas shows. I could not have asked for a better day. Now on to today’s topic!

One of the many cookbooks I got, but I was REALLY excited for this one! Love root veggies!

Cooking my first Christmas feast. Yup I smile like that most of the time

I talked last week about mindful eating and what that means. Simply put, it is experiencing your food with ALL your senses and taking the time to fully savor your meal. So often we are distracted while eating a meal and this leads to you inhaling your food and not really remembering what you ate. This then leads to more (read: over) eating because you do not feel like you got a full meal. Clearly this is a problem and can lead to weight gain and numerous health problems. My humble opinion is that we all need to practice a little mindful eating.

But how exactly do you eat mindfully? It is actually very simple, although I will warn you that it does take practice and patience. When you are used to eating one way for so long it becomes a habit and habits can be tough to break/change. Here are some of the steps that I personally have taken to eat mindfully and they have really helped.

Eliminate all distractions while eating. Turn off your TV, log off your laptop, put away your cellphone/tablet/whatever electronic device you have in your clutches. When you are eating you should be totally focused on the plate in front of you. Distractions while eating cause you to over eat and not pay attention (hence the name distractions… like I said most of this advice is pretty simple). The one thing that I do have while I am eating a meal is music. I like to have the radio on in the background and it is usually tuned to the classical radio station (unless it is Christmas time and then you best believe Bing Crosby is singing to me about a White Christmas). I understand that music could be a distraction for some, but might enhance the eating experience for others.

When possible, sit at a table for your meal. Another simple but effective tool of mindful eating is having a designated area to sit and eat all of your meals. This allows your body to know that it is about to receive food and it can adjust accordingly. I know that a lot of you are eating on the go because you have super busy lives and I understand that sitting down at the kitchen table for every meal might not be possible. But try to make at least one meal a sit down meal. Once you start this habit, you will really notice how just sitting at a table helps to put your focus on the delicious meal you are about to eat.

Try to be involved in the process of putting a meal together. I totally get that not everyone loves to cook or be in the kitchen making a meal. Some people find it a chore or too hard or have the tendency to burn water whenever they are trying to make food. However, you do not have to make the whole meal by yourself to be involved in the process. Help cut veggies, make the sauce, pick a wine to go with dinner, set the table or even just spend time in the kitchen observing the meal being put together. Getting involved in the whole process really allows you, the eater of food, to be more connected to the food and get more out of the act of eating. When you are more aware of your meal, you are better able to appreciate eating that food. Which leads into the next step…

Use all your senses when eating. Don’t just limit your eating to your sense of taste. Yes that is one of the most important senses, but you really miss out on a lot if you are just shoveling food in your mouth barely tasting anything. Smell all the wonderful aromas of your meal before you take a bite, or look at the bright colors of the veggies on your plate. Really listen to the sizzle of that hot steak as it comes your way to the table. Touching your food might be frowned upon in some situations, but notice the texture of that pasta as you eat or feel how creamy your mashed potatoes are. All of these actions make eating so much more than the simple act of putting a fork to your lips. It will also allow you to feel more satisfied with less food. And finally…

SLOW DOWN. It is surprising how fast some folks eat a meal. I kid you not, I have seen a family sit down to dinner and finish in 7 minutes flat. A meal should not be along the lines of a hotdog eating competition. It takes your body at least 20 minutes to register that it has eaten something, so try to make your meal last at least that long. If possible try to stretch it out even longer. Take the time to savor your food and take note that you are eating. Also with this last tip, try to eat just one helping and not go back for seconds. The longer you take to eat, the more you feel satisfied with just that one helping of food.

These are just some guidelines for mindful eating and there are a lot more. There are actually whole classes and seminars dedicated to teaching the “art” of mindful eating. But you don’t need a class to start incorporating these steps into your daily eating. Try one or two and don’t get discouraged. You may feel silly taking at least 20 minutes to eat or that it is ridiculous to smell your food, but these things WILL help you to eat mindfully and in the long run eat better and find more satisfaction with less food.

I will be taking a short break after this post because Adam and I are leaving for our honeymoon on Sunday! I am super excited to head to Jamaica with him and can’t wait to tell you all about it! So enjoy your New Year and I pray that it is a wonderful year for all of you!

Mindful Eating: Wait… Did I just eat that?

December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 / ktbuchs87

Oh the holidays! What a wonderful time of friends, family, and food! How many of you have been in this situation? You’re at a Christmas party, there is food EVERYWHERE, people all around talking, laughing, drinking, having a good time. You are enjoying the rush of holiday spirit and look down at your plate and realize you have downed five pigs in a blanket, a mountain of chips and dip, and there are still cookie crumbs on your face. You know you had a full plate just a minute ago, but you can’t remember finishing any of it.

Unfortunately, this happens all too often, and not just at Christmas time. I’ve been just as guilty of plopping myself in front of the TV for dinner and inhaling my meal without even remembering the taste of what was on my plate. Or how about the mindless snacking that just seems to go hand in hand with surfing the internet? What would Facebook-stalking your friends be without that endless bag of Doritos? We have become a society that has gotten really good at multitasking, but multitasking while eating can be detrimental to your health.

Enter mindful eating. Maybe you have heard/seen/read about this idea but never really gave much thought to it (pun intended there). This idea has been picking up speed and support here in the United States for the past few years, but the practice of mindfulness has been around for much longer than that. In Buddhist culture, they have been practicing the art of mindful eating for thousands of years. So what is mindful eating exactly? In the simplest terms, it is being completely present and aware of everything that goes in to the act of sitting down and eating a meal. Not just the taste of food, but the smell, the sight, the texture, and the ambiance around you. It is really focusing on being in the moment, so to speak, with your food.

Now, I can see some of you rolling your eyes at the computer screen. “Great. She is one of THOSE people. How long before she has us hugging trees and dancing around with scarves to advocate healthy eating?” No, I am not one of THOSE people, although there is nothing wrong with them and I do a pretty wicked healthy food scarf dance. Mindful eating doesn’t have to be some crazy spiritual food experience to be helpful to you and your health. There have been numerous studies and research products on the effects of mindful eating on a healthy diet. And a lot of them have shown very positive results.

Over the next few posts, I want to go more into the principles of mindful eating as well as share some of my experiences with the practice. It really has helped improve my health, and I was one of the skeptical ones when I first heard the idea (30 minutes to eat a banana? No thanks, get it in my belly asap). But I now see the benefits and I think that you can reap those same benefits for yourself!

With that in mind (yup another pun) I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the time with your loved ones and bask in the glow of this wonderful season! And just maybe think before reaching for that fifth candy cane….

Merry Christmas from the Dawson’s!

It’s the most wonderful (and busy) time of the year!

December 4, 2012December 4, 2012 / ktbuchs87

Most people fall in to two categories when it comes to the holidays. They are either Buddy the Elf (I just love smiling. Smiling’s the best) or you are Ebenezer Scrooge (or the Grinch… your choice). And there are a few people who fall into that middle category that are just lukewarm about all the festivities. Sure the lights and cookies are nice but they aren’t that thrilling when you really think about it. Me? I am Buddy the Elf to the 10th power. I love everything that comes with Christmas. The lights, the songs, the family, the movies and shows, the food….

Oh the food. We all know that this time of year is when we tend to over indulge. There are big family meals and office Christmas parties. I already talked about the holiday overeating in a post a few weeks back so I won’t beat a dead horse. You know that this time of year is a calorie-laden war zone, and we all handle the extra food grenades that are thrown at us in different ways.

For me, it is easiest to make healthier versions of all the food available this time of year. In fact this weekend I made “clean” versions of eggnog and hot chocolate as well as some pumpkin bars and a loaf of ginger-cocoa bread. They were all delicious and tasted just as fabulous as any Christmas goody. Now, just because these are clean and healthy doesn’t mean that I can eat as much of them as I want. Calories are still calories and you just can’t gorge yourself on healthy food and expect to not gain weight.

It is so easy to make small concessions when it comes to eating this time of year. All those small concessions add up to one big regret later and compromised health. In my last post I talked a little about the history of the RDA and while I do disagree with some of the aspects of the RDA, it does have at its base a very important message. We all need to get a certain amount of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. While it might not be the same amount or the same type for every person, it is vital that you fuel your body properly. It will help especially this time of year when temptations are lurking behind every Christmas tree. A well fed body will function better and be able to handle all those little temptations. When your body has all the proper nutrients, it is more satisfied and less likely to gorge Christmas treats!

In the next posts I am going to break down the different parts of the RDA and help you sort through what you need to know to feed your body properly! In the mean time enjoy your holidays and don’t fret over every single piece of food that you eat this season. A few cookies will NOT kill you!

Our first married Christmas tree! SO PRETTY!!

Hello everyone!!

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012 / ktbuchs87

My two week hiatus has come to an end and I am ready to jump back into blogging headfirst. I had an amazing wedding this past weekend and still find it hard to believe that I am a wife now!! After our wedding, we spent the weekend in Chicago because our actual honeymoon isn’t until January. So we have something else to look forward to!

Now, let’s get onto the reason you are reading this blog. As much as I would love to relive every single detail of our wedding and write pages and pages about it, I suspect that you would get VERY bored fairly quickly. That being said, I do want to talk about some things I learned health/nutrition wise these past few weeks. Hopefully my experiences can help you to avoid some of the problems I ran into.

Stress is BRUTAL. I know that I am stating the obvious here, but man did stress kick my butt the past few weeks. I knew that stress was not a good thing and that it should be avoided, but what I didn’t realize was how much it can really wreak havoc on a person’s body. I told Adam that is was a good thing we finally got married because I was sure that I would not survive another week of planning the wedding. I was shocked to see the toll that stress put on my body. I couldn’t sleep through the night, I had no energy during the day, my workouts felt 20 times harder than they should be, and I felt cranky most of the time. But even more than all of that was how my appetite was affected.

I have never really had a problem with eating food before. I like food. I usually have the problem of eating too much and having to control my appetite. So I was very surprised when I suddenly did not want to eat at all or would just miss meals because I would be too busy with something else. I have never had the problem of having to force myself to eat some type of food. Maybe this is all old news to you, but I was a little out of my element. I had been eating so well for such a long time that I did not even think that that would somehow disappear. It was rough and I admit that I didn’t always choose what would be healthiest for me. Fortunately the whole experience did help teach me, so it wasn’t a total loss.

First of all, never think that because something has never happened to you that it never will, especially when it comes to your body and your health. You just never know how you will respond to a certain situation or how your body will react to something you put it through. I think that was a little part of my problem with this whole loss of appetite. I wasn’t prepared for it and so along with the stress of the wedding I had the shock of something else that had never happened to me. My body just didn’t know how to handle all of that. I know it is impossible to be able to prepare yourself for every single type of reaction that you could have to a given event, but you can be prepared that anything, even something that has never happened to you before, could happen. If you’re even a little prepared for that, your body won’t be totally shocked.

Second, food is important. Duh, you all know this. But it is especially important during times of high stress and it is crucial to eat well. Junk food will make all of your problems worse. You’re already going through enough, why add bad food on top of that? You have to eat regularly too. I cringe thinking about the amount of times that I missed a meal because I was just too focused on something else or the thought of food just didn’t appeal to me. I am thankful for the times that someone made me eat or I forced myself to put something in my stomach. While it might sound cruel to force yourself to eat, in my case it was the only way to get that fuel in my body. If you know that you are going to be going through a stressful time soon, take some time to prepare meals/snacks for yourself. This might sound time consuming but trust me, when that stress hits you and you think about all you have to do, you will be glad that you thought to prepare food. It will just be one less thing that you have to think about.

Lastly, we all need some type of support holding us up during tough times. Again, I know that I am stating the obvious on this one, but you can NOT do it all alone. Trust me. I tried and sadly that just made all of my problems worse. I didn’t want to burden anyone with the million problems/thoughts that were running through my head 24/7. I knew the chaos they had brought into my life, why would I want to give that to people I care about? Finally, though, I knew that I could just not take it anymore. I knew I needed help or I would literally just fall apart. To my surprise, people stepped up and helped me when I asked. I shouldn’t be shocked because my friends and family are amazing, but I was blown away by how much they wanted to help me. Once I had other people behind me, helping me, some of my stress and problems were alleviated I kick myself for not asking for help sooner, and possibly avoiding the train wreck of a person that I had become.

This post makes it seem like planning a wedding is along the lines of pure torture. But it isn’t, I just didn’t know what to expect and I let the stress get the better of me. On the bad side of things, I really let my stress dictate my life and I didn’t like that at all. I felt out of control, sad, and just plain old tired. On the good side, I learned how to not let this happen again and I can maybe give some helpful advice to others so they can avoid it entirely.

Everything turned out fabulous and by the end of the whole ordeal I was married to the man I am in love with. That was the most important thing and I get to spend the rest of my life as his Mrs.! Pretty great reward if I do say so myself! Have a great day and I will see you all on Friday!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this important announcement….

October 30, 2012 / ktbuchs87

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you had a fabulous weekend and are enjoying your last few days of October! I just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know that I am going to be taking a short break from my blog. Now before you start rioting in the streets ( I know this is a super important blog to all of you 🙂 ), it will only be about a two week break. And I have a really good reason too: I’m getting married in a little over a week! With all the planning and organizing that comes with a wedding, some things have to be put aside and unfortunately for me that means my blog. But I would rather be giving you guys quality information rather than just quickly throwing something together at the last minute just for the sake of putting a post up on time. So with all that being said, I will be back to talking nutrition with you guys on November 14th. I know you are all running to mark that date in your calendars so that you don’t miss it! Thanks for being understanding and I will talk with you guys soon!