What is Mindful Eating?

August 11, 2020

Written by: Jamie Lee, R.D and co-founder

Mindful eating is not about being perfect, eating the right things, or allowing yourself to only eat certain foods. It is the in-the-moment awareness of the food you eat and drink, acknowledging rather than judging how food makes you feel. It involves all your senses: the textures and tastes of each mouthful, the smells and aromas of your food, your sensation of hunger before, during, and after your meal, and even, how different foods affect your energy and mood post-meal. Eventually, this powerful eating behaviour can influence the way you buy, prepare, serve, and eat food.

As co-founders of the company as well as registered dietitians, we find that our clients’ eating habits are more often than not, influenced by their relationship with food, how in tune they are with what they eat, and their hunger signals. With busy lifestyles, many of us rush one of the most important and overlooked routines: mealtimes. How many times have you caught yourself eating while commuting, in front of a computer screen or watching TV? When put in these environments, it's much too easy to eat mindlessly, eating just to eat regardless of whether we’re still hungry or not. Mindfulness encourages us to remove those distractions and sit uninterrupted with our food and whom we are dining with. In doing so, we begin to take our time to enjoy a meal. We start to savour flavours, aromas, and textures. We reconnect with our senses and gain a deeper appreciation for the food we eat to fuel our bodies.

This has become so important in our practices that we wanted to create a movement, a community, with Remix Snacks to help people eat more intuitively and feel more connected to their food and body. It’s not always easy to stay in the present and be constantly aware of the current moment. Even we are guilty of many of these habits ourselves. The important thing is to promise yourself to stay aware and actively work on mindful eating.

Benefits of Mindful Eating

Practicing mindful eating can be beneficial not just to your body physically, but your whole self mentally and emotionally. It can influence better decision making about food and free yourself from some unhealthy habits you might have picked up around food and eating. Some more evidence-based benefits include:

Easing stress and anxiety
Promoting better digestion
Helping to reduce overeating by bringing awareness to your feeling of being full
Helping you notice and change your relationship with food
Deriving greater pleasure from the food you eat
Understanding the connection to where your food comes from

How our Chocolate Promotes Mindful Eating

Our Bean Bark chocolate is unlike any other chocolate snacks or bars you’ve had. Together with the satisfying crunch of the bean-based dark chocolate, you'll experience a perfect texture combination with the chewy, sweet and tangy fruit pieces. This satisfying snack requires you to slow down, chew…and by doing that, you’re letting the chocolate melt on your tongue, coating your tastebuds with flavours of cocoa. Combined with the satiating property of beans, our chocolate allows you to feel satisfied faster, and feel full for longer- it’s perfect for snacking. Most likely, you’ll find yourself being satisfied with less chocolate than you think.

Intuitive Eating

Eating mindfully is a huge step towards the ultimate goal: being an intuitive eater. Intuitive eating is an approach to healthy eating that doesn’t look at weight loss, diets, meal plans, good foods or bad foods. It uses the principles of mindful eating and learning to trust your body around food. Intuitive eating goes further to explore and address the importance of rejecting the dieting mentality, respecting your body no matter your weight, learning to cope with emotional eating and also making yourself a non-judgemental environment.

But first, let’s master the practise of mindful eating.

We encourage everyone and invite you to join our #mindfulsnackingmovement, to keep yourself accountable with the Remix community around us, and together let’s emBARK on the journey to become intuitive eaters!