MINDFUL EATING CHANTEL TANAKA
The idea of eating mindfully was a little foreign for me until recently. Getting nutrition to take care of my body and health was enough to worry about. The manner in which I delivered that food and nutrition to my body wasn’t a factor that seemed worthy of considering until I was knee-deep in university life. I started questioning the kind of lifestyle I wanted for myself. Mindful eating, or “maintaining an in-the-moment awareness of the food and drink you put into your body,” can look like one, or more of the following ways:
Pay attention to what you eat
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When you are on the run as a university student, grazing food and snacks may seem like the only way to get nutrition in a busy day. But often, when you only consume snacks—instead of whole meals— throughout the day, you’re less likely to consider what you are eating. If you are multitasking while you eat, for example, you hardly ever focus on the food you have in front of you. The times I have found myself mindlessly eating, I never appreciate the food’s flavours or textures, nor did I give much consideration to the variety of food I ate. Paying attention to food textures and flavours can change your experience and relationship with food. What we eat affects how we feel. If you eat food that makes you feel good about your health, you’re more likely to have some pep in your step. Conversely, there are foods that make you feel guilty about yourself. Guilt isn’t a feeling you want to associate with your food because it doesn’t only weigh on you, it’s also really hard to shake off.
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