How to Make Healthier Food Choices Part 1: Mindful Eating

How to Make Healthier Food Choices – Part 1

Do you struggle more with knowing which foods are healthy to eat, or with making the best choice when confronted with various food options?  

If you said the latter, then you are in good company. I did an informal survey via my Instagram account where the majority of people replied that they know what food they should eat, but struggle with actually making healthier food choices when less temptations are available.

Most of us already know that a salad full of veggies or chicken and broccoli are wise choices. But how many of us prefer those options over foods like like Thai takeout, tacos, or a quick and easy pizza?

Choosing healthy options can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. That is why I invite you to follow my next four blog posts, which will be a simple series of tips on how to make healthier food choices.

How to Make Healthier Food Choices – Tip #1

My first tip to making healthier foods choices is to consider how you want to feel. This requires body awareness and mindfulness. There are two important questions I want you to ask yourself before eating, because these questions can transform your choices:

1. How will eating this make me feel?
2. Do I want to feel that way?

Question 1: How Will Eating This Make Me Feel?

I used to think that feeling bloated and “weighed down” after a meal was normal – just part of what came with a delicious pasta, barbecue, or pad Thai. I began eating more of these meals when I worked at a corporation where food was often catered for lunch meetings. I loved lunch meetings! All the free, tasty food I wanted! But after a while, I noticed that on days I ate the free restaurant food, I experienced that bloated, weighed down feeling. I felt….gross. This didn’t happen on the days I brought my homemade lunch.

The more aware I became of this discrepancy, the more I disliked it. I preferred feeling good. I enjoyed feeling light and slim, not like my pants were too tight after lunch. Yet I fought this internal battle for quite a while because I also loved food. For me, consuming a small portion was beyond hard, and I usually got seconds. I knew it wasn’t wise, but food held power over me.

Eventually, the discomfort started to win. I began limiting myself to one portion and cut out empty calories like garlic bread or fries, and I started feeling better after those free business meals. I liked that feeling so much that eventually I discovered enough self-control to make my own lunch and eat it before or after lunch meetings and entirely skip the free, delicious, high-calorie foods.

The Bible says, “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28). Truly, exercising self-control made me feel stronger, safer, and more capable just like the strong walls around a city.

I encourage you to start asking yourself this question and becoming more mindful of your physical state after you eat. Notice and ask, “how will this food make me feel?” 

For me, many foods make me feel sluggish and like I need to change into stretchy pants. Maybe you experience that as well, or maybe you feel sleepy, have brain fog, get burps or a stomachache, or some other not-so-desirable experience. (By the way, these reactions are not all normal, as I used to think they were. They may happen to a lot of people, but that doesn’t make them normal or healthy. These are usually signs of foods you should avoid or area sign of overeating).

Question 2: Do I Want to Feel That Way?

Over time, my brain subconsciously considered how I would feel before I ate. I made more intuitive choices based on how I wanted to feel after my meal. Eventually, I became aware that I was being mindlessly mindful…if that’s possible. Which then led me become a mindful eater.

Many years later, this is still how I approach each meal. I consider how I want to feel after I eat and how my food choice might affect that (this process takes all of about two seconds). I want my food to fuel me. I want it to make me feel good. I want to easily digest it and not feel like a whale after eating. I want my energy to remain high, not experience “food comas” and lose productivity. I want to eat and be able to workout one to two hours later without a stomachache.

So, when I look at something like a piece of pizza or cheesecake, it’s like my stomach is doing the thinking: “That will make me feel full, uncomfortable, and probably hurt me. Let’s not do that.” Most times, the taste of the food is just not worth how I will feel later. Some days, my tastebuds win the fight and I decide I’m willing to feel less than optimal to enjoy a high-calorie meal. But most of the time, this only happens after an intense workout day when I can use the extra fuel.

How do you want to feel? Do you also want to feel energetic, alive, slim, etc? Whatever it is, consider those desires before choosing your unhealthy food.

Putting Mindful Eating and Body Awareness into Practice

If you struggle with mindfulness, then try keeping a journal for a week. After a meal, jot down what you ate and how you felt 30-90 minutes later. Then review and reflect on it at the end of the week.

You might also want to spend a week eating more homemade, natural, unrefined, low-sugar foods and journal again. Notice any changes in how you feel compared to processed, high-fat, high-sugar and restaurant-prepared foods.

Write in your journal how you want to feel. Write how you want to look. Imagine feeling and looking this way on a daily basis. Fall in love with it and who you can become.

Maybe, like me, it will take weeks, months or even years to prioritize your body and mind feeling better than your taste buds. It may take time to choose physical comfort over the emotional comfort of eating certain foods. But if you work on being more mindful of what you eat and how you feel, and make small changes over time, eventually you CAN breakthrough to self-control and optimal health!

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

If you find you need more support in this area, then contact me about nutrition coaching!