After eating a healthy lunch, Jeff had a craving for something sweet. Ice cream had been on his mind all day, but it wasn’t part of his “diet,” so he searched the kitchen for something else to eat. After a bowl of cereal, several handfuls of chips, and an apple, he finally ate a bowl of chocolate-chunk ice cream. A mindful approach would have given Jeff permission to eat what he really craved. After trying to satisfy his food desire with other foods, he ate the ice cream anyway. The cereal, chips, and apple added many more calories than he would have consumed if he had eaten the ice cream when he became aware of wanting it. When you crave a particular food, it is likely that your body is sending you an S.O.S. Essentially, a craving is your body sending a message not about what you “want” but about what you may “need.” If you crave a hamburger, it is probable that your body is low on protein or fat. If you crave a sweet or a piece of fruit, your body may need the sugar. Cravings are the result of deprivation. Typically, we want what we can’t have. If you can have it, you won’t insist on having it. Mindfulness is letting go of desire and cravings. The idea is to give your body just enough of what it wants. Sometimes eating a small square of chocolate can satisfy the desire for sugar as well as an entire candy bar. But if you crave an entire candy bar, eat it joyfully and mindfully.

skill builder: mindfulness of cravings

1. What do you usually crave? If it is chocolate, find a way to satisfy your craving in a mindful way. Keep a mini-candy bar or a handful of Hershey Kisses to fill that craving. Bring food with you. Having a plan makes you less susceptible to losing control. 2. Remember the adage, “Whatever you resist, persists.” Approach cravings consciously. What do your cravings suggest about your eating? Are your food desires an indication that you are too restrictive with your food? Do your cravings suggest that you are seeking comfort? Discover what your cravings mean, and find healthy ways to satisfy them. Ask yourself the following questions whenever you find yourself craving a particular food:

• How will satisfying my craving affect my body?
• How will satisfying my craving affect my mood?
• How will satisfying my craving affect my thoughts about myself?

should you clean your plate?

Healthy babies are incapable of overeating. Human beings, when they are born, know instinctively when they are hungry, and how to cry to alert others of their need to be fed. Babies stop eating when they are full. They cannot be forced to nurse or to finish a bottle when they have had enough. This suggests that there are biological sensors that dictate how much we should eat, and that overeating is, in part, a learned behavior.

One of the ways it may be learned is at the family dinner table. The parents of small children frequently demand that they “finish all the food on their plates.” This sets up the behavior later in life of estimating how much to eat by how much is set in front of you, instead of eating as much as you need. This is a mindless approach. If you always eat what is put in front of you, you are likely to be in trouble. Today, restaurant portions are out of control, and completely out of sync with mindful eating. Typically, supersized, gargantuan portions of restaurant food encourage mindless eating. Susan became a mindful eater. When she went out to dinner she began to change how she figured out how much to eat. Instead of consuming everything on her plate, she noticed that she felt full after eating about two thirds of the portion, and when she felt full, she simply stopped eating. She also noticed that if she did eat everything on her late, she became too full, which was the signal that she had not eaten mindfully.

skill builder: mindfully clean your plate!

Experiment with portion sizes. Instead of cleaning your entire plate, leave some food. See how your body responds. Listen to internal cues to know when to stop. When you are at restaurants, carefully measure how much you can comfortably eat without feeling any pressure to finish it all. If you are an undereater and often intentionally leave most of your food uneaten, start listening to your inner dialogue about why you reject the food. Think about and try to feel whether it is your body or mind putting up the “Stop” sign. Eat until your stomach feels full. Pay attention to the signals your stomach sends, rather than listening to your mind generating self-critical thoughts.

excerpt from Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food by Susan Albers, Psy.D.