"Don't Like Your Results? Change Your Mind" - An article on Mindful Eating

In keeping along with our last counseling tip, here is a great blog article about mindful eating in diabetes by author Michelle May, PhD. I had the opportunity to listen to her lecture at FNCE on this same topic (Eat What You Love with Diabetes: How to Use the Mindful Eating Cycle for Self-Management) last year, and here are some key points from that lecture :

There are several eating cycles, consisting of questions, "Why-->When-->What-->How-->How Much-->Where-->Why".
There is the instinctive eating cycle, where one may eat what they want with the intention of eating to survive.  There is the overeating cycle, where one may eat what they want because of emotional, physical or environmental triggers such as stress, fear, boredom or because of the cost of the food.

                         At this point, Michelle posed an interesting question, "How many people would feel like they had to finish eating something they weren't necessarily hungry for because they paid for it?" (some audience members raised their hands) Next she asked, "Now how many people would feel like they had to finish eating something they weren't necessarily hungry for because they got it for free?" (some other audience members raised their hands..some, like me didn't have to put it down in between!) This is an interesting concept though - Think about it! 

Then, there is the restrictive eating cycle, where we may restrict what, how much or when we eat (the dreaded "diet").

What type of cycle we "eat by" depends on how we answer those "W and H" questions.

Finally there is the Mindful Eating Cycle, which involves awareness and intention in answering the questions and balance, variety and moderation when making food choices.

Michelle cites the "TFAR" cycle as a rationale behind mindful eating - which is the idea behind the title of the article!
When applying this concept with diabetic patients (or any patients) she suggests having clients ask themselves "Am I hungry? How hungry am I?" for 3-4 seconds.  If they can not answer this easily, then they can do a quick exercise to determine their hunger level: Complete a "mind-body" scan by closing the eyes, and breathing while scanning the body and mind to determine if they are actually hungry, or just craving something.  If this exercise is too challenging for them, they can hold their fist up to their stomach and ask, "How hungry are you? How full is your fist [on a scale of 1-10]"

IF the client is actually hungry, Michelle encourages her "SWAG" of the Diabetic version of MyPlate: 1/2 the plate of low carbohydrate (non-starchy) vegetables, 1/4 of the plate as grains / starchy vegetables, and 1/4 of the plate as protein, with servings of dairy and fruit off to the side.  (If your clients need help portioning things out on their plate, you may want to check out this plate. What do you think?) Michelle also stressed the difference of educating clients on the difference between snacks (eating for nourishment) and desserts (eating for enjoyment).

Enjoy!
CR

May, Michelle. (2013, January 13). Don't Like Your Results? Change Your Mind. Retrieved from  http://www.diabetesandmindfuleating.com/2013/01/dont-like-your-results-change-your-mind.html