One Simple Hack to Rule Them All

Mindful eating 2.0

Today I spent the afternoon at work, cooped up in a secret room, with an 8 oz bag of Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Drops (which are magical by the way).

I don’t know if I should really be sharing this with you – I don’t want to encourage binge eating anymore than I want to encourage bulimia – but in the name of full transparency, I feel as though I owe you the truth.

Anyway, in an effort to pace myself I started doing something a little weird: I started waiting a minute in-between each drop.

Now, I’m not advising you to go all obsessive here…let me explain. I wasn’t trying to control how many I ate – I was trying to make sure I wanted one and it wasn’t just the repetitive action or the fact that I had the bag open next to me that made me want to eat.

As I let each minute tick by, most times I forgot that I was waiting a minute and a longer period of time went by, to the point where I was mentally saying ‘Oh wow, it’s been five minutes! Do I want another one? Hmmm. No, I’m good.’

It got me thinking if all we need to do is wait a little and ask ourselves a question when we’re eating.

It gives us the opportunity to be more intentional about the way we eat, so that rather than eating as some sort of compulsory reflex, and eating because we feel compelled to do so; we eat because we want to.

I don’t have all the answers (heck, I barely have any), but why not try it for a week. Just ask yourself “Do I want this? Is it just because it’s here? Am I full?”

Will you give it a try? Let me know how it works out!

/Femi, The Girl Who Hates Working Out

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P.S. Once again, if it feels like something that could end up being something stressful and unhealthy for you, don’t do it – we’re all different.