Tag Archive for: dining out

3 Tips for Eat Mindfully While Eating Out

A question I often hear from my intuitive eating clients is “how do I stay tuned into my hunger and fullness signals when I am eating out with friends?”

 

This is a common challenge, if you experience this too, just know you are not alone.

 

Eating out in restaurants bring all types of challenges for the intuitive eater in training. First, there’s the noise level in the restaurant. While there are many restaurants who have a quiet ambiance, there are even more that have a lot of noise from families with kids, televisions showing sports games, and even just the waiters and bus boys hustling around.

 

In addition to the noise level that can distract you from paying attention to your eating, there’s just the excitement of being out with friends, catching up on conversation, celebrating a birthday or other milestone, and trying new foods!

 

So, how do you stay tuned in while eating out?

 

Here’s 3 tips to get you started!

 

  1. Set an intention: Before you leave the house, set an intention of how you will stay present during the meal. Write this intention on a piece of paper or index card, read it out loud so you hear your voice, and put it in your purse. Just setting the intention will bring it into your conscious mind.

 

  1. Pause mid-meal: Take a break from eating at some point in the middle of your meal. Put the fork down and consciously ask yourself “how satisfied am I feeling at this point”. This does not mean you cannot pick up the fork and continue eating, it’s just a way to check-in with yourself.

 

  1. Maintain awareness: Stay fully present during the meal and maintain an awareness of your surroundings. Take some time to look around, notice the décor, the other diners, and breathe. The breathing will bring you into a state of “rest and digest” which will help you maintain awareness throughout your eating. This requires practice, so it’s best to practice this every day when you eat at home, it’ll then be easier when you are out.

 

Eating out is fun! There’s no reason to walk out of a restaurant holding your stomach and saying “Oh, I’m so full”. This takes away from the pleasant experience of socializing with good friends and eating good food.

 

Use these tips the next time you eat out and let me know below how it’s worked for you!

 

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Still stuck in the diet cycle? Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days by entering your name and email in the boxes below!

I Ate a Feta Cheese Veggie Quiche. Would You?

Have I mentioned recently how wonderful it is to be an intuitive eater? Yes, I know I have and my hope is that you are moving forward on your intuitive eating journey.

 

I want to share an example of why it’s so wonderful to be an intuitive eater.

 

I’m just back from vacation visiting my parents in Florida. The sunshine was fabulous, and it was really nice to relax and spend time with family. One evening, my husband and I went out to dinner. As I looked over the menu, I wasn’t quite sure what I was in the mood for, and then my eyes landed on the Feta Cheese Veggie Quiche. I decided that THAT was exactly what I wanted. I was contemplating ordering one of the dinner salads (which also sounded delish), but when I read the description on the quiche, I really knew that this was what I wanted at that moment.

 

Never having ordered a dish like this before, I wondered what it would look like. When it arrived, I was very pleased. The piece of quiche came with two types of side salads drizzled with dressing. I started to eat, savoring every bite. I put my fork down in between each biteful so I can focus on the food that was in my mouth, and not the next forkful.

 

You may be reading this and wondering why was this so special. I’ll tell you why.

 

Before I became an intuitive eater, I followed a “healthy meal plan” and would NEVER have ordered this quiche dish in a restaurant. I would have figured it was too fatty, greasy and cheesy. I would have ordered either an egg white veggie omelet with salad and baked potato (which I still love by the way) or one of those dinner salads I mentioned earlier, even if I really wanted the quiche. I would have gone the “safe” route which really limited my eating pleasure.

 

But now, I asked myself what I really wanted to eat in that moment, and when the answer was the Feta Cheese Veggie Quiche, I went with it and I enjoyed every bite. No guilt, no worry, just pure pleasure.

 

For many of you reading this, if you struggle with yo-yo dieting and a diet mentality, it is very likely when you go on vacation you think like this: “It’s vacation, I’m going to eat what I want and start my diet when I get back”. We both know that this way of thinking leads to overeating and weight gain and continuation of the vicious cycle of dieting.

 

Bottom line is this: you can eat what you love and eat intuitively and mindfully while on vacation (and even when you are not on vacation).

 

Your turn to take action: Choose a food or menu item this week that you would never think of eating if you were on a diet. Eat it mindfully, tuning into your satiety signals, and describe the experience below.