Support Group Meeting 27th March 2019

Our first support group for 2019 was on the topic of mindful eating. The aim of this group was to assist our bariatric surgery patients to understand what mindful eating is and to develop some mindful eating skills. 

The group began with a mindfulness exercise called Eating Raisins. Each person was given some raisins and was asked to eat one raisin as they normally would and then were guided to eat the other raisins in a mindful way. Each person was asked to use all 5 senses (touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight) before eating the raisin, which included placing the raisin in the mouth rolling it around and feeling it before chewing and swallowing it. This exercise allowed each person to increase their awareness and experience of eating and become more mindful.

We then talked about experiences of mindless eating. Mindless eating is not driven by genuine hunger or a biologically driven need of our body. Rather it is driven by cues in our environment both externally and internally. Patients in the group were able to give their own experiences of mindless eating such as eating in front of the TV, walking to the fridge when sitting on the couch at night looking for food, eating at the movies, eating when bored, eating when stressed, eating at social events and many more. This mindless eating is what causes us to gain weight. We need to engage in mindful eating to be able to maintain a healthy weight range.

What is Mindful Eating? – Mindfulness involves paying attention, on purpose, with an attitude of curiosity. Mindfulness helps you enjoy your food. You notice more about flavours, smells and textures when you pay attention. Mindfulness assists you to make better food choices.

Our support group learnt about the Seven Skills of the Mindful Eater

• Awareness – the calm and focussed attention when eating by tuning into your senses.

• Observation – seeing the situation from a distance, observe your body, feelings and thoughts before wanting to eat

• Being in the moment – when you engage in mindful eating, you act consciously not out of habit.

• Being Mindful of the Environment – be conscious of your environment, notice any triggers and manage them.

• Non-judgment – you need to learn to be compassionate and empathetic when learning how to engage in mindful eating. As you stop judging yourself you learn how to be more present and aware of what you are doing.

• Letting go – letting go of “what should be”, letting go of being perfect, acknowledge imperfections and move on.

• Acceptance – this means being okay with the way things are.

Lastly we discussed Physical Hunger vs Emotional/Habit Hunger – learning the difference. Is hunger arising from your physical body or from your heart and habits.

If you would like to attend our next support group on the 22nd of May then please call our office on 02 9553 1120 to book your space.