正念饮食减肥（正念饮食疗愈暴饮暴食）

正念饮食减肥（正念饮食疗愈暴饮暴食）Q&A她目前正在专注于研究正念饮食训练(MB-EAT)对强迫性暴饮暴食和肥胖的作用。她是专注饮食中心(www.tcme.org)的创始成员和主席，这是一个网络组织，为相关领域的专业人士提供正念饮食方面的资源。译者丨陈赢，珍·克里斯蒂勒博士，教授正念饮食，中国师资L2阶来源丨《心智探询》2010年春季出版第26卷第2期珍·克里斯特勒(Jean Kristeller)是印第安纳州立大学心理学荣誉教授。25年来，她一直从事正念心理学的研究，包括研究正念对心率控制、总体幸福感、灵性、银屑病和焦虑症的影响。上个世纪90年代，她曾与卡巴金一起发表了第一篇正念干预焦虑的文献。

阅读提示

•本文是美国《心智探询》杂志编辑芭芭拉·盖茨和凯文·格里芬于2009年11月，通过电话采访了MB-EAT正念饮食觉知训练创始人、珍·克里斯蒂勒博士。

•本文介绍了珍博士“10 2周”正念饮食课程的理论框架和课程结构，对于有兴趣参加“10 2周”正念饮食课程的朋友来说，可以了解概要。

•本文内容为4500字，阅读20分钟左右，翻译者为珍博士的中国国内师资。

译者丨陈赢，珍·克里斯蒂勒博士，教授正念饮食，中国师资L2阶

来源丨《心智探询》2010年春季出版第26卷第2期

珍·克里斯特勒(Jean Kristeller)是印第安纳州立大学心理学荣誉教授。25年来，她一直从事正念心理学的研究，包括研究正念对心率控制、总体幸福感、灵性、银屑病和焦虑症的影响。上个世纪90年代，她曾与卡巴金一起发表了第一篇正念干预焦虑的文献。

她目前正在专注于研究正念饮食训练(MB-EAT)对强迫性暴饮暴食和肥胖的作用。她是专注饮食中心(www.tcme.org)的创始成员和主席，这是一个网络组织，为相关领域的专业人士提供正念饮食方面的资源。

Q&A

探询心灵心（以下简称为IM）:你从什么时候开始发现佛教的实践可能在与人与食物有关的痛苦中起到疗愈的作用?

珍·克里斯特勒（以下简称为JK）:当我在麻省大学的时候，我有机会参加了一个基于正念减压项目（MBSR：卡巴金博士开发的正念减压8周课程），正是第一次有意识地吃葡萄干的经历为我打开了一扇门。我已经把正念练习作为治疗肥胖和强迫性暴饮暴食计划的一部分。这是在一个压力管理框架内进行的课程。我发现正念训练不仅提供了放松与减少有压力的饮食，而且还能完全改变一个人与食物的关系。这是正念饮食觉知训练的起源。我开始探索将正念练习带进到饮食中的方法，从葡萄干练习开始，然后扩展到更具挑战性的食物种类——解决我们与食物、饮食和身体的复杂关系。

IM:饮食失调和饮食上瘾与其他上瘾有什么相似和不同之处?

JK:首先，需要澄清的是，正念饮食训练并不是建立在成瘾机制的模型之上的。我不认为定义食物为成瘾机制，会让人们走上一条有帮助的道路。这种方法是以禁欲为基础的思路。以成瘾的角度来看待饮食问题的人们会说，“当你必须要吃东西的时候，你要提醒自己，需要戒掉某些食物。”然而，我发现这种方法有一个内在的陷阱:一旦你破戒，你就会想“反正已经破戒了，那么就继续吃吧”——这是一个很大的风险。许多养成节食习惯的人很容易受到这种”破戒“的影响。我个人对这种方法也有过一些挣扎，就我个人而言，我发现它完全没有帮助。

尽管与食物的不平衡关系可能与一些成瘾机制，看上去有相似之处，比如渴望某种物质以及这种物质提供给成瘾者的控制感。然而，特定的食物对于特定的人起到的成瘾作用，就像酒精、毒品对特定的人起到的作用是一样的，这一观点并没有得到很好的证明。（注：珍博士是想表达，不存在着这样特殊的人群，他们对于特定的食物是有成瘾行为。也不存在特定的人，无法戒烟戒酒。）

与我们一起练习过正念饮食的朋友会跟我们说：“我不能吃一小块饼干，因为我一旦吃一小块饼干，就会忍不住地吃掉整盒饼干。”事实上，这些参加正念饮食练习的朋友们会告诉我们说：“当我把正念的品质带到吃东西的时候——我就能完全欣赏这种饮食体验，品尝到食物独有的风味以及味道，我就会发现，即便吃地很少，也很满足。”

有些人甚至会说，“我过去以为这是我最喜欢的饼干，但仔细一吃，我发现我真的不喜欢它们，因为它们不是那么令人满意。”“这与你通过成瘾模型预测的结果是截然不同的。

因此，我更感兴趣的是建立一种饮食的关系，这种关系不是挣扎，而是在一种全然打开的心境下，找到与食物的平衡。我们用正念来帮助人们培养“内在智慧”。

IM:为什么吃这么重要?如果可以的话，为什么不戒掉某些食物呢?

JK:如果真的可行，那将是一个选择。但另一种选择是，逐渐将你与食物的关系转向更具挑战的食物。在我们的课程中，我们从有意识地吃葡萄干开始，最后我们把正念的工具带到自助餐中。我们当然不能在项目的早期就安排这样的自助餐练习，但每个人都发现，一旦他们有了练习基础，积累了经验，他们都能处理好与食物的关系。是的，也许他们会吃得过多，有过暴食，因为几乎所有人都会在这种情况下吃得过多，但他们会说，“只是因为我吃得多，就说我不好，这并不是事实。”也许我不会再经常去这些地方了，但当我去的时候，我将能够以一种与过去截然不同的方式，处理好吃的问题。”

IM:你是否觉得人们通过你的课程改变了他们与食物的关系，不再倾向于用食物来应对压力?

JK:这是一个持续的过程。许多人用吃来帮助处理压力状况。在耶鲁大学做的一项研究中，我们发现即使是“平衡”的饮食者也报告说他们用食物来缓解压力。但是那些没有饮食问题的人，在合理的量下，会用这些食物来安慰自己，而那些在饮食上有更多冲突的人，会因为这样做而感到苦恼，然后吃到更多。例如，在日常生活中，有些人会很容易地享受一袋椒盐卷饼中的几块，然而他们在与家人度假时，会感到压力，吃掉整袋椒盐卷饼。

食物是一种内在让我们感到舒适的东西。在我们的课程中，我们既寻找方案，替代压力下吃东西的方式，也学习找到可以安慰自己的食品，并学习如何用这些自己喜欢的食物 为自己提供安慰和满足，而不是让自己面对喜爱的食物出现失控感，比如我们可以吃一些椒盐脆饼或者一碗冰淇淋，而不是吃掉整袋或整盒。

IM:你的课程是如何处理恶性循环的，比如已经吃了一碗冰淇淋，然后感到内疚和自我憎恨，就“恶狠狠”地再吃掉两夸脱的冰淇淋?

JK:你说的，是对的。自我憎恨才是更大的问题。我们借鉴了艾伦·马拉特(Alan Marlatt)在治疗文献中引入的一个概念，即违反节制效应:“我本来不打算吃冰淇淋，但我吃了一些。所以，我是一个意志薄弱的人，既然我搞砸了，我还不如继续下去。”

我们帮助一个人认识到，吃冰淇淋的决定并不意味着他或她天生意志薄弱。“这也让我松了一口气。哦，这个房间里的每个人都有类似的感觉。”于是，人们有了一种巨大的解脱感，他们回说“我再也不必因为吃了某种特定的食物而自责了”。

在与患有暴食症的人一起工作时，他们正经历着自我憎恨和自我惩罚的恶性循环，我们鼓励他们意识到自己的想法是如何驱动这种连锁反应的。我们做一些慈悲的正念练习。我们使用身体扫描，并添加一些我们称之为“自我疗愈触摸练习”。人们以一种非常容易接受的方式，用手轻轻地抚摸自己的身体。他们把手放在身体的某些部位，这些部位可能会有很多矛盾或消极的感觉，让一种对身体欣赏的体验从他们的手进入他们的腿或胃。我们也使用宽恕冥想练习，这是非常强大的。我们主要围绕着原谅自己在饮食上的失控。

IM:我敢打赌，当你带领这样的练习时，一定会有许多人流泪。

JK:的确是这样的。我们主要的工作方向是人与食物的关系。在葡萄干练习之后，我们转向越来越有挑战性的食物。比如奶酪和饼干，这些容易引起人们暴食的食品。当人们说，“我不应该吃这些，”我们会说，“让我们看看这些食物里面到底有多少热量。大概20卡路里，这是微不足道的。“人们总是高估了我们提供给他们的食物中所含的热量。

接下来，我们看看令人垂涎的布朗尼（巧克力蛋糕）。人们会说，“哦，我的上帝!你要给我们吃巧克力蛋糕?这是一个要帮助我们控制体重的课程呀，怎么能吃这些呢？我们会说，“人们不会暴食胡萝卜吧，那么我们希望你能把你与胡萝卜的关系转移给布朗尼，也与巧克力蛋糕和谐相处。”当布朗尼第一次进入房间时，人们认为他们想吃掉整个盘子。但他们的实际体验是，一旦他们吃了一块布朗尼蛋糕，就像吃葡萄干一样，他们真的很享受刚吃的那几口，之后就再也尝不出味道了。接下来的一周，他们来分享这是多么神奇，他们突然意识到布朗尼不再像一周前那样会紧紧抓住他们。

IM: 令人惊讶的是，很多人不会在吃完巧克力后，就出去买一整盒巧克力蛋糕。

JK: 嗯，不完全是，否则我们就不会做这些研究了。在另一个非常重要的练习中，我们使用两种不同的零食来做有意识的选择。我们让人们在甜曲奇和薯片之间做出选择。然后，我们让他们看看为什么做出这样的选择——是什么在他们的内心体验中吸引他们做出这样或那样的选择。接下来，我们让他们吃一点，然后再吃一点，然后真正地品尝它。这与食物调节的另一个基本过程有关，即“特定于感觉的饱腹感”。我们称之为“味觉满足”。

从生理学上讲，我们的味蕾在吃了几口之后就习惯了味道。研究表明，有饮食问题的人往往对此不那么敏感。所以我们要求人们慢点吃，充分品尝他们正在吃的东西。一旦当食物的味道下降，不再那么好吃时，就停止进食。我们让他们注意他们的内在味道满足量表何时会上升，何时开始下降。通常，这可能只需要几块饼干或四五个薯片。人们常常惊讶于“我停下来不是因为我觉得我应该停下来，而是因为我意识到我不想要吃得更多了。”

IM: 你的意思是说暴饮暴食不是由某种特定的食物或环境引起的，而是由无意识引起的。正念饮食不是处理食物本身，而是处理意识，将正念带入食物体验。

JK:是的，这很复杂。有时候，暴饮暴食确实会让人觉得是食物本身的问题——冰淇淋、披萨或巧克力。当然，这些食物对身体和大脑有特定的物理影响。在毒品和酒精领域，在某种程度上，渴望和强迫感与特定毒品有关。但是对于食物来说，暴饮暴食实际上是围绕食物，产生和发展起来的一种人与食物的关系。我们看到人们在参加课程之前暴饮暴食，与参加课程之后，对于食物的体验发生了巨大的变化。当人们继续进行这个课程时，他们能觉察出来自身体内在的饥饿感，而不是引发食欲的其他进食诱因。我们很清楚，这些诱因在很大程度上并不是病态的。

我们还帮助人们调整饱腹感。许多暴饮暴食的人只知道自己是空的，饥饿的，然后忽地一下，就完全饱了。我们引入了10分制的测量表，来帮助学员衡量自己的饱腹感。1分是一点都不饱，10分是非常非常饱。这让人们开始注意到他们经常吃到9分饱或10分饱。我们发现，大多数人都能很容易地重新熟悉中等饱腹感的感觉。评测饱腹感的不同分数感觉，是很快就可以掌握的。例如，曾经一周暴饮暴食好几次的人报告说，“这周过得很棒，但有一天我过得很艰难，因为我本打算只吃5分到6分饱，但是我吃到了8分饱。”

然后，我们进行另一项练习：参与者不再是“无意识地”和“自动地”进食，而是正念地评估要吃多少食物。一位女士描述了她在开始这个课程之前去吃自助餐的经历。一开始她打算吃得非常健康，选择沙拉、青豆和鸡肉(去皮)，但她感到不满足。所以，她再次回到自助餐的取食区，选择了她一开始就很想吃的食物......现在，当她可以更有意识地选择食物时，她会选择更少份量，而真正吸引她的食物，最终吃地更少，感觉更满足。

我们也做了很多所谓的“外在智慧”的工作，这是基于食物的营养信息。我们有很多食物热量和营养价值的信息，可以利用。这些有关食物的热量信息，并不是用来“打败”我们，或者是用来设计出一组不可能完成的热量控制目标，比如，“我每天只能吃1000卡路里。”（注：每天吃1000卡路里，是不科学，造成健康损坏。）

我们可以利用我们的知识来找到与食物之间的平衡关系:“我将慢慢地、用心地吃半碗我最喜欢的富含营养的冰淇淋，而不是一下吃完三碗冰淇淋。这样吃法，热量摄入会更少，而且更令人生活满足。”

IM:也请谈谈关于冥想这个话题?

JK:我们强调建立静坐练习，来培养专注力，这是很重要的。我们明确鼓励人们将正念练习纳入日常活动，比如从饮食开始。我们有一种叫做“迷你静坐”的练习，建议人们停下来，集中注意力，留意自己的想法、感受和与食物有关的经验。比如，坐在一块巧克力蛋糕或披萨前，暂停下来，觉知饥饿程度(通过这个方式，来区别生理饥饿或者情绪饥饿)，来决定你想选择的食物，是否要吃，或者要吃多少。一旦你决定要吃了，那么就体验吃的过程。这种迷你正念练习是人们报告说，最有用、最有力的工具，而我们的研究数据也支持学员们的报告。

最后，我想强调的是，用心进食并不总是吃得很慢。人们会说，“我不可能像做葡萄干练习那样，每次都细嚼慢咽。”我们的回答是:“我们正在帮助你学习把这些工具应用到任何饮食体验中。

”这意味着，正更正念地选择午餐吃什么。即使是五分钟后就要开会，不得不狼吞虎咽。但有选择地进食，是与毫无意识地随便抓过来一把就吃，有本质的区别。

IM: 就是说，狼吞虎咽时，要意识到自己在狼吞虎咽吗？

JK:在那一刻，你意识到你在狼吞虎咽，并接受了这个事实：“哎呀，真不幸呀，今天没有时间，只能狼吞虎咽啦。”

（完）

< 英文原文>

Interview with Jean Kristeller: Know Your Hunger

By Barbara Gates Kevin Griffin

From the Spring 2010 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 26 No. 2)

Jean Kristeller is professor of psychology and director of the Center for the Study of Health Religion and Spirituality at Indiana State University. For over twenty-five years she has conducted research into the psychology of meditation including investigations on the effects of meditation on heart-rate control general well-being spirituality psoriasis and anxiety disorders. She is currently investigating the value of Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) on compulsive overeating and obesity and is a founding member and president of the Center for Mindful Eating (www.tcme.org) a virtual organization bringing resources about mindful eating to professionals in related fields.

Inquiring Mind editors Barbara Gates and Kevin Griffin interviewed Dr. Kristeller by phone in November 2009.

Inquiring Mind: When did you begin to see that the practices of Buddhism might be useful in working with people around food-related suffering?

Jean Kristeller: When I was at the University of Massachusetts I had the opportunity to sit in on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and it was that first experience of eating a raisin mindfully that blew open the door. I had already been using meditation practice as part of a treatment program I’d developed for obesity and compulsive overeating but from within a stress-management framework. I saw that mindfulness training not only offered tools for relaxation and managing stress-related eating but also for totally shifting one’s relationship to food. That was really the beginning of the MB-EAT program. I began to explore ways to bring mindfulness practice to eating beginning with the raisin but expanding into more challenging types of food—addressing the complexities of our relationship to food to eating and to our bodies.

IM: How are eating disorders and addiction to eating similar and different from other addictions?

JK: First it’s important to clarify that MB-EAT is not based on an addiction model. I don’t think an understanding of food as an addiction leads people down the most helpful path. Such an approach is predicated on the idea of abstinence. People will say “While you do have to eat you can abstain from certain foods.” But I see a built-in trap to this approach: one slip and you’re “off the wagon” and at risk to just keep on eating. Many people who get into a dieting mind-set are already vulnerable to this. I had some struggles with this approach personally and in my case I found it utterly unhelpful.

Although an imbalanced relationship with food can include some parallels with the addictive process—such as the craving and the sense that a substance has a hold on you—the perspective that particular foods act for certain people as alcohol or drugs do for others isn’t well documented.

If that were the case the people we work with would be coming back to us and saying “I can’t have a small piece of cookie and enjoy it without eating the whole box.” In fact they very quickly come back to us and say “When I bring the quality of mindfulness to eating—when I fully appreciate the experience the flavors the taste—then I find that I am satisfied with a small amount.” Some people even say “I thought these were my favorite cookies but eating them mindfully I find I really don’t like them because they’re not very satisfying.” That’s a very different result from what you would predict through an addiction model.

So I’m much more interested in creating a relationship with eating that is not about a struggle but about finding a balance with food and eating in the context of open acceptance. We use mindfulness meditation to help people cultivate “inner wisdom.”

IM: Why do you think it is so important to be able to eat anything? Why not abstain from certain foods if that’s workable for you?

JK: If it’s truly workable that would be one point of choice. But another choice involves progressively shifting your relationship to increasingly challenging foods. In our program we start with mindfully eating a raisin and we end up bringing the tool of mindfulness to an all-you-can-eat buffet. We certainly couldn’t assign attending such a buffet early in our program but we find that virtually everyone discovers that they can handle it once they have the foundation of practice and experience. Yes perhaps they will overeat a bit—because virtually all people overeat in that kind of setting—but they will be able to say “Just because I overate I’m not a bad person. Maybe I won’t go to these places too often anymore but when I do go I am going to be able to relate in a far different way from how I did in the past.”

IM: Is it your sense that people change their relationship to food enough through your programs that they no longer tend to use food to try to cope with stressful situations?

JK: It’s an ongoing process. Many people use eating to help handle stressful situations. In research we did at Yale we found that even “balanced” eaters reported using food to help with stress. But people who didn’t have eating problems used the food in reasonable amounts to comfort themselves whereas those with more conflict about their eating would get distressed about doing so and then overeat even more. For example while in day-to-day life some people can easily dip into a bag of pretzels and enjoy a few on a vacation with family they may get stressed and eat the whole bag.

Food is something that comforts us inherently. So in our program we talk both about finding alternatives to eating when under stress and also about finding your comfort foods and learning how to use those favorite foods in a way that makes sense for you rather than eating them out of control—how to have a few pretzels or a bowl of ice cream without eating the entire bag or carton.

IM: How does your program deal with the downward spiral: eating one bowl of ice cream then the feeling guilt and self-hatred that leads to two quarts?

JK: You’re right. It’s the self-hatred that’s more of the problem. We draw on a concept that was introduced into the therapy literature by Alan Marlatt the “abstinence violation effect”: “I wasn’t going to have any ice cream but I had some. Therefore I am a weak-willed person and since I blew it I might as well just keep on going.” We help a person see that the decision to have ice cream does not mean that he or she is by nature weak-willed. There’s also a lot of relief in recognizing Oh everybody in this room has similar feelings. People begin to find a tremendous release in saying “I don’t have to beat myself up for eating a given food.”

In working with people with binge eating disorders who are experiencing a spiral of self-hatred and self-punishment we encourage them to be aware of how their thoughts drive this chain of reactions. We do some lovingkindness meditation. We use the body scan and add something we call “healing self-touch.” People gently move their hands over their bodies in a very accepting way. They rest their hands on parts of their bodies where they may have a lot of ambivalent or negative feelings and let the experience of appreciation for the body come from their hands into their legs or their stomachs. We also use a forgiveness meditation that is very powerful. We frame it primarily around forgiving oneself for having gotten out of control around eating.

IM: I bet there are a lot of tears when you are doing that.

JK: Yes there are. But primarily we work with people on their relationship with food. After the raisin we move to increasingly challenging foods the foods people tend to binge on like cheese and crackers. When people say “I’m not supposed to eat those ” we say “Let’s look at how many calories are actually in this; it’s trivial maybe twenty calories.” People always overestimate the number of calories in the little bits of food we offer them.

Next we move on to brownies. People say “Oh my god! You’re giving us brownies? This is a program that’s supposed to help us get our weight under control.” We reply “But people don’t binge on carrot sticks. We want you to shift your relationship to brownies.” When the brownies first come into the room people think they want to eat the entire plate. But their actual experience—once they’ve eaten a piece of a brownie in the same mindful way they ate the raisin—is that they really enjoy the first few bites and after that don’t really taste it anymore. The next week they come in and share how amazing this was that they’d suddenly realized brownies didn’t have the same kind of hold on them as they had just a week earlier.

IM: It’s amazing that a lot of people wouldnt have gone out and bought a whole box of brownies after having had a bite.

JK: Well not really or we wouldnt be doing it. In another very important exercise we work with making mindful choices using two different snack foods. We give people a choice between sugar cookies and corn chips. Then we ask them to look at why they made their choice—what it is in their inner experience that drew them to one or the other. We next ask them to eat a little bit then a little bit more and to really savor it. This ties back into another fundamental process in food intake regulation called “sensory-specific satiety.” We refer to it as “taste satisfaction.” Physiologically our taste buds habituate to flavors after a few bites. Research has shown that people with eating problems tend to be much less sensitive to this. So we ask people to eat slowly fully savoring what they are eating but stopping when the food doesn’t taste as good anymore. We ask them to notice when their inner-enjoyment meter has gone up as high as it is going to go and when it starts to come back down again. Typically this might take only a couple of cookies or four or five corn chips. People are often amazed that “I didn’t stop because I thought I should but because I realized I didn’t want any more.”

IM: So you’re saying that binging doesn’t seem to be caused by a particular food or the circumstances but rather by being unconscious. Instead of dealing with a food per se MB-EAT deals with the consciousness bringing the experience into mindful awareness.

JK: This is complicated. Sometimes overeating does feel like it’s about the food itself—ice cream or pizza or chocolate. Certainly those foods have specific physical effects on the body and on the brain. In the drug and alcohol area to some substantive degree the sense of craving and compulsion is about the particular drug. But with food overeating is really about the relationship that has been created and developed around a food. We see people dramatically shift in their experience of the very foods that had previously represented binge foods to them. As people continue through the program we work with being aware of physical hunger in contrast to other triggers for the desire to eat. And we make it very clear that those triggers are not for the most part in and of themselves pathological.

We also help people tune in to stomach fullness. Many overeaters are only aware of being empty—and then being totally full. We introduce a ten-point scale for fullness with one being not full at all and ten being as full as possible. This allows people to begin to notice that often they eat to a nine or a ten. We find that most people can easily reacquaint themselves with what middle levels of fullness feel like. Fine-tuning the distinctions between levels of fullness can actually happen surprisingly quickly. For example someone who had previously binge eaten multiple times per week reported “This week was really great but I had one day that was difficult because I meant to eat only to a five or six but ate to an eight.”

We then work with another choice: instead of being “mindless” and automatic participants evaluate what food to eat in what amounts. One woman described going to the all-you-can-eat buffet before she started the program. She would start out intending to eat in a very healthy way selecting salads green beans and chicken (removing all the skin) but she wouldn’t be satisfied. So she would go back through the buffet choosing another entire meal of the foods she had really wanted in the first place. Now when she chooses among foods in a more mindful way she picks smaller amounts of foods that are actually appealing to her and ends up eating far less and feeling much more satisfied.

We also do a lot of work with what we call “outer wisdom ” based on the idea that we have a lot of knowledge around food—such as calorie levels and nutritional value—that we can employ as useful information instead of using it to beat ourselves up or set impossible goals like “I’m only going to eat 1 000 calories a day.”

We can use our knowledge to find a balanced relationship with food: “Instead of three bowls of diet ice cream I’ll eat half a bowl of my favorite rich ice cream slowly and mindfully which will be fewer calories and totally satisfying.”

IM: What about meditation?

JK: We emphasize the importance of establishing a sitting meditation practice for cultivating increased mindfulness and we also explicitly encourage people to take mindfulness practice into their day-to-day activities starting with their eating. We have a practice we call “mini-meditation.” For instance we suggest that people stop center themselves and bring awareness to their thoughts feelings and experiences around an eating or food situation such as sitting in front of a piece of chocolate cake or pizza. Pause and bring your awareness to your hunger (and the degree to which it’s about physical hunger or some other need for eating) to your anticipation of eating that food to making a decision about how to relate to that food (whether to eat it or how much to eat) and once you start eating to the experience of eating. Such a mini-meditation is the tool that people say is the most useful and the most powerful—and our research data supports that.

Finally I want to emphasize that mindful eating is not about always eating slowly. People will say “I can’t possibly eat all my meals like I ate that raisin.” Our reply is “We’re helping you learn to bring these tools into any experience of eating.” That may mean making a more mindful choice about what to eat for lunch even if they have to gobble it down because they’ve got a meeting in five minutes. That’s very different from just grabbing something and automatically eating it.

IM: Gobbling but being aware that you’re gobbling.

JK: In the moment being aware that you’re gobbling and accepting that unfortunately gobbling was all you had time for that day!

From the Spring 2010 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 26 No. 2)© 2010 Inquiring Mind