Top tools for mindful eating from a clinical dietitian
It’s common knowledge that mindful eating can help encourage healthier eating habits, be it learning your personal hunger signals or avoiding “distraction eating.” But many people, myself included, struggle with putting a focus on nutrition out of fear it will bring to the surface restrictive eating habits that we work so hard to keep dormant.
I talked with a friend who, as long as I’ve known her, has been passionate about food in an enviably healthy way. Cassandra Lacko, MS, RD, LDN (or Cassie, as I call her), works with patients recovering from a multitude of illnesses, COVID-19 included, and helps them regain strength, attain & maintain a balanced eating regimen, and work toward eating intuitively. Cassie offered me knowledge and advice to help you tune into your hunger signals, learn your cues, and prep your body and mind for the day ahead.
Intuitive eating is the overarching concept—mindful eating is just one step.
“You hear intuitive eating and mindful eating interchangeably,” Cassie said. “But ‘mindful eating’ is actually more of a tool within ‘intuitive eating.’ When eating intuitively, part of that is being mindful and looking at the food—does it look good, does it smell good, is it what I want right now? Am I hungry? It’s about just listening to yourself.”
So while mindful eating is a part of intuitive eating, the two aren’t synonymous. “Another part of intuitive eating is knowing you can’t eat mindfully all the time … sometimes you eat green vegetables that don’t smell or taste good to you but are healthy. Other times you’re running late and can’t prepare a balanced breakfast so you run out the door with coffee and a muffin. But it’s about knowing that that is okay & balance is good.”
Cassie’s other recommendations included meal building as well as incorporating a variety of food groups, all while listening to your body. If you wake up and aren’t hungry for a protein, take the time to listen to yourself and figure out what your body needs at that moment. And while meal building is key to helping identify the healthy foods you could add to your diet, don’t be afraid to mix things up. ”Some days, you’ll need to eat more. Others less. Intuitive eating is about listening to those hunger cues rather than always ignoring them for ‘what you’re supposed to eat.’”
Within the intuitive approach to eating is mindful eating, which came from a Hindu-Buddhist practice of being intentional about your actions and what you put into your body. There’s a big westernization of this concept in America in an effort to combat our high obesity rates & the consumer culture counteracted by a restrictive culture. It really brings to light the different negative things we tell ourselves—and what we’ve learned over the years. The more conscious you can be in recognizing that, the better prepared you’ll be to counteract negative practices.
Don’t confuse intuitive with restrictive
Cassie relayed that 99.9% of her day is spent encouraging people to eat. The patient population she works with are either hospitalized or recently released and battle diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and even COVID-19. Most have lost a lot of weight.
“That’s what I love about my job—I like encouraging people to eat and help them build a healthy way of looking at food.” As a registered dietitian, Cassie mentioned that she still has many family members of patients and friends who talk to her about eating healthier or eating to influence their weight.
“The first thing I always tell people [looking to eat healthier] is to make small changes—literally only change one thing about how you eat and make that change sustainable.” We’re talking a habit change that you can commit to for a month, or year, or more—and it doesn’t need to be drastic. Cassie’s examples: add just one fruit or vegetable a day, eat breakfast, and don’t skip meals when you’re hungry, drink more water.
“I like to help people think of what they can do more of to be healthy—what can they add—rather than feeding into the diet culture that encourages people to remove, subtract, and eat less.”
Don’t give up what you love
“There’s a reason we crave carbs,” Cassie said. “That’s the main source of energy for your brain, everything you eat eventually gets converted to glucose in the blood or blood sugar, the main source of energy for all of your body’s cells … so the easiest way to get that energy to your brain is to eat carbs.” But Cassie, along with many well-known dietitians, recognizes that cutting out the foods you love entirely will most likely lead to bingeing later down the line—and only make you miserable in the meantime. Beth Cecil, LD, RDN, a registered dietitian and writer of “Donuts in your cart,” speaks at length about how restricting the foods you love from your diet can negatively impact weight loss.
“I feel most balanced when everything is included, not just food. Not only do I eat meals I love, and am excited about, and tasted good, and I had an extra snack. But I felt nourished, maybe I had a great meal out, and I got nine plus hours of sleep. I talked to my family. I worked out the day before or that day,” Cassie said.
‘Balance’ can change from day to day
“I got into nutrition in the first place because I just love food. But I will say that sometimes I’m an overly mindful eater because I will just love it so much and it’s all I can talk about sometimes,” Cassie said. For her, along with most, mindful eating is about balance. Some days you’ll eat a ‘balanced diet,’ while others you’ll think about what you consume less—and that’s all part of the process.
“I’ve learned what works for me from watching people be very mindless. There’s living to eat and then eating to live, and there’s eating just because food is in front of you. But I’ve also watched people be too mindful where what they eat consumes every thought of their day … both of these outlooks can be problematic.”
Moral of the story? There’s no right or wrong way to eat, but there are beneficial and detrimental ways to think about eating.
Keep learning
Cassie gave me resources and professionals to consult on my mindful eating journey, the most prominent of whom she dubbed “the Intuitive Eating Queen,” Rachel Hartley. The message: you can always continue educating yourself on mindful eating, even as a dietitian.
Rachel Hartley’s philosophy transcends—and actually dismisses—the debate of what you “can” and “can’t” eat, or the ever-debated “good” and “bad” foods list. She seeks to help people in their journey to a healthier relationship with food, including one that views what you eat as “fueling your body to live a life that brings you joy.” That’s something that Cassie, and Fit to Get Well, can definitely get behind.
