Transcript
00:00:05 Fiona spence
Hello and welcome to our podcast series focusing on food well-being and mental health run by NHS Fife Nutrition and clinical dietetics, mental health and learning disability team.
00:00:15 Fiona spence
My name is Fiona Spence. I'm a registered nutritionist and today I'm joined by Sarah Gallacher, who's a dietitian today we are going to be talking about mindful eating.
00:00:24 Fiona spence
For those who missed our first episode, let's introduce Sarah.
00:00:27 Sara Gallacher
Hello, thanks for having me back. My name is Sara Gallacher so I am a dietitian. I did the first podcast on holistic health.
00:00:36 Sara Gallacher
And so I currently work for NHS Fife and my specialty is mental health and eating disorders.
00:00:42 Fiona spence
So Sara you're here today to introduce us to the topic of mindful eating. So what is this?
00:00:49 Sara Gallacher
So mindful eating really links into our holistic health and the first podcast that I did back at the start of the year was looking at holistic health.
00:00:59 Sara Gallacher
And what we're thinking about really, is our physical needs our emotional and mental needs as well as our spiritual needs now, you might have heard of the term mindfulness, and this is a technique that can be used to help us become a bit more self aware. It can also help us to feel a little bit calmer.
00:01:19 Sara Gallacher
A little bit less stressed and most importantly, it can also help us to be a bit kinder to ourself.
00:01:27 Sara Gallacher
I think we all give ourselves a bit of a bad time and a bit of a tough time and some compassion and kindness can really go quite a long way.
00:01:36 Sara Gallacher
So by being more mindful what we're really doing is we're trying to notice what's happening in the present moment, and the most important part here is that you're aware of your present moment without any judgement, which is actually quite difficult to do and what you're doing is you're trying to accept the moment for what it is.
00:01:55 Sara Gallacher
You can start to take notice of things such as what am I thinking?
00:01:59 Sara Gallacher
What physical sensations am I experiencing? Do I need the toilet, am I hungry. What's around me or it might be who's around me?
00:02:08 Sara Gallacher
And this mindfulness does take practise.
00:02:12 Sara Gallacher
But for some people it can be really, really helpful to support them with a number of mental health issues, so that might be low mood, might be anxiety or feelings of stress.
00:02:23 Fiona spence
And is mindful eating a fairly new concept.
00:02:26 Sara Gallacher
So I’d say mindful eating is probably a fairly newish concept, however.
00:02:31 Sara Gallacher
Mindfulness as a principle dates back thousands of years ago, so it's really at the heart of Buddhism practise, so we're talking about 2500 years ago.
00:02:42 Sara Gallacher
And for some people who and so maybe some of our listeners who practise yoga, this will probably be something that they're quite familiar with, so they'll be familiar with the concept of mindfulness as you very much tune into your body when you're practising yoga. Now, mindfulness can be translated into eating, and this can in turn help us.
00:03:02 Sara Gallacher
To develop a more positive relationship with food and eating.
00:03:07 Sara Gallacher
However, it is important just to mention here that mindful eating is not for everybody. So for people who have maybe an eating disorder diagnosis, if they are eating disorder recovery and that's particularly people who have anorexia or ARFID, so that's avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. And again, we've done a podcast on that already.
00:03:26 Sara Gallacher
If someone with anorexia or ARFID was to practise mindful eating, it's probably kind of going to cause a bit of an increase anxiety.
00:03:34 Sara Gallacher
That said, there has been studies have shown that it can be helpful for people who are living with a binge eating disorder or for people who find that they emotionally eat.
00:03:45 Fiona spence
So would this be a lot of people there?
00:03:47 Sara Gallacher
So around 22% of people who are living with an eating disorder will have binge eating disorder. But just to say, if you do suspect that you have an eating disorder there is lots and lots of support out there, lots of information and help.
00:04:01 Sara Gallacher
It's out there for you and what we'll do is we'll add the beat website in the useful links below.
00:04:07 Sara Gallacher
I would signpost people there in the first instance if they have any concerns around their eating or eating disorder behaviour.
00:04:13 Fiona spence
Thanks Sarah, that's helpful.
00:04:15 Sara Gallacher
To be honest, most of us will eat emotionally at times, so I'll give you an example and say you got caught in the rain without a jacket.
00:04:24 Sara Gallacher
And it's getting dark. It's winter time you're feeling cold, you're wet, you're absolutely miserable and it's time for you to have your evening meal or your tea. What do you want to?
00:04:36 Fiona spence
We've talked about this in the last podcast and I can't remember what I said, but.
00:04:40 Fiona spence
I think Stovies is up there.
00:04:43 Fiona spence
I've got quite a few.
00:04:44 Fiona spence
Got quite a few comforters.
00:04:45 Sara Gallacher
OK.
00:04:46 Fiona spence
Definitely nothing with salad, that's for sure.
00:04:49 Sara Gallacher
What other? What other things, stovies you said?
00:04:53 Fiona spence
Macaroni, that's your favourite, isn't it?
00:04:54 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, be macaroni for me. Yeah, macaroni, definitely.
00:04:57 Fiona spence
Just something hot like a big Stew or a casserole. Something like that.
00:05:03 Fiona spence
Proper hearty food.
00:05:04 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, so something that gives you a feeling of being cosy.
00:05:08 Sara Gallacher
It makes you feel warm like a hearty soup with some crusty bread and lots of butter.
00:05:12 Fiona spence
I'll tell you what I love. This is now you know that we're passionate about food 'cause we just want to talk about food.
00:05:19 Fiona spence
My absolute ultimate favourite. It's gotta be steak pie.
00:05:24 Sara Gallacher
That's a good choice. What would you have with it?
00:05:25 Fiona spence
Mashed potatoes and veg.
00:05:28 Sara Gallacher
Good choice.
00:05:29 Sara Gallacher
So again, these are foods that we are using to soothe us in a way.
00:05:36 Sara Gallacher
And so we're eating emotionally. We're comfort eating. It's completely normal. But as I said, it makes us feel better so that we feel satisfied.
00:05:46 Sara Gallacher
And more happier.
00:05:47 Fiona spence
Definitely happier after a meal with steak pie. Yeah, I'm so glad you said that this is normal though, because how often do we beat ourselves up?
00:05:56 Fiona spence
Even if you're not that conscious about eating healthy or anything like that, but I think it's kind of ingrained in us through, you know, social media or whatever and just the media exposure that you know.
00:06:09 Fiona spence
If you don't eat well, a lot of the time, then you're not doing good by yourself, you know.
00:06:15 Fiona spence
But actually yeah if you've had a bad day, the first thing I go for is a bar of chocolate.
00:06:20 Sara Gallacher
Absolutely, and it's that way that comfort eating is, you know, interpreted as being a negative thing when we actually a lot of us do it all the time, day-to-day.
00:06:30 Fiona spence
Why should we eat more mindfully?
00:06:33 Sara Gallacher
So most importantly, by eating a bit more mindfully, this is going to allow us to slow down so we can then start to appreciate our foods a little bit more. And it can also help us to develop a healthier relationship with foods as well.
00:06:46 Sara Gallacher
Now, it isn't a diet. I can't really emphasise that enough. It's not a diet and it should not be used as a tool to make us eat any less or to try and lose weight, and it might however help you to gauge what's an appropriate amount of food for you, which as we know is going to be different for everybody, but that shouldn't come with a notion or expectation that you will then eat less and then restrict.
00:07:12 Sara Gallacher
Because as we know as you’re going to be more likely to increase intake of foods that are higher in fat and sugar.
00:07:15 Sara Gallacher
And we know that if we restrict any foods or food groups were then more likely to have periods when we might over eat and that can then be followed by feelings of guilt or distress and this is something that we have spoken about previously in a few other podcasts.
00:07:36 Sara Gallacher
So ditch the Diet podcast and also the holistic health one.
00:07:41 Sara Gallacher
Now all foods can be eaten mindfully and so that might be a carrot stick, or it might be chocolate cake.
00:07:48 Sara Gallacher
Research has shown that by people eating a bit more mindfully, this can actually help to improve our digestion and also regulate our appetite. And in fact in some other countries.
00:08:01 Sara Gallacher
Mindful eating is actually part of their dietary guidelines, so when I say dieting guidelines that for us, that's kind of like our eat well guide.
00:08:08 Sara Gallacher
Uhm, but in countries like Canada and Germany, they, UM, highlight mindful eating as a really important principle. So overall it can make eating a more enjoyable and pleasurable experience. I mean, what more could you want?
00:08:22 Fiona spence
Exactly you used to hear a lot of advice around, uhm, putting cutlery down between mouthfuls of food? Yeah, would you say that that's a good start?
00:08:32 Sara Gallacher
It is definitely a good start, and it's something I'll come onto in a few minutes if that's OK, because there's I'd quite like to chat through a few
00:08:42 Sara Gallacher
Tips into how we can start to eat a bit more mindfully?
00:08:46 Fiona spence
Fantastic, so how exactly do we eat more mindfully then?
00:08:51 Sara Gallacher
So this is the $1,000,000 question and so mindful eating as I said earlier on is about mindfulness. So it's the art of being fully present when you eat and the word there's ‘art’ so it's can be quite tricky to do. UM, what we want to try and do is be a bit more attuned.
00:09:10 Sara Gallacher
To your body. Now that's with all of your senses so your smell, your taste. You want to tune into your hunger, your satiety. So that's your feeling of fullness.
00:09:21 Sara Gallacher
And so you want to try and tune into these cues, because that will then help you to inform decisions around when to start eating and when you want to finish eating.
00:09:32 Sara Gallacher
And it also allows you to take time to appreciate foods without guilt, and also choose foods for nourishment and also for satisfaction.
00:09:41 Sara Gallacher
And enjoyment, so we're not really just thinking, right? I'm going to eat an apple because it's healthy. We're considering all sorts of different factors.
00:09:49 Fiona spence
And could one of these factors be that you actually don't like apples?
00:09:52 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, absolutely. Some people don't like apples. That's totally normal. Everybody has a few, uh, you know, a good number of foods that they don't like.
00:10:01 Sara Gallacher
That might be apples for you.
00:10:03 Fiona spence
You know The funny thing is, maybe it's maybe it's just me. Maybe there's lots of people out there listening that can relate to this, but actually I eat foods that I don't overly enjoy.
00:10:13 Fiona spence
And I almost block out the mindfulness part of it because I know it's good for me and I know my body needs it.
00:10:20 Sara Gallacher
I think I do that too to be honest, so let's get started on a few things that we can try.
00:10:26 Sara Gallacher
To basically eat a bit more mindfully, and we're not going to be experts at this to start with, just to say it is quite difficult to do.
00:10:36 Sara Gallacher
I for one don't do it very well, but with a bit of practise we can get a lot better at it.
00:10:42 Sara Gallacher
The first thing we want to try and do, which is probably one of the most difficult things, is to listen, so to listen to your body and the reason this is most difficult is because it needs time. So you really need to try and take some time.
00:10:56 Sara Gallacher
Take some time out to start to tune into your body and to start to tune into hunger. So what does hunger feel like for you?
00:11:06 Fiona spence
You asking me?
00:11:11 Sara Gallacher
Yeah I’m asking you. What's a hunger feeling? When are you hungry? How do you know you’re hungry?
00:11:13 Fiona spence
OK, uh, what is hunger to me? Stomach grumbling.
00:11:16 Fiona spence
I don't listen to my body at all. I'm awful at it.
00:11:20 Fiona spence
I'm too busy.
00:11:21 Sara Gallacher
So that's a classic answer. Yeah stomach rumble and I need to eat. Eat pretty quickly.
00:11:28 Sara Gallacher
And that's like you said there, you're too busy, you're really distracted and you know it can be the same as, well, you know, we're really busy and distracted so we only recognise hunger as suddenly feeling a massive massive rumble in your tummy. And you're like actually ravenous.
00:11:45 Sara Gallacher
But there are other more subtle signs of hunger that come in quite a bit of time before you get that massive tummy rumble.
00:11:52 Sara Gallacher
So you might start to feel a bit more distracted
00:11:55 Sara Gallacher
You might start to feel like your energy levels are dipping a little bit. You can't concentrate. You might start to think about foods a little bit, we often use hunger.
00:12:05 Sara Gallacher
scales and tell people to explore what hunger feels like for them because it is very, very individual.
00:12:11 Sara Gallacher
And we do want to try to avoid getting to this extreme level of hunger, so that might be that ravenous feeling, 'cause that might then potentially lead to us eating a volume of foods that causes us that real discomfort.
00:12:24 Sara Gallacher
We've eaten too much. We're really uncomfortably full again. That restrict binge cycle that we've spoken about in previous podcasts.
00:12:31 Sara Gallacher
The extreme hunger. It's an extreme feeling of fullness. We really want to try and set a bit more comfortably in the middle
00:12:37 Sara Gallacher
It's a lot more comfortable for our bodies and our body is going to function a lot better in that middle ground rather than that extreme.
00:12:45 Sara Gallacher
As I said, so extreme hunger, extreme fullness, we want to try and sit somewhere in the middle layer.
00:12:50 Fiona spence
It's interesting you actually talking about this in a mindful way, because you're actually making me think mindfully about how I feel just now and actually listening to you. Yeah, I'm actually sitting here going. I am a little bit peckish.
00:13:04 Sara Gallacher
When did you last eat?
00:13:05 Fiona spence
Lunch time. this is now mid afternoon. Yeah yeah it's my time to top up. Yeah we're too busy and I don't think people on a podcast would want to listen to me munching.
00:13:13 Sara Gallacher
No they don't.
00:13:15 Sara Gallacher
But what it can sometimes be helpful to do is think about a fuel gauge in a car? This is a bit of an analogy, but we use this quite a lot, so we use a fuel gauge in a car and I think maybe Amzu mentioned this in previous podcasts.
00:13:29 Sara Gallacher
So the gauge is zero to ten. So a zero is complete hunger. You've got absolutely no energy, feel dizzy, you need to lie down.
00:13:39 Sara Gallacher
You feel absolutely ill from the hunger and ten as Christmas Day stuffed so full. I need to lie down immediately and I'm actually in pain.
00:13:49 Sara Gallacher
Most people probably don't identify with the zero, but some people can probably identify with the 10 of that fullness.
00:13:55 Fiona spence
I think on Christmas Day nearly everybody, unless you're really sensible.
00:13:56 Speaker 1
Yeah yeah, yeah.
00:14:00 Sara Gallacher
But then if you think about 5, so that's completely in the middle. You're neither hungry, you're neither full. You can't feel anything in your stomach.
00:14:09 Sara Gallacher
You aren't hungry or full, so a lot of people because they're so busy during the day or at work, etc will wait until their hunger is at a level of a 1 or a 2.
00:14:20 Sara Gallacher
So they're really, really, you know, on their way to feeling ill from hunger.
00:14:26 Sara Gallacher
And are they going to cook a meal from scratch?
00:14:27 Fiona spence
I think you would. You would maybe still cook a meal from scratch. You'd be snacking all along the way though.
00:14:32 Sara Gallacher
Yeah exactly, you would be like you say you might be having to cook a meal for a family, but you're also going to eat the first thing you can get your hands on, so that might be part of the ingredients when you're making the foods. That might be something that's in the cupboard and you might be eating very quickly.
00:14:48 Sara Gallacher
Then it can sometimes feel quite out of control.
00:14:51 Sara Gallacher
So some people might not even have a meal, they'll just have snacks.
00:14:55 Sara Gallacher
And it becomes quite a large volume of food. So then you're going from a one or two of hunger.
00:15:02 Sara Gallacher
To an 8 or a nine of the fullness. So that's the opposite. But it's also quite uncomfortable, so you're going from an uncomfortable to uncomfortable feeling or sensation.
00:15:10 Sara Gallacher
And like I said, we want to try and sit around on more of a middle ground with that.
00:15:16 Sara Gallacher
Now secondly, another tip, and this is really in order to do the first step we talked about there in terms of tuning into hunger.
00:15:24 Sara Gallacher
Is to slow down, and that's again going back to what you mentioned about the cutlery, so eating slower.
00:15:33 Sara Gallacher
This can help to make us.
00:15:34 Sara Gallacher
Feel a bit more relaxed.
00:15:35 Sara Gallacher
So it's not a big, fast, crazy chaotic time. It's a nice, slow, relaxed time where we can actually take a bit of time to enjoy the eating experience.
00:15:45 Sara Gallacher
We want to try to chew our food well.
00:15:49 Sara Gallacher
And this is where the cutlery comes in. So maybe put your cutlery down between each mouthful. That can help to give you that time to chew your food well.
00:15:56 Sara Gallacher
You're going to therefore be less on autopilot and so this day allows us to properly tune into our bodies a little bit more.
00:16:04 Fiona spence
This is probably quite a challenge.
00:16:07 Fiona spence
For so many people.
00:16:08 Fiona spence
I know, I'm absolutely guilty of eating too fast. I'm always eating too fast. You're either totally rushed for time.
00:16:15 Fiona spence
You're running late or you don't have enough time on your hands just to take a proper break. And yeah, I think I'd love to sit down and do mindful eating. But yeah, I would maybe have to get rid of my children.
00:16:28 Sara Gallacher
Yes, it's carving out the time to do that.
00:16:31 Sara Gallacher
But then it's maybe a bit of self-care as well, isn't it? And you know it can be really quite powerful and really, really valuable.
00:16:39 Sara Gallacher
Just taking that like I mean it's it is going to be a little bit more difficult to do initially, but quite quickly you know the more practise you do, the more practise you have at it.
00:16:52 Sara Gallacher
It’ll almost become like second nature and you'll know yourself what your kind of earlier hunger cues are, rather than getting to that real starvation.
00:17:01 Fiona spence
Do you think you could do it if you lived in a household so that there are say several people. You flat shared or you had a family? Is it something that you could practise with other people.
00:17:13 Sara Gallacher
Together yeah, of course.
00:17:14 Fiona spence
This is not something that you have to sit down and do it by yourself on your own.
00:17:18 Fiona spence
It is actually something you could you know you could talk about the way you're feeling about your hunger, you could talk about what you're about to eat and how it looks and how it smells.
00:17:29 Sara Gallacher
Absolutely. It’s a good principle to try with children as well, and especially that kind of hunger, a lot of children, especially my children, are constantly asking, you know, at the weekend for snacks, or you know, it's just holiday time.
00:17:43 Sara Gallacher
They're constantly asking for snacks and a lot of the time it's just boredom. And I do try to get them to tune into their hunger as much as I can.
00:17:51 Sara Gallacher
Because sometimes you just say yeah, I'm hungry, I'm hungry but in.
00:17:54 Fiona spence
And sometimes they just see something.
00:17:56 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, absolutely, but.
00:17:57 Fiona spence
They see something and they want it.
00:17:59 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, I think having that conversation is good to try and instil that you know that awareness into children and into all of us, and if that's into mealtimes, then even better. But talking about, you know, doing mindfulness in.
00:18:14 Sara Gallacher
A family in a household. It is also quite important that when we are eating that we're trying to avoid distraction as much as as possible. Now that's not necessarily meaning distraction from family members.
00:18:27 Sara Gallacher
But we want to try and create a space in where we can enjoy our foods and relax a bit more.
00:18:35 Sara Gallacher
So I do feel like a bit of a fraud for even suggesting that people might do this, but uhm, try not to look at your phone when you're eating. Try not to watch television.
00:18:47 Sara Gallacher
Try not to sit at a computer and you know this may be your lunch at work, or if you're working from home you might not actually take any time away from your computer to eat meals.
00:18:58 Sara Gallacher
I remember at times I didn't do that when I was trying to juggle working from home, home schooling, and all the rest of it. You would literally have your three main meals at your computer.
00:19:07 Sara Gallacher
At the desk.
00:19:08 Sara Gallacher
So, uhm, yeah, it's it's. It's not easy to do, but there is a lot of value in trying to minimise each distractions, but still, it doesn't mean eliminate distractions from the of the family.
00:19:20 Sara Gallacher
You know, still eating together but avoiding things like TV, etc.
00:19:25 Fiona spence
But you're right, you know you need time to switch off and like.
00:19:28 Fiona spence
You're saying, you know, during the height of the pandemic, you know when we were juggling an awful lot. People weren't taking decent breaks, and that's not good for your appetite or your mental health.
00:19:39 Fiona spence
You know, that's it's. It's really not good for you, but I love the I love the idea though, but.
00:19:44 Fiona spence
'cause I'm actually quite a traditional person and I love having family meals round the table with no distractions. Finding out what people have been up to during the day.
00:19:54 Fiona spence
You know, find out what the plans are for the week talking about your food, talking about. Maybe you know what other meals the rest of the family want for the rest of the week and actually just opening up some conversation.
00:20:04 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, it can be a really, really nice time. So another important part of mindful eating is to try to enjoy every mouthful.
00:20:14 Sara Gallacher
So this should sound pretty simple to do that, and really, that is what we want to do, and we're eating food is to actually enjoy it.
00:20:22 Sara Gallacher
Uhm, but we want to try and think about the smell of the food. The colour of the food, the flavour, how it feels like feel in your hand how it feels in your mouth.
00:20:34 Sara Gallacher
What’s the texture like. What's it taste? Is it sweet? Is it salty? Is it hot or cold?
00:20:38 Sara Gallacher
So this can help us to find the amount of and also the type of foods that's going to give us the most satisfaction.
00:20:46 Sara Gallacher
Which kind of links into the next point, which is to actually eat food that satisfies you. So you want to eat for fuel. Obviously to give you energy and also nourishment. But we're eating for not just.
00:20:58 Sara Gallacher
A full tummy, so we're actually getting that feeling of satisfaction.
00:21:04 Sara Gallacher
For example, I have maybe been for a five mile walk in the morning. It's not this morning or any morning recently and it was then time for lunch.
00:21:16 Sara Gallacher
So I was pretty hungry. I'm probably sitting at about a 3 or a 4 on that fuel gauge.
00:21:23 Sara Gallacher
For example, I could pick something like a salad and I would have to eat as much salad that would make me feel full, which would probably be quite a lot of salad.
00:21:35 Sara Gallacher
And so it would give me that feeling of fullness, but it's probably not going to give me much satisfaction because I've not had any complex carbohydrates to give me back some of the energy that I've just used up on that big long walk.
00:21:48 Sara Gallacher
I’m probably not going to feel full for a very long.
00:21:52 Sara Gallacher
However, if I had chosen something along with the salad, so say I had salad with a nice complex carbohydrate like baked potato or maybe a sandwich, and then added in a bit of protein. So maybe some cheese or tuna or egg. Chances are then I would be feeling a lot more satisfied.
00:22:08 Sara Gallacher
My energy levels would be restored a bit more, but then that's just me. Somebody else who did exactly the same amount of activity would feel satisfied eating something completely different.
00:22:21 Sara Gallacher
And if I'm not satisfied, the chances are I'm more likely to be grazing later on or snacking outside of my usual meal or snack times.
00:22:30 Sara Gallacher
Which leads us on to regular eating and I know this is something we keep banging on about in these podcasts.
00:22:36 Sara Gallacher
Uhm, it is so important though, and one way to try and eat regularly is to try and plan ahead.
00:22:42 Sara Gallacher
Uhm, our bodies love routine. So that goes for eating as well. And uhm, lots of other complicated processes that happen in your body.
00:22:52 Sara Gallacher
It can also be really helpful if you're trying to explore hunger. So what you might want to do initially when you're looking at this is by eating a meal or snack, say every three hours or so.
00:23:02 Sara Gallacher
Or so you're going to avoid getting too hungry.
00:23:06 Sara Gallacher
Therefore, eat at the right time and therefore reduce the chance of overeating and then experiencing that too full sensation, which as we know is also you know it's quite a distressing feeling to have as well.
00:23:20 Fiona spence
I just need a nap after I've eaten too much. I'm good for nothing.
00:23:23 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, the Christmas Day feeling. Post prandial slump. Need a nap.
00:23:29 Sara Gallacher
So finally my final tip on trying to eat a bit more mindful is to try and avoid labelling foods as good and bad, so all is so important that we note here that all foods can play a part in our diet. Mindfulness is trying to be present without judgement.
00:23:49 Sara Gallacher
It is really difficult to do. However, we want to know, are we really actually enjoying the eating experience. So instead of saying this cake is bad or unhealthy, you might think more about the actual eating experience.
00:24:02 Sara Gallacher
So you want to say, instead, let's cake is dry and stale or this cake is sweet and moist.
00:24:09 Fiona spence
So to round up your interesting talk on mindful eating Sarah, what do you think would be the most helpful starting point for someone who wanted to try this?
00:24:17 Fiona spence
I totally appreciate you've given us loads of really good tips to get started, but what would be an easy, achievable way to start?
00:24:26 Sara Gallacher
So it really depends on what type of person you are, and this isn't really a kind of 1 size fits all. We will all have different busy lives will all have time or not have time to tune into our bodies so it will really depend on what you feel capable of trying to change, I suppose and.
00:24:48 Sara Gallacher
For some people that might be not to look at their phone when they're eating, and for other people that might be to try and tune into their hunger a little bit more and to try and recognise the early signs of hunger.
00:25:03 Sara Gallacher
So it's quite difficult to say that one thing will work for one person 'cause it is really quite variable.
00:25:10 Fiona spence
So even one thing is a big step forward, absolutely, you know you've given us quite a lot of tips, but actually even by using one of these tips, and if you could try and apply it regularly. That's a massive bit of progress.
00:25:26 Sara Gallacher
Yeah yeah, and it will really help for us to. I mean essentially what we want to try and do is.
00:25:32 Sara Gallacher
You keep that routine in and eating regularly is the best for our body, it’s going to work at its best when we eat regularly and trying to avoid these extreme hungers and extreme kinda levels of fullness. Try and get a bit more of a middle ground really.
00:25:49 Fiona spence
I guess being prepared as well really, you know we're all so guilty of being on the move and rushing about and then before you know it, you're absolutely starving, but maybe actually having some snacks in the car.
00:26:01 Fiona spence
Or to know when you're on route to something and you can actually just not get to that starving point, and you can actually just top up your fuel gauge.
00:26:10 Sara Gallacher
Yeah, I think it's also important to mention as well that having substantial snacks.
00:26:16 Sara Gallacher
'cause we can be quite guilty of going again down that diet mindset or right. I've had my three main meals today.
00:26:24 Sara Gallacher
I'm gonna have a snack mid afternoon mid morning but you know I might have a snack on the way home from work, but it might be an apple.
00:26:31 Sara Gallacher
I'm actually really, really hungry at that point so that Apple is not actually going to give me that level of satisfaction your then that's then going to lead to problems potentially later on when you're cooking your meal or you're you know, snacking on other things. Whereas if you actually had that as a quick snack.
00:26:48 Sara Gallacher
You then wouldn't face those issues because you'd be feeling more satisfied.
00:26:52 Fiona spence
This has been a great introduction to mindful eating Sara. I'm definitely going to be more mindful at my next meal.
00:26:58 Fiona spence
I think the message about your fuel levels is really helpful and not running on empty but not needing a nap from being overfull either.
00:27:07 Fiona spence
I can totally understand and appreciate why mindfulness as a concept takes so much time and practise. Uhm, it's not something that's we can apply straightaway, maybe.
00:27:18 Fiona spence
And everybody is different. Your environment changes daily. You know our lives change daily, so it's just maybe even just taking one small step and doing something that's right for you at that time and using one of your tips.
00:27:30 Sara Gallacher
And just tuning into the moment a bit more.
00:27:32 Fiona spence
Tuning into the moment I love that. Tuning into the podcast, tuning into the moment.
00:27:37 Fiona spence
On that note, Sarah, it's been absolutely wonderful to see you again. Thanks so much for coming by and doing this podcast.
00:27:42 Sara Gallacher
Thank you for having me again fiona.
00:27:44 Fiona spence
And we look forward to welcoming you back to another podcast soon, thanks. Bye.
