School is out for the summer and my children (and their friends) are spending a lot of time in my kitchen. Drawers and cabinets are always open, the stool is always left out, and snacks are disappearing at an alarming rate. I have tried setting limits around what they can eat and when, but everyone seems to “forget” these limits. I have been watching this unfold and struggling to remedy the issue. I have lectured, yelled, and threatened to clear out and stop buying any snacks at all if they do not stop acting so compulsively about their eating. Before I go to the extreme of banning all snack food from my home, I have one last idea to try. We are going to have a mindful eating lesson.
My kids have done this before. We practiced mindful eating for a while as a regular part of our pandemic forced, virtual school days at the end of the last school year. We got out of the habit over last summer though and never picked it up again. I think it is time to reintroduce the kids to mindful eating and this time, I will invite the neighbor kids to join. Before the kids get another chance to raid my kitchen, we’re going to talk about what mindful eating is and how to practice it (we’ll also discuss how the snacks will no longer be available if we can’t get this issue under control). Here’s what I have planned.
1. First, we will discuss the addictive nature of some foods, what mindless eating is, and how eating mindlessly can affect us. Most kids know that junk food is “bad” for them. Many of them don’t really understand why it is bad for them, though. I’ll explain to them how our body processes these foods and how they can harm us, how filling up on these foods keeps them from being hungry for nutritious foods, and why it is so easy to develop a junk food habit. We’ll also talk about how much more we eat when we aren’t paying attention and how much less we enjoy our food when we don’t take the time to notice it.
2. Then we’ll discuss what mindfulness is, how to eat mindfully, and the benefits of mindful eating. We will go over the basics of staying present and mindful of our surrounding. Then, we’ll talk about how we can apply this to the food we eat. I’ll explain how much more enjoyable eating can be when we do it mindfully, how it helps us feel more satisfaction, how it makes it easier to decide if we are really hungry and need a snack or are just bored, and how to know when it is time to stop eating.
3. Finally, we will practice. I’ll have some snacks ready for them to try eating mindfully. We will have an assortment of things to try…carrot sticks, broccoli, orange slices, raisins, chocolate, crackers, and fruit snacks. I will guide the kids through the process of checking in with their bodies before the start eating, looking at the food, smelling it, feeling it, tasting it, and paying attention to how their bodies feel after they eat. Afterward, we will discuss what they experienced and their thoughts and feelings about mindful eating.
I do not expect this to be an instant fix to our snacking problem, but I hope that with gentle reminders and practice, we can make mindful eating a habit in our home again. I don’t believe that all snacking is bad and want to let my kids enjoy treats. I want them to do so consciously and responsibly, though and I think this will help.