30 Days of Mindful Eating – Day 4

This post is part of a series of posts on mindful eating. The Introduction contains links to the entire series.

Well, it’s the fourth day of my mindful eating trial and I’ve read thirty-eight pages of Jan Chozen Bays’ book. I like the book, but there are too many exercises for me to be able to do all of them. I’m picking exercises that are the most helpful.

Gywnn of Serene Journey has kindly volunteered to join me during the trial. I look forward to comparing experiences with him.

Even though it’s still early in the trial, I’ve learned about types of hunger and made some observations.

Types of Hunger

I’ve learned there are seven different types of hunger from the book:

1. Eye hunger: You want to eat what you see. For instance, you may see a dessert tray in a restaurant and want the dessert even though you’re already stuffed. The beauty of the food entices you.
2. Nose hunger: You smell something you want to eat. For example, you may walk into a bakery, smell something wonderful baking, and your mouth begins to salivate. Most of our sense of taste is related to smell. I’m sure you’ve experienced congestion from a bad cold and lost most of your sense of taste.
3. Mouth hunger: You want to taste something and chew. Sometimes your mouth wants things that are crunchy or soft, hot or cold, salty or sweet, and so on. My favorite crunchy, cold, salty food is potato chips.
4. Stomach hunger: You feel your stomach wants food because it feels empty or is gurgling. You may feel like your stomach is trying to digest itself.
5. Mind hunger: You have thoughts of eating food. Your thoughts may begin with “I should” or “I shouldn’t”. For instance, you may think you should eat your green beans, but not more French fries.
6. Heart hunger: You want certain types of food you find comforting. For instance, I’m comforted by chocolate - I want to eat it when I’m sad or anxious.
7. Cellular hunger: You feel that the cells in your body want something. For example, if your body lacks certain vitamins, your cells may crave certain foods that contain those vitamins.

I did an exercise where I rated each type of hunger with a single dried cherry. It was an insightful experience - I could rate all types of hunger except cellular hunger. I don’t really understand how to sense cellular hunger yet.

I suggest you try mindful eating at least a few times – I think you’ll find it useful for understanding your hunger. When you want to eat, try to figure out which types of hunger motivate you. You can rate each hunger on a scale of one to ten before, during, and after the meal. Notice how your hunger changes.

Observations

I’ve made eight observations after a few days of mindful eating.

1. I get bored with eating. The first few bites of a food are tasty. After that, the food becomes boring. It helps if the meal has a mixture of foods and I alternate bites of the different foods. My boredom may be why I like eating mindlessly.
2. I’m eating less. I’m eating less during each meal without any effort. This may be related to my boredom, consciously tasting the food, or being more in touch with my hunger. I’m not sure.
3. I find it difficult to evaluate the types of hunger. It all seems to be generic hunger, unless I really concentrate. This is a skill that probably takes time develop so that it becomes automatic. I’ll keep working on it.
4. I’m more likely to eat food mindfully, if I prepare it mindfully. I have to prepare the food slowly to be mindful. I carefully look at each ingredient. I find this fun and interesting - it’s as if I’m seeing some foods for the first time.
5. I can easily avoid external distractions. I just eat at the dining room table with nothing to read or do. This makes it easy to avoid external distractions, but I miss reading while I’m eating.
6. I’m easily distracted by thoughts. I can focus on the food for a few minutes, but then my thoughts wonder and I have to consciously refocus. This may happen because I get bored with eating.
7. I sometimes stay mindful after the meal. If I eat a meal mindfully, I’m more likely to continue to be mindful after the meal. This has only happened twice, but I hope it’ll happen more frequently in the future.
8. I tense my body when I eat. This is weird. I tend to tense some of my upper body muscles whenever I take a bite of food. Even if I consciously relax after it happens, I usually tense again during the next bite.

Have you had any experience with the different types of hunger? Which types motivate you to eat?

Related posts:

1. 30 Days of Mindful Eating – Day 14
2. 30 Days of Mindful Eating – Day 30
3. 30 Days of Mindful Eating – Day 22
4. Your Mindful Eating Mission
5. 30 Days of Mindful Eating – Author Interview

Tags: Diet, Mindful Eating, Mindfulness