How often do you really enjoy food, slowly and attentively savoring each bite?

If the answer is “not often,” you’re not alone. In this day and age, many of us eat our meals quickly and mindlessly. We eat while working, watching Netflix, browsing the Internet, conversing with friends, and even while daydreaming.

It’s human to eat quickly and mindlessly at times. But if we eat mindlessly too often, it can lead to overeating, obesity, and other health problems, not to mention emotional and mental health issues. Overall, we lose a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment inherent in eating.

Engaging in a mindful eating practice–slowly savoring our food and paying attention to our body’s hunger cues–can help us transform our relationship with food and lead to better overall health. Recent research shows it can help us create new, healthier habits and even lose weight–all without the use of willpower, strict diets, or forcing behaviors. The practice of mindful eating itself can be very nourishing–even transformational.

Read on to learn what mindful eating is, what benefits we experience from practicing it, and how to start making it a habit.

What is Mindful Eating?

You may have heard of mindfulness–the practice of focusing on the present moment openly and without judgment. Mindful eating is an application of mindfulness that involves paying close, purposeful attention to the sensory experience of eating.

Mindful eating involves:

• Noticing and enjoying the experience of eating.
• Listening to our body’s hunger cues (when you’re hungry and when you’re full).
• Fully experiencing our food, noticing colors, flavors, textures, and smells.
• Noticing any thoughts, emotions, or bodily sensations that arise before, during, and after eating.
• Learning to manage any guilt, anxiety, or other emotional response patterns we have around food.
• Appreciating and enjoying our food.

Practicing mindful eating helps us develop a greater awareness around every aspect of eating, including how enjoyable food is and what triggers us to eat. Sometimes we eat out of habit or to soothe unpleasant emotions, such as stress, anxiety, or anger. We may feel powerless in our ability to control this seemingly automatic reaction, unable to start making healthier choices. But if we struggle with weight gain or other unwanted results of such eating habits, practicing mindful eating can help us dismantle these habit loops and create an entirely new relationship with food and ourselves.

All of our habits are learned, which means they can be unlearned. Research shows that an evidence-based mindful eating program can help us uncover the root causes of our habits and rewire our brain to create new habits that we feel good about. Over time, we replace automatic thoughts and reactive behaviors with conscious, mindful, empowered responses–without the use of willpower or external rules.

Benefits of Mindful Eating

Mindful eating has a number of rewarding effects, many of which we’ll notice very quickly. They include:

• Increased awareness of thoughts, feelings, and judgments about eating.
• Reduced stress and anxiety.
• Increased awareness of our relationship with food, such as habitual behaviors other than physical hunger that lead us to eat.
• Increased pleasure as we learn to slow down and more fully enjoy the experience of eating.
• Healthier food choices, due to increased awareness of how different foods make us feel.

If we’re not paying attention when eating, we’re less likely to sense our body’s signals that tell us when we’re full–and we’re less likely to enjoy our food.

By practicing mindful eating, we become more aware of our body’s cues and experience the pleasure of eating more fully. And over time, this increased mindfulness and ability to fully experience what’s happening without judgment may extend to other areas of our lives, so that we become able to more clearly acknowledge and navigate intense emotions, challenging thoughts, or stressful situations. We may also notice improved digestion, among other health benefits.

Mindful eating encourages us to really appreciate food and relate to ourselves in a more accepting, nonjudgmental way–rather than restricting or punishing ourselves. When we begin to embody a sense of patience and curiosity, we can start to experience eating in a whole new way and learn to trust ourselves rather than relying on dietary restrictions. This can help us live more fully and develop a renewed appreciation for life, just the way it is.

But it’s not about pressuring ourselves to find a place of complete and utter self-acceptance. An increase in self-acceptance will happen naturally as we continue to practice mindfulness, including mindful eating.

Mindful eating is about focusing on our present-moment experience, consciously and without judgment. Mastering this takes some practice. But the act of focusing curiously on the present moment itself can be very rewarding, both mentally and physically.

Mindful Eating for Weight Loss and Habit Change

Mindful eating can help us create healthier eating habits, especially if we struggle with binge eating, stress eating, or eating in response to external triggers (such as social gatherings, celebrating holidays, or stressful situations that lead us to eat to try to manage our emotions). When we really pay attention to what does and doesn’t feel good, we notice that we enjoy a variety of different foods and that eating certain foods in large quantities may not feel so good.

We don’t have to stop eating all the things we love. And through eating the foods we love mindfully, we get to enjoy the experience of eating and even notice when we’re full, leading us to naturally eat less.

It can take up to 20 minutes for the brain to realize when we’re full. Often, we eat so fast that we don’t notice we’re full until we’ve overindulged. When we eat slowly and mindfully, we’re more likely to stop eating before this happens, which means we’re likely to eat less and perhaps lose weight–without using willpower or dietary restriction.

With more awareness of what triggers us to eat when we’re not physically hungry, over time, we also create a space between triggers and our reaction to them, allowing us to make empowered, mindful choices. We become in control of our behavior–not the other way around. This is how we can change our habits without force. We can break our habit cycles simply by noticing the elements in them and their effects on us.

Using mindful eating to build awareness around our habits, we can rewire and create physical changes in the brain. This can reduce cravings as well as change our old habits without much effort, as was proven in more than one mindful eating study. This is why eating mindfully is a much safer and more effective tool for habit change and weight loss than dieting. And the practice itself can be very nourishing.

Let’s discuss how mindful eating can not only help us lose weight but change the way we relate to food, our habits, and ourselves.

Mindful Eating vs. Dieting

The conventional approach to weight loss and changing eating habits is dieting. When dieting, we often count calories, weigh our portions, or carefully calculate how much sugar we eat each day. Or maybe we disallow what we deem to be “bad” foods entirely. And we may see some results initially, but often these results don’t last. That’s because dieting doesn’t address the root causes underneath our old eating habits, and labeling foods as “good” or “bad” doesn’t help us at all. So those habits can creep back in, and we may regain the weight we lost.

It’s also very challenging to sustain behavioral change before seeing results, which can take some time to become apparent. With mindful eating, instead of focusing on the outcome (perhaps losing weight or improving our blood glucose levels), we focus on the process: the experience of eating.

We can choose what and how much we eat, all while enjoying our favorite foods. Mindfully eating allows us to learn what foods and in what quantities feel right for us. It’s through becoming very aware of how eating feels that we naturally savor food more, eat until we’re full, and start choosing healthier foods because they make us feel good.

This is how we can change our habits permanently with mindful eating. We developed habits due to our brains’ reward-based learning system, and updating the reward value of our habits through mindfulness frees us to step out of our unhelpful habit loops.

How Mindful Eating Helps Us Break Our Habit Loops

Every habit consists of a trigger, behavior, and reward. On a very basic level, we may have formed our eating habits by seeing food that looked good (trigger), eating it (behavior), and feeling good because the food tasted good (reward).

Let’s use sweets as an example to understand habit loops. Perhaps when we were younger, our parents gave us a special dessert when we got good grades or had a difficult day. Now anytime we feel accomplished or stressed, we may get the urge to eat a delicious dessert.

This is because our crafty brain remembers that eating ice cream makes us feel better momentarily. And because sugar overrides the brain’s signals that tell us when we’re full, it’s easy to get “stuck” in a habit of mindlessly binging anytime we’re feeling stressed, sad, fatigued, or even celebratory. The more we repeat these behaviors, the more ingrained they become as habits.

But when we become very aware of the stages of these habits, identify what triggers us, and get present to all of their effects–including how we feel after binging on ice cream, such as  nauseated or sluggish–we begin to rewire our brain, update the relative reward value of the behavior, and become disenchanted with our habits. The spell of our habit is broken, and we become empowered to make new, healthier choices.

So even if we often binge on high-sugar, high-fat foods, mindful eating can help us break the cycle of overeating these foods. We can focus on the taste and flavors of our food, notice any thoughts and emotions that come up, and feel the sensations in our body. We might notice that fresh fruits and vegetables are just as (or even more) satisfying than sugary snacks. And over time, we can naturally choose healthier foods and eating behaviors.

Once we’re engaging in healthier eating behaviors, our brain utilizes the same reward-based learning system to ingrain these new behaviors as habits.

We’re now becoming habituated to eating healthier foods. This is how mindful eating can help us create new, healthier habits that last and feel good.

Read on for some tips on how to start eating mindfully. It may take some time and patience, but by maintaining a sense of curiosity and openness, we may find the act of building awareness itself to be very rewarding.

How to Practice Mindful Eating

Eating mindfully is easier than many people think. There are some simple tips for getting started, and they don’t take much effort. It can take some patience as you begin to practice, so ease into this practice gently. This is not about being perfect or attaining a quiet, still mind. It’s simply about increasing our awareness. Even one minute of mindfulness is one minute more than you had before, and every moment like this adds up to major change over time.

See if you can maintain a sense of curiosity, a “beginner’s mind.” In other words, see if you can pretend that you’re experiencing the act of eating for the very first time. This can help you really drop into the moment and explore your direct experience. If you get distracted or your mind wanders, simply note it openly and non-judgmentally, and then bring your attention back to the present moment.

Make sure you’re not ravenously hungry when you try this mindful eating exercise for the first time. Instead, wait until you’re moderately hungry and can be fully present in the moment to practice enjoying the experience of eating.

1. Make a date with your dinner. Take a little time and space to really taste and experience your food.
2. Start with a few mindful bites at the beginning of a meal and notice how this feels compared to how you usually eat.
3. Explore the pace of eating to help you really savor the taste.
4. See if you can add a few more mindful bites during the meal, noticing how much you are enjoying the food.
5. Relax your arms and hands between bites, maybe resting your hands on your lap or the table.
6. Notice any thoughts or emotions that come up. How does this food make you feel?
7. Tune into your body’s cues the best you can (this will become easier with practice). How does your stomach feel? Is it grumbling, does it feel empty or full? What other sensations do you notice in your body?
8. After eating, notice how you feel. Do you have more or less energy? How content do you feel?

When we’re first learning mindful eating strategies, sometimes we may feel as though our mind is fighting us, as though it doesn’t want to notice what’s going on in the present moment. That’s totally normal. Mindful eating is a practice–not a destination or something to perfect. It’s about paying attention to what’s happening right now, in this moment. And the more we practice, the easier it becomes.

It may take time and practice to master mindful eating. And noticing how you feel and the results of eating mindfully can help you stick with it, and remember to try to maintain a sense of playful curiosity. Soon, you’ll get to know your body’s hunger cues and relate to your habits–and to food, and yourself–in a whole new way.

How to Master Mindful Eating and Change Your Eating Habits with Eat Right Now

Even if you’ve been eating on auto-pilot or struggling with unwanted eating habits for decades, you can rewire your brain and get off the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster for good. A science-based clinically-proven mindful eating program can help you uncover the root causes of your eating patterns, rewire your brain, and learn to make new, empowered choices regarding food, eating, and coping with difficult emotions in a way that’s very nourishing.

Eat Right Now is an evidence-based program developed by neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Judson Brewer. It’s a unique mindfulness training program that helps you understand how your mind works and teaches you tools to change unwanted eating behaviors to create an entirely new relationship with food–and yourself.

With daily lessons, craving-specific tools, journaling capabilities, and a supportive online community–complete with live weekly calls and expert facilitators–you can learn to differentiate between real hunger and emotional craving and build new healthier habits that last.

Ready to feel at home in your body? Start the Eat Right Now program today.

Humans need to eat to stay alive. And nature made sure we wouldn’t forget to fuel our bodies by connecting eating to pleasurable rewards, such as delicious flavors and feel-good chemicals being released in the brain. But as with any behavior, engaging in it beyond its intended purpose repeatedly can have a negative impact on our health.

If we frequently eat large amounts of food until we’re uncomfortably full, nauseated, or upset, we may have a binge eating habit. And this can seriously impact our health and quality of life.

If you binge often, it’s important to know that there’s nothing wrong with you. And with the right tools, we can start overcoming binge eating, redefine our relationship with food, and create new, healthier habits–without restrictive dieting.

Read on to learn why and how binging can become a habit, and how to break the cycle for good.

What is Binge Eating?

Binge eating is the consumption of a large amount of food over a short period of time. It may be accompanied by difficult emotions and a sensed loss of control over our eating.

Many of us have binged at some point in our lives. Maybe we’ve had seconds or thirds at a buffet, finished a bowl of popcorn while watching a movie, or finished a tub of ice cream–because it was delicious, we lost track of how much we were eating, and sugar overrides the body’s hunger cues. But for some of us who chronically binge eat, our eating may feel out of control. This is a very common habit that affects people of all different ages, genders, sizes, and backgrounds.

So even if we binge eat often, we’re far from alone. And importantly, there is hope. With the right tools, we can explore our habits associated with binge eating and rewire our brain to create new habits that feel good. And we can do this without punishing or restricting ourselves.

Let’s discuss some common signs of binge eating.

Binge Eating Signs

What is considered binge eating may differ from person to person. But these are some common signs to look for:

• Eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, such as one or two hours.
• Feeling as though our eating is out of control.
• Eating when we’re not physically hungry, or beyond when we’re already full.
• Eating rapidly during a binge.
• Eating until we’re uncomfortably full, nauseated, bloated, or lethargic.
• Eating alone or in secret.
• Feeling distress, embarrassment, shame, sadness, or other forms of upset about our eating.
• Engaging in circular, frequent dieting.

When we have a binge eating habit, we may feel so embarrassed about our eating that we sneak food to eat privately, hide food in strange places, or eat very small amounts in public and binge once we’re alone. We may vow to ourselves repeatedly that we’re going to stop this behavior. We continue to feel such a strong urge to binge eat, it seems we can’t resist.

Many of us who binge eat will put ourselves on very restrictive diets to try to control our eating habits. Then, if we break our rules and have a treat, we may tell ourselves we’ve already messed up so badly, we might as well eat everything we want, get it out of our system, and go back on the diet the following day. This is called the Last Supper Effect, and it often perpetuates the cycle of binging. Because often, after we’ve had our “Last Supper,” we wake up the next day feeling so sad, ashamed, or disappointed that only the temporary pleasure of another binge can make us feel better–albeit, very temporarily. And so the cycle continues.

The good news is we can address these root causes beneath our learned behaviors, rewire our brain, and change our relationship with food, permanently. And the process can be surprisingly nourishing. Let’s discuss some common reasons we may have developed a binge eating habit.

Causes of Binge Eating

Binge eating may become a pattern for different reasons for different people. Some common factors are:

• Family history, home environment, and childhood role models. We’re more likely to develop binge eating patterns if our parents, siblings, or other family members binge eat. Perhaps our parents were bingers, so we grew up thinking that was a healthy way to relate to food. Or maybe a neighbor or family member made repeated negative comments about our weight, and we felt stressed, ashamed, or otherwise upset and learned to find comfort in food. We also may have learned to find comfort in food for no apparent reason. And over time, repeating these behaviors led to forming habits.
• Restricting ourselves through dieting can exacerbate a binge eating habit, especially if we have other emotional or mental health issues. Maybe we were put on a restrictive diet at a young age–or we started one earlier in our adult life–which led to increased cravings for high-sugar, high-fat foods, prompting us to feel deprived and eventually binge on our favorite treats.
• Emotional and/or mental health issues. Binge eating may affect those of us who feel negatively about ourselves, our bodies, or our lives. Stress, depression, anxiety, or the availability of preferred binge foods can also be triggers.

While these factors may trigger binge eating behavior, we’re not locked into these habits forever. To better understand why we repeat these patterns, let’s take a closer look at how we form habits in the first place.

Understanding The Cycle of Binge Eating

Binge eating is a habit, and our habits become hardwired in the brain through repetition. The brain uses a reward-based learning system to consolidate information and form memories. We can break down the formation of habits into three components: trigger, behavior, and reward.

Maybe we had a traumatic experience in our early formative years that led us to seek comfort in our favorite high-sugar, high-fat foods. The traumatic childhood experience was the trigger, eating the food to try to regulate our emotions was the behavior, and the temporary relief and pleasure we felt after eating was the reward. Once our brain learned that food could make us feel better, it stored that information away in an area called the basal ganglia for future use.

Now, anytime we’re tired, stressed, or anxious, our brain prompts us to reach for food to soothe those feelings. This is especially true with sugary foods, which cause the brain to release a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is associated with feelings of pleasure and bliss. On top of that, sugar hijacks our brain’s reward system, making it harder to tell when we’re full. So it’s especially easy to overindulge and perpetuate a cycle of binging, cravings, and negative emotions with high-sugar foods, despite the fact that, afterward, we usually feel worse.

We may feel as though we can’t stop binge eating, despite feeling guilty or ashamed. This can lead to obsessively criticizing ourselves, thoughts of low self-worth or shame over our weight, or obsessing over starting another restrictive diet–all of which can trigger the cycle of binging. And the more weight we gain, the more we may obsess and beat ourselves up.

Over time, binge eating can affect all areas of our lives. Let’s discuss some of the issues commonly associated with habitual binge eating.

Effects of Binge Eating

While binge eating occasionally is normal and can be harmless, over time, this habit can cause serious problems. Frequent binge eating can lead to:

• Chronic indigestion or bloating.
• Trouble functioning in daily life, at work, or in social situations.
• Social isolation.
• Obesity and related medical conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and some sleep-related breathing disorders.
• New or worsened mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety.
• Overall lower quality of life.

If you’re experiencing any of the above issues, remember: it’s not your fault. It’s easy to feel like everything is wrong and there’s no way out, but with the right tools, we can rewire our brain and create healthier habits that feel good. And it doesn’t have to feel like a punishment. In fact, it can be deeply nourishing.

Let’s discuss some ways we can begin overcoming binge eating and changing our relationship with food–and with ourselves–without force.

How to Stop Binge Eating with Mindfulness

We can recover from binge eating–and surprisingly, it doesn’t take as much effort as trying to stick to a restrictive diet. A helpful tool for habit change is mindfulness, which can be very nourishing to practice.

Mindfulness involves focusing intently, openly, and non-judgmentally on the present moment. This helps increase awareness around our immediate experiences and habits, and in time, we begin to relate and respond to those experiences differently. From there, we can make new, more mindful choices without force or willpower.

When we get really present to the results of our habits, we become increasingly disenchanted with the ones that don’t feel good. And once we build up enough disenchantment, change happens naturally because our habits lose their power over us. We’re free. Soon, we can simply observe the results of our habits, notice the sensations, thoughts, and emotions that come with them, and make empowered choices rather than feeling controlled by our automatic behaviors.

Habits are formed by small moments, many times, so it’s important to take each moment at a time. Don’t try to rush into changing unwanted habits; that can feel like more restrictions and perpetuate the binge eating cycle. A more helpful and nourishing thing to do is commit to experiencing the present moment fully, curiously, and without judgment. We can pay close attention to everything that’s in our present-moment experience and ask ourselves, “What am I feeling? How will I feel tomorrow morning if I give in to the binge? How will I feel if I ride it out?” From this place, we can make empowered choices instead of acting out our old habit loops.

With time, patience, and persistence, we can dramatically change the way we relate to our triggers and experiences and create a new, healthier relationship with food. Read on for some more tips on how to overcome binge eating.

Tips For Overcoming Binge Eating

When we’re just learning how to break the binge eating cycle, kindness is key. Try to be as gentle and compassionate with yourself as possible. It may be helpful to keep a journal to help you explore any observations you make while becoming more aware of your present-moment experiences to rewire your brain.

Here are some tips for increasing awareness around your habits. You can use these tips in the moment, and they can help you remain mindful while you eat. Alternatively, you can use these tools to think back on the last time you binge ate and assess what the experience was like. Either way, this helps to update the relative reward value in your brain, which begins to dismantle the habit cycle.

1. Recognize your habit cycle. Curiously and nonjudgmentally, can you notice when you get triggered to binge eat? Was your trigger an upsetting thought, difficult emotion, or stress? Did you have a stressful experience, such as an aggravating day at work or heated conversation with a loved one? It’s ok if you’re not sure. You might consider using this worksheet to map out the stages of your habits.
2. Explore the result of the habit. With kindness and openness, drop into your immediate experience to notice all the results of your habit. Maybe you feel pleasure while eating but then your stomach hurts or you feel sad, guilty, or lethargic for hours after. Note all the thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Tuning into all of the unpleasant effects of our habits helps us become disenchanted with them. And over time, we’re empowered to make new, mindful choices that feel better.
3. Work with habits to make new, empowered choices. Once you’ve built up enough disenchantment with habits that cause unpleasant effects, you can use mindful awareness when a craving strikes, notice the thoughts, emotions, and sensations in your body, and make a new, mindful choice. You can choose to eat whatever you’re craving slowly and mindfully just until you’re satisfied, or you can do something else that doesn’t involve eating, but which also helps you feel better.

Over time, your brain will store the rewards of your new mindfulness habits and that becomes your automatic behavior. This is how you can create new, healthier habits that stick without force, restriction, or willpower.

This may sound challenging at first. But with practice, it gets easier. Take each moment at a time. It took time to develop a habit of binge eating, and it may take some time to rewire your brain and develop new habits that feel good. But you can do it, and every moment of mindfulness adds up to major change. And it will likely feel much better than pressuring or restricting yourself–and produce better, longer-lasting results.

Eat Right Now: Get Help with Binge Eating

Even if you’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with binge eating for years, you can learn to enjoy a healthy relationship with food–without punishing or restricting yourself. A science-based, clinically-proven mindful eating program can help.

Eat Right Now is an evidence-based program developed by neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Judson Brewer. It’s a unique mindfulness training program that teaches you tools to change unwanted eating behaviors, create a new relationship with food, and get off the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster for good. With daily lessons, craving-specific tools, journaling capabilities, and a supportive online community–complete with live weekly calls and expert facilitators–you can learn to differentiate between real hunger and emotional craving, break the cycle of binge eating, and build new healthier habits that last.

Ready to feel more at home in your body? Start the Eat Right Now app-based program today.

We all know that healthy eating habits are important. So why do we keep engaging in unhealthy ones, knowing they may be unhelpful or even harmful to us–and even if they don’t feel very good? 

You don’t need to be ashamed or blame yourself if your eating habits could be better. You’re not alone. Most Americans consume too much sugar, sodium, and saturated fat on a regular basis. We’re all human, with stressors and tension and we all have things we turn to for comfort–oftentimes unhealthy foods. 

But you can modify unwanted habits and create new ones that better serve you and your health. And it might be easier than you’d think. Research shows that mindfulness training can help you understand the way your mind works, see the results of your unwanted behavior patterns, and create new and lasting habits. 

Keep reading to learn how we develop our eating habits, which ones you might want to adopt or continue, and how to make healthy eating a habit.

What Are Eating Habits?

The term, eating habit, refers to all of the ways in which we consume food, such as:

• When (how many times during the day and what times; three big meals, smaller meals, snacks, or skipped meals) 
• What (types of foods we eat; various food groups: protein, fat, sugar, etc.) 
• How (while walking or standing, quickly and mindlessly or slowly and attentively) 

Maybe you eat dinner quickly and mindlessly while watching TV, and you only stop after your favorite show ends and you’ve eaten way too much. Or maybe you have a big snack when you get home from work–not because you’re physically hungry but because you’re exhausted, stressed, and relieved to be done for the day. And then you may feel ashamed, regretful, or depressed, and possibly struggle with weight gain. 

Some other common unhealthy eating habits that you may want to look out for are:

• Eating very quickly
• Eating when you’re not physically hungry
• Eating to manage stress or soothe other emotions
• Eating while standing up or on-the-go, which may cause you to eat too fast or mindlessly 
• Binge-eating high-sugar, high-fat foods
• Binge-eating late at night 
• Skipping breakfast or other meals 

None of these habits are cause for self-judgment. Many of us engage in unhealthy eating habits; it’s normal, and it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. It’s also never too late to create new, healthier habits that feel better. With the right tools, you can change the way you relate to food–and to yourself–without restriction or willpower. And it can feel surprisingly nourishing. 

Read on to learn why we continue to engage in unhealthy eating habits even when we know they’re not beneficial.

Why Do We Continue Unhealthy Eating Habits?

Our brains are built to learn; they consolidate and store information derived from experiences in our internal and external environment. This helps us remember important people, places, and things, avoid dangerous situations, and complete mundane tasks quickly and easily–some habits are a good thing.

Quickly brushing our teeth, getting dressed, and making breakfast are essential habits. If we didn’t have these behaviors memorized, every tiny decision would be stressful and time-consuming, and our lives would be a lot harder. These habits save us time and energy that we can devote to more important things in life. 

However, unhealthy eating habits can also become ingrained, and we may be harming ourselves by repeating them over time. For example, we know that frequently overindulging in high-sugar, high-fat foods isn’t healthy, and it often doesn’t feel very good after the initial pleasure of eating, either. But we may continue to do it anyway due to chronic stress, to celebrate holidays or weekends with loved ones, or because we’re exhausted from working a stressful job. When we’re depleted, our inhibitions are low–and because our brains have memorized the pleasurable and tension-releasing effects of eating these foods, we repeat our learned behaviors automatically.

The brain is wired to seek out pleasure and recognize patterns by connecting actions with positive results. When we make a connection between a behavior and the resulting feeling of pleasure, the brain files that information away, and now we know that if we do X, we get Y result. So even if we’re not in the exact same situation we were when we made this connection, we often repeat the pattern. 

Each time we repeat a behavior we’ve memorized through this reward system, our brain reinforces those connections. This is how we form habits.

Why Eating Habits Are Challenging to Break 

The reward system through which we develop habits involves deeper, more primitive, survival-focused parts of the brain, such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens. Alternatively, reasoning, logic, and conscious decision-making occur in the prefrontal cortex, a younger part of the brain from an evolutionary standpoint. 

This is why dieting often doesn’t work, long-term. When we’re tired, stressed, or burnt out, the prefrontal cortex “goes offline,” and the more primitive parts of our brain take over. We operate from our learned eating habits rather than willpower. You may be familiar with this if you’ve been on the yo-yo dieting roller coaster for any length of time. The results are often short-lived.

We may repeat our habits for years without realizing we’re running on autopilot. For example, maybe we often indulged in fast food after school. High-sugar, high-fat foods activate the pleasure center in the brain, so we learned to associate these high-sugar, low-nutrient foods with feeling good. 

Now we may stop for fast food on our way home from work–or anytime we want to feel better–because it creates a short-term high or distraction from our stress, and perhaps feels nostalgic. The more we repeat this behavior, the more our brain reinforces the habit loop. And thus, we can easily get stuck in a cycle of unhealthy eating that we carry into adulthood. 

At some point, these habits may have worked well for us–and they may still bring us temporary pleasure. But over time, we can get “stuck” in habits that only benefit us very temporarily and cause more harm than good in the long run. 

So if you’re struggling to change unhealthy eating habits, there’s no reason to fault yourself or feel ashamed. There’s a biological reason for unwanted eating habits. But you can rewire your brain, unlearn old, unwanted eating habits, and create new ones that nourish your body and mind. 

And changing your habits doesn’t have to feel restrictive or punishing. The process of rewiring your brain can be very rewarding and has been shown to reduce cravings by 40%. So you’ll actually want to eat better. 

How to Change Your Eating Habits Permanently

So how do we make healthy eating a habit without using willpower? As we discussed, willpower and force often do not create lasting change because they occur in a different area of the brain than where our habits live. When we diet, we try to override our habitual patterns without addressing the root causes of those patterns. This is a recipe for disaster–and, of course, yo-yo dieting, weight gain, and other problems. 

A safer, more effective, and more rewarding way to change unhealthy eating habits is cultivating increased awareness around our behaviors to get very clear on what we’re getting out of them. When we curiously, openly, and non-judgmentally focus on our immediate experiences, we rediscover what does and doesn’t feel good, and we begin to build disenchantment with what doesn’t. From there, we’re empowered to make new choices that do feel good–naturally, without willpower or force. And you can start doing this today with very minimal effort. 

Mindfulness to Change Unhealthy Eating Habits

With a sense of kindness and curiosity, start paying close attention to how you feel when you eat. This is not about beating yourself up or trying to be perfect. This is just about building awareness. Look closely at what urges you to reach for food. Is it a grumble in your stomach? A stressful conversation? Or was it nothing noticeable at all? It’s ok if you’re not sure. This worksheet may be helpful in identifying the stages of your habit loops.

Notice how your food tastes and smells, and eat it slowly. How does your body feel? What thoughts and emotions are present? How do you feel after you’ve finished eating? It may sound strange, but simply by noticing what happens when we engage in our routine behaviors can create dramatic changes. Curiosity feels good to engage in, and mindfulness itself is a proven method for reducing stress and anxiety.

You may notice some things about eating you haven’t before. You may find that, when you wait to eat until you’re physically hungry, food actually tastes better and you enjoy it more than when you eat due to stress, loneliness, or boredom. You’ll probably also notice that overeating doesn’t feel very good, and you’ll become increasingly uninterested in eating beyond your body’s needs, if that is a habit for you.

Remember: your brain hard-wired these eating patterns over time, so it may take some time and patience to unravel them and replace them with healthier behavior patterns. But you can do it. See if you can maintain a sense of playfulness with this, and don’t rush the process. You’re human, you’re doing the best you can, and that is enough. 

Let’s discuss some healthy eating habits you may want to consider incorporating once you’ve become more aware of the results of your unwanted ones and are empowered to make new mindful choices.

Which Eating Habits Should You Continue?

Everyone’s different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all rule for what healthy eating looks like. But there are some general guidelines you can follow that help with satiety, support healthier skin, teeth, and eyes, and lower your risk of diseases like diabetes and cancer. Those are just a few reasons why healthy eating habits are so important.

Without pressuring or restricting yourself, see if you can gently start engaging in the following habits, slowly and curiously. It may be helpful to explore the results when you eat different amounts and types of foods. How do you feel, physically and emotionally? How long do those results last? And remember, healthy eating habits look different for everyone, these are general tips to try and see if they work for you. Be sure to talk to your doctor when making any major diet changes.

• Fill half your plate with whole fruits and a variety of vegetables at every meal.
• Eat plenty of lean protein, such as meat, poultry, and eggs. Beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds, and soy are also high in protein. 
• Include healthy fats, such as from avocado and fish that are higher in omega-3s and lower in mercury, such as salmon, trout, and anchovies.
• Get your carbohydrates from whole grains, such as quinoa, nuts, legumes, beans and unsweetened greek yogurt. 
• Cut down on processed foods.
• Don’t skip breakfast or other meals (unless you’ve checked in with your body and are truly not hungry).
• Eat in a quiet environment instead of in front of the TV or on-the-go when possible.
• Take your time to slow down a little so you can really taste and savor your food in an enjoyable way, noticing when you feel satiated and content.

When you start incorporating these tips, these new habits will begin to feel good. You’ll feel better when you eat nutrient-dense foods, eat mindfully, stop eating when you’re full, and consume moderate amounts of low-nutrient, less truly fueling foods. These are things you can achieve—and without denying or forcing yourself.

At first, these new behaviors may seem a lot easier said than done. That is normal. It took time to develop your old habits, and it will take some time to learn new ones. Remember, decision-making occurs in the prefrontal cortex, and our habits are stored in an entirely different area of the brain. It’s important not to rush yourself into changing your eating habits before you’ve spent some time cultivating more awareness around the results these old habits have caused. You can do it. 

Change Unhealthy Eating Habits For Good with Eat Right Now

Even if you’ve been engaging in unhealthy eating habits for some time, you can develop new, healthier habits and make friends with food again. A science-based, clinically-proven mindful eating program can help you learn tools to become non-judgmentally aware of the impact of your unhealthy eating habits, develop new coping mechanisms, and create healthier habits that feel good. 

Eat Right Now was developed by neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Judson Brewer. It includes daily lessons, craving-specific tools, journaling opportunities and prompts, and a supportive online community, complete with live, weekly calls and expert facilitators. You’ll learn to differentiate between real hunger and emotional craving and build new, healthier eating habits that last.

You can make healthy eating a habit and make friends with food again. Click here to get started with the Eat Right Now program today.