Do you find yourself taking samples of food while you are shopping at Sam’s Club or Costco?  Do you nibble on food as you are prepping dinner for the family or at a buffet style cocktail party?  What about opening the freezer and spooning ice cream from the container as you stare off into space?  Or do you eat chips, popcorn, or cookies right out of the bag and before you know it….the package is empty! Whoops!

What do all of these scenarios have in common?  We are usually STANDING UP &/or GRAZING while we engage in them and probably feeling a little anxious or bored, too, whether we are aware of it or not.

None the less, we are in a state of mindlessness or low awareness of what or how much food we are putting in our mouths in all of those scenarios, which can lead to consuming quite a few extra calories than we need or want to in a day.

I had a big A-Ha moment with sitting down to eat and giving up grazing here recently while I was coaching my FUNdamentals Nutrition Class at Being-Fit, the gym that I own.  One of our lessons as a group was to sit down before we ate ANYTHING.  I mean ANYTHING!  If you wanted to eat a little bit of trail mix, fruit, m&m’s, etc., you had to sit down to eat it.

Why is Sitting Down So Important?

The idea is that if you have to make the effort to sit down to eat that little bit of food or snack, would you still really want to eat it?  Now, I have had a lot of nutrition classes, read a lot about tips on weight loss and mindful eating, but I had never really thought about sitting down to eat being so important.

I first heard about the importance of sitting down to eat being a part of mindful eating from a book I read by Judith S. Beck, called “The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person.”  You can grab a copy of the book here, and I strongly advise anyone to read it who has struggled with weight loss or has dieted on and off for many years without any success.  I enjoyed the book very much and still use a lot of the principles in the book to maintain my weight loss.

The Sitting Down to Eat Challenge

So what did I find when I put this little challenge to the test with myself and my group, I was the biggest offender of it!  I mean seriously, if standing up to eat were illegal and you could get a ticket for it, I would be in jail because I couldn’t afford to pay all the tickets that I would get!  

It was hilarious to talk about it with the group the following week because some of the other people in the group had noticed that they were standing up to eat more than they thought here and there, too.

But by far, I was the one who did it the most.  One of the ladies in my class suggested that I might need a “Food Belt”, it’s kind of like a seatbelt, instead I use it to strap myself down to a chair so that I will just sit down to eat!  Who knows, maybe there could be a market for this, HA 😉

Quick Review of Mindfulness 

Now one important concept in mindfulness to remember, is that I didn’t judge myself about standing up to eat all the time, make myself wrong for it, or shame myself into feeling bad for doing it.  According to the Wellcoaches Psychology Manuael, pg 21, “Mindfulness is the nonjudgmental awareness of what is happening in the  present moment.”  

For example a mindful statement is, “I just ate a box of cookies while standing up.”  A judgement statement is, “I’m so bad, I just ate a box of cookies while standing up.  What’s wrong with me?”

Can you see the difference between the two?  Which one empowers you to make a better choice and feel better about yourself in the future or present moment?  I think you can figure that one out on your own!

It’s also fun to use a little humor when being mindful.  As soon as I caught myself standing up to eat, I’d just laugh and say to myself, “There I go again standing up to eat something.  Where’s that “Food Belt”?  I need to strap myself down!”

How Many Extra Calories Can I Rack Up While Standing & Grazing?

We can rack up quite a few extra calories throughout the day when we are grazing or snacking at home between meals, standing in front of the refrigerator and nibbling bits of food here and there, or taking candy from a co-workers desk and eating it on the way back to our desk.

Usually, we are not even hungry when we engage in these activities.  We are just grabbing it because it is there.  Remember, it only takes about 20 – 30 extra calories a day to equal about 2 lbs. of weight gain in a year! YIKES!  Or, it could make the difference of whether you lose a pound or so that week if your current goal is weight loss.

I’m pretty sure that this mindful activity of sitting down to eat, probably was a big factor in why I didn’t get to a certain body fat percentage that I was shooting for a couple of years ago.  All those innocent little bites of food here and there that I didn’t even think that much about, really added up over time.  If I’d only known then what I know now, and would’ve stopped grazing so much 😉

So, let’s all get mindful of the grazing we do throughout the day.  Over the next couple of weeks, I’d like to challenge you and myself to start taking notice of when we are eating while standing up or on the move.

If you catch yourself doing it, ask yourself, “If I had to go sit down right now to eat this little snack, would I really want it?”  Most likely you are not really hungry, you are just snacking out of boredom, because it is there in front of you, or you’re feeling a little anxious.

So until next time, let’s get out our “Food Belts” and take a seat before we eat!  Let’s make a conscious decision to eat a food and see it on a plate or in a bowl so that we can be aware of the foods and the serving sizes we are putting in our mouths!  Whose with me?

I’d like to hear from you on how you are doing with this or what you are noticing about yourself with this habit in the comments below!  You will find that you are not alone in this!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tommie

Sources Cited:

Beck, Judith S. “The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person.” Oxymora House, 2008.

Moore, Margaret, and Bob Tschannen-Moran. “Coaching Psychology Manual.” Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, March 2009.