Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Shelly Schantz
Oakland University
EA 8820
December 5, 2017
MINDFUL EATING 1
occupational stress, state and trait anxiety, and burnout, the authors correlate stress with medical
conditions and teacher burnout. In fact, “75% of the 9,000 teachers responding to a survey
indicated that most of their absences during the preceding year were due to stress or tension related
to classroom teaching. Many noted that their chronic health problems were anxiety related.”
(Anderson et al., p. 6). In that study, it was found that mindful meditation reduces the stress that
teachers perceive having. Like many educators, I experience stress and it has taken its toll on me in
the form of weight gain. For the purpose of finding a way to get my weight under control, this paper
is a review of the literature which seeks to find how mindful eating and self-compassion can aid in
First, in Making concrete construals mindful: A novel approach for developing mindfulness
and self-compassion to assist in weight-loss (2014), the authors completed three related studies to
determine if (and if so, how) mindfulness and self-compassion could help with individuals on diets.
In their literature review the authors point out that people often eat emotionally and in an automatic
manner, both of which contribute to overeating. Mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation are
ways that have been shown to be useful for weight loss, but many do not maintain the practice to a
point to continue or maintain weight loss. While being mindful, or paying attention “on purpose” to
what is happening in the present and developing self-compassion, they point out that dieters are
typically in an avoidance mode, “... a practice of keeping away or withdrawing from something
undesirable or a source of conflict, and is often used as a coping mechanism.” (Mantzios and
Wilson, p. 425). The authors discuss the counterproductive manner of suppressing the thoughts and
MINDFUL EATING 2
urges to eat (which intensify rather than really curb urges) and offer present research that explores
that mindfulness and self-compassion could help to reduce it. They state that, “mindfully accepting
urges has proven useful in lowering the occurrences of such unwanted thoughts and impulses.”
(Mantzios and Wilson, p. 425). They found that dieters who increased mindfulness and
self-compassion had a positive correlation of weight loss (Mantzios and Wilson, p. 428). They
also found that dieters who spent a few moments before and during their meals thinking about how
they eat had better results than those who thought about the why of their eating lost more weight
(Mantzios and Wilson, p. 430) Finally, there was not a significant difference between the amount of
time spent practicing meditation and the development of self-compassion and mindfulness, which
“opens the door to other methods that may be highly important for people who are not able, willing
The first study lead me to further examine self-compassion. Kristin D. Neff and Katie A.
Dahm in Handbook of mindfulness and self-regulation: Self-compassion: What it is, what it does,
and how it relates to mindfulness, wrote, “Self-compassion is simply compassion directed inward,
relating to ourselves as the object of care and concern when faced with the experience of suffering.”
(Neff and Dahm, p.121). They write about three components of self-compassion; self kindness,
common humanity, and mindfulness. Being kind to oneself involves support and understanding- a
gentle and encouraging voice toward ourselves. Remembering that we are not alone in making
mistakes and falling short, is human nature, we have it in common with the rest of humanity.
Mindfulness, they write is the awareness of our inner thoughts and emotions without judgement in
order to find a balance. Neff writes “one of the most consistent findings in the research literature is
that greater self-compassion is linked to less anxiety and depression” (Neff and Dahm, p. 123).
MINDFUL EATING 3
Self- compassion shifts the motivation from being driven to succeed to avoid self-judgment to being
driven because we care or want to learn from it. “Self-compassion also promotes health-related
behaviors such as sticking to one’s diet.” (Neff and Dahm, p. 126). They state in the research that
self-compassion is most likely a stronger predictor of well-being than just mindfulness. (Neff and
Dahm, p. 131).
The authors of “Mindful Eating and Its Relationship with Mental Well-Being” report that
mindful eating as “being aware in the present moment when one is eating; paying close attention to
the senses, including physical and emotional sensations.” (Khan and Zadeh, p. 70). Mindful eating
is not in and of itself a diet in the respect that it does not restrict the intake of food. Rather, pay
attention to all of the senses while eating, recognize habits (ie. multitasking while eating), and being
aware of triggers for stopping and starting to eat. In their study, mindful eating and mental
well-being had a significantly positive correlation. When a person learns to identify the cues of
hunger versus emotional eating, they begin to self regulate their eating. Though this study was not
directly related to weight loss, I would argue that if a person can self regulate eating habits through
Yoga for weight loss - historically yoga is thought to reduce stress and increase mood and
mindfulness. Balk points out that yoga may reduce emotional eating because it improves how we
face and cope with stress. (Balk, p.1) Because yoga helps those who practice it develop awareness
and a less judgmental attitude, they may be less likely to overeat. Mindfulness that spills over into
eating “may be associated with noting satiety or being aware of hunger vs. boredom as cues to eat.”
(Balk, p. 2). Since yoga trains a person to relax it can teach the person to cope with the stress that
leads to overeating. In her study, those who learn relaxation techniques had fewer overeating
MINDFUL EATING 4
episodes, less depression and anxiety, and perceived having better eating control. The author
cautions that because yoga is multidisciplinary, it is difficult to determine if a single aspect of yoga
After careful review of the literature and self reflection of the way stress affects my eating
habits, I am creating a stress reduction plan for myself that includes mindful eating, self compassion,
and meditation. I have reacted to stress in overeating which has lead to a tremendous amount of
weight gain. Workplace and life stressors are unavoidable, how I react them is up to me. I tend to
be hard on myself and expect perfection. When I don’t live up to my own set of standards, I tend to
get down on myself and negative thoughts take over. I am not compassionate to myself but I am a
very compassionate person to others. I took a self compassion quiz on Kristin Neff’s Self
Compassion website and found that I have an overall self-compassion score of 1.82 (on a 5 point
scale). A score between 1-2.5 is considered low. My plan is to develop self compassion through
regular meditations directed being kind and forgiving to myself. I am going to commit to
participating in our after school yoga class which meets once a week and to spend at approximately
20 minutes two additional days each week in yoga or guided meditation focusing on
I have already started a diet using Nutrisystem as a way to control the calories and quality of
the foods I eat. My next step in the process is to use mindful eating practices to just eat. While
eating, my plan is to just eat and be present in my meals. This is going to be a big step for me as I
am constantly eating on auto-pilot or while multi-tasking. I am going to start with one meal and
work my way up to mindful eating for 3 meals a day. For mindful eating I am referring to a blog by
Paige Smith called 9 Mindfulness Tips to Eat Smart and Lose Weight dated February 27, 2017. The
blogger includes pausing before eating, chew and savor and eat without distractions while eating,
Finding a way to take care of myself and reduce the effects of stress will help me to be more
present in my teaching. It will help me to devote more of my brain power to my students’ needs, the
1 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
2 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
3 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
Journal
4 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
5 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
6 Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating:
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
Journal
*In addition, I will use these 3 statements in a “Self-Compassion Break” when going through something difficult. 1. This is a moment
of suffering 2. Suffering is a part of life, and 3. May I be kind to myself in this moment.
MINDFUL EATING 7
As I reflect on the plan I created, I realize that I do not make time for myself on a regular
basis. I found that it is easy for life to get in the way of my best laid plans for taking care of myself.
It was pretty easy for me to find excuses as to why I should put off, or postpone starting another
layer of my plan. I have continued to lose weight using Nutrisystem due to portion and hunger
control. My reflections of my plan for Mindful Eating, Yoga, and Self Compassion are highlighted
below.
I started out strong implementing Mindful Eating. I began to get up ten minutes early and eat
my breakfast at home. As I drank my coffee and as I ate my breakfast, I just ate. As thoughts of my
day began to swirl around my head I simply let them go and focused my attention on eating. I
focused my attention on the thoughts of what I was eating and why. In most cases, I was eating
because of the belief that breakfast was really important. Even though I thought I was not hungry at
the start of eating, I noticed that after a slow few bites, a feeling of satisfying hunger was present.
During the third and fourth week, I was not feeling well. I had a cold or flu virus and was just doing
what I could to make it to work each day. I was not eating breakfast and switched from drinking my
morning coffee to drinking tea and taking Mucinex. I mindfully swallowed the medication and
could feel the burn of the medicine go all the way down to my chest. Thanksgiving week came and
once again I found myself completely off kilter with the plan. I found it difficult to implement
Mindful Eating at lunch at school. Though the concept seemed beneficial when creating the plan,
adult interaction in the teacher’s lounge seemed more refreshing to me than to isolate myself during
the school lunch period. During the last week of the plan, I left the building to eat in my car to see if
I could move toward including lunch in the Mindful Eating routine. The change of scenery was
MINDFUL EATING 8
refreshing, but I had difficulty bringing my thoughts back to eating as they kept drifting to
interactions with other teachers at lunch. I was quite ambitious when I planned to make all three
meals mindful. When Mindful Eating of lunch we not mastered, dinner never really followed suit. I
did stop multitasking things such as surfing the web, checking facebook, and working on school
work while eating dinner, but that is as far as I got. As I think about my next steps, I am going to
skip making lunch mindful and try to keep the TV off when I eat dinner.
I did not make it to yoga once! Why? Because I procrastinated starting it the first week, had a
meeting the second week, was sick (so sick) during the third week, had two weeks off due to there
being no school, and the final week… let’s just say that it didn’t even cross my mind until I was
walking past the library and yoga was half over. I really enjoy yoga, so this area of my plan is
disappointing to me. The next step for me in this area is going to be to find a way to fit yoga in. I
may need to pull out the DVDs I have and just do it at home.
actually do the meditations that I planned, I did incorporate the practice of telling myself that “It’s
OK to feel this way, others feel this way, and It’s OK, I care about you.” It was difficult at times, to
believe what I was saying to myself. I retook the Self-Compassion test that I took during the
research portion of this paper. I found that even though I didn’t feel I fully implemented the
meditations, I did have a mind shift in how I was approaching myself. In all areas of the quiz, my
Self-Compassion score increased from a low range (1.82) to a moderate range (3.30). The biggest
difference is in Common Humanity, I have made a conscious effort to realize that regardless of what
MINDFUL EATING 9
or how I am feeling, I am not alone… others have or do feel that way at times. See the table below
Through this exercise, I have learned to have compassion for my shortcomings. When I
think about all the failures I have had with this plan, I could be really hard on myself. The fact that I
didn’t do yoga, even one time, I could and would have in the past, been down on myself. The same
can be said for the shortcomings of my Mindful Eating plan. I fell short of my goal, which in the
past, would have had me eating emotionally. If I have learned nothing else, it is to be
Self-Compassionate. However, I do believe that this six weeks is not the end of the opportunity to
implement the plan. I plan to modify the plan to fit into my life. One thing I know about myself is
that if I do not consciously keep Self-Compassion at the forefront of my thinking, I will revert to
References
Alternative medicine alert: Yoga for weight loss (05/01/2011). American Health Consultants.
Anderson, V. L., Levinson, E. M., Barker, W., & Kiewra, K. R. (1999). The effects of
meditation on teacher perceived occupational stress, state and trait anxiety, and
doi:http://dx.doi.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/10.1037/h0088995
Khan, Z., & Zadeh, Z. F. (12/01/2014). Procedia, social and behavioral sciences: Mindful
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.330
Mantzios, M., & Wilson, J. C. (2014). Psychology & health: Making concrete construals
Self-compassion: What it is, what it does, and how it relates to mindfulness. Springer
Smith, P. (2017, February 27). 9 Mindfulness Tips to Eat Smart and Lose Weight. [Web
Blog]. Retrieved from
https://www.beachbodyondemand.com/blog/9-mindfulness-tips-to-eat-smarter-and-lo
se-weight
MINDFUL EATING 11
Appendix A
My Self Compassion result from Kristin Neff’s Self Compassion site.
MINDFUL EATING 12
MINDFUL EATING 13
Appendix B
My Retake of the Self Compassion test from Kristin Neff’s Self Compassion site.