How to Practice Mindful Eating – Susan Albers
How To Practice Mindful Eating With Dr Susan Albers
Dr. Susan Albers is a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and she is also one of the worlds leading experts on mindful eating. She is the author of six books on the topic including ‘Eating Mindfully’, ‘Eat, Drink & Be Mindful’ and ‘Mindful Eating 101.’
Join Melli and Susan as they explore the theory and practice of Mindful Eating. In this video you’ll Learn…
- The 5 steps to mindful eating.
- Simple and practical tips on how mindfulness can create more healthy eating in daily life.
- How to set up your environment to make mindful eating easier.
- How to quit comfort eating.
- A practice of mindful eating.
Show Notes
Join The Mindfulness Summit Journey here
Come and join the community discussions at any time on our Facebook page
Click here to access the 5 steps to mindful eating
Here is Susans website if you’d like to explore more about mindful eating and check out her books and events http://eatingmindfully.com/
Audio
Video
Transcript
Buy full access pass
Purchase a full access pass to unlock downloads for the full interview transcripts, audio, video and separate audio meditation tracks.
Buy full access pass
Purchase a full access pass to unlock downloads for the full interview transcripts, audio, video and separate audio meditation tracks.
Buy full access pass
Purchase a full access pass to unlock downloads for the full interview transcripts, audio, video and separate audio meditation tracks.
Leave a Comment
About Post Author
271 Responses
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Love the really practical suggestions from Susan Albers
Zee,
Thank you for joining us and the lovely comment! Susan A. http://www.eatingmindfully.com
Hi, Susan. Really enjoyed your talk – very practical, simple, down-to-earth. However, I can’t remember one of the five ‘S’s. Sit … Slow(ly chew) … Savour … Smile… … … What’s missing, please? Thanks again.
Simplify
Enjoyed the simplicity of the way mindful eating is explained, thank you so much susan for sharing your knowledge, l will definately be practicing daily mindful eating.
Thanks it’s really useful. I will try it right away with my kids 🙂
Clau,
Yes! Kids can definitely learn mindful eating! Best wishes and thank you for the comment!
Best,
Susan
http://www.eatingmindfully.com
Thank you Mellie and Susan for a wonderful talk on mindful eating. During the practice, I also, had a piece of Lindt dark chocolate and really enjoyed the melting sensation as I ate it very slowly. The smell of the chocolate really struck me, it was bliss. I like the idea of using a pistachio nut in the shell! I’ll try that next time instead of passing out raisins during classes. I am really enjoying the Mindfulness Summit Mellie – big gratitude to you and your team.
Metta (())
Doris
Fantastic presentation – thank you Melli and Susan. Wonderful concept and I find it fascinating how we can apply mindfulness to all aspects of our life. My eyes are opening and I am waking up! I will forever now look at chocolate thin biscuits in a new light 🙂
I am thoroughly enjoying this month of mindfulness and the diverse array of speakers and the wisdom they each bring to the conversation. I have enjoyed watching the coming of daylight in today’s session. This explained the weariness in your face Melli. That weariness caused me to consider the selflessness and incredible workload you have put into pulling this month together. So thank you Melli for your passion and vision in sharing mindfulness with us.
Simple and useful actionable steps – perfect! Thanks Melli & Dr. A!
Thanks for this session on mindful eating. I have facilitated these sessions a few times with raisins :)) and grapes and almonds and participants have had valuable insights. I appreciate the added value you have brought to my experience of mindful eating by using my imagination with a food that i crave and love… salt and vinegar potato chips. What a liberating insight i received: such a fragile and vulnerable food, yet with such potential to cause problems.
Peace and Gratitude
In the eating exercise the senses became the focus of attention and not the food. Seeing the selected food and its wrapping, ,it’s texture and color, smelling it, feeling it inside my mouth and noticing how it felt on the tongue, and tasting it as well involved all of my senses fully. Wonderful – and I choose a Lindt chocolate too.
This was a fun talk. Thank you, Susan & Melli.
I’ve been practicing mindful eating for a long time. Also have noticed how others around me are eating…quite interesting to see if they notice your eating mindfully. Loved learning about the mindfulness of eating pistachios Susan. I will never look at and eat Pistachios without remembering this session. Thank you both!
I love the practical tips about applyling mindfulness to eating. Food has so many emotional ties to my family and how I grew up, and it continues to bring up emotions (both positive and negative) whenever I mindfully eat. Being able to sit and be present with the emotions is such a wonderful way to approach my entire day– one meal or snack at a time 🙂 I too am loving this summit and am very thankful to Melli for the hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm you have to sharing mindfulness. I am humbled by your work, and love to see your passion coming through on each video.
Love and blessings,
John Andrew Wesley, M.D.
I am so ready to stop mindless over eating and practice slowing down, eating at the table, and paying attention. Thank you,
Thank you Melli and Dr. Susan Albers for a delightful dialog. A wonderful reminder that mindful eating is something anyone can do at any level and at any age (anywhere/anytime you have a meal or a snack) and experience mindfulness. Thank again for another fascinating talk.
I found the discussion interesting but am disappointed that the link to the handout on 5 points for mindful eating was not the version shown on the video but more so that this was so clearly a marketing strategy. I would have appreciated a link to the pdf of the 5 points alongside a link to learn more about her publications. I’m beginning to feel that each day of the class is a mini-commercial for a ‘product’ being marketed by each speaker. I hope that this trend, or my impression, changes.
It is useful to be able to explore more abot the speaker so the links are useful but I agree that the emphasis in Susan’s replies gave the impression that marketing her books and website took precedence over simply providing teaching. In fact I find that I explore and sign up to sites more often where the speaker cconcentrates on their speciality and their own story – no additional sales techniques are then necessary.
beautiful reminder to slow down and truly taste our food- greatly enjoyed watching that most mindful sunrise in the background!
I struggle doing formal practices, but just had this great idea after watching the interview with Susan that my meals can be formal practices. So I started with my breakfast this morning, as that is the only meal I have on my own. Just as with the breath exercise I have to gather my thoughts and go back on my breath, I had to curb my intention to pick up the spoon before I had swallowed the mouthful and also come back time and again to chewing slowly. I now had a look at the eating marathon tips and will incorporate that into my breakfast meditation tomorrow. Being a A-type personality, I just love to kill two birds with one stone! Thanks Susan and Melli for you generosity.
audio cutting out a lot!!
I’m not ready for mindful eating. It just sent me into a binge. Am I alone in this? I have enjoyed the rest of the series though…
Well I ate 10 Maltesers instead of 1 during this session but I did notice that I felt sick and that they were uber sweet (too sweet) so while I enjoyed 1 or 2, the rest not so much, that was an interesting observation and might help me to stop at 1 next time I try it!
Nope, you’re not alone in this. I have anorexia in recovery and the talk didn’t really help keep it that way. I think mindfulness for more “everyday” comfort/mindless eating, which she seemed to be addressing in the talk, and mindfulness for those with more disordered eating require different approaches. Nice ideas but require careful treading!
Thank you for the wonderful “food for thought””! I wonder if that’s where that phrase come from?
Following this practice we will be able to actually taste our food instead of just “throwing” it down.
Hi – the link is to 5 different eating tips and is different to the page Susan held up during her talk, can you provide a link to the page she showed with the 5 tips she talked about? Many thanks.
This sounds really good. I am a comfort eater so will give it a go 🙂 Thank you Susan
Thanks for the exercise. I didn’t do it with food yet, but I’m looking forward to my next piece of chocolate! I also love the pistachio and orange philosophies.
I have to tell this idea make me worried, because It is a delicate and dangerous issue . I have experiencie work with people has problem with food disorders and I know the consequence when your used your mind for eat.
Thanks any way.
I’m with you on this. I got nervous just seeing the topic and wondered whether I should even watch it; having anorexia in recovery, thinking too much about what or how I eat can trigger a relapse. She mentioned that it’s helpful for those suffering from eating disorders too, and I can see how it could be what with focusing on nourishment, reducing food-related anxiety, perhaps trying to repair the natural hunger sensation, but that area needs to be treaded so carefully. There’s so much other psychology going on that she did not address. Many of her suggestions for people on the over-eating side could actually be adapted as encouragement/strategies/triggers for people with anorexia, especially as she looks thin and happy.
That said, I can see how this can be positive for many people. I wouldn’t take away from that, just be more conscious about people on the thin side of eating disorders. I’ve certainly enjoyed the other videos so far!! Loving the diversity of the presenters’ backgrounds.
Catherine- I missed this speaker and was going to check out her site on my own. I’m grateful you took the time to post. And the few others who did too. Eating disorders are very difficult and the potential for harm much greater than many realize. I don’t know yet if I should skip this speakers site or not. it I’m grateful to you for flagging this. It is of great concern whether her approach arises from a deep understanding of the complexities of eating disorders or if she’s peddling mindful eating as a product commodity in the lucrative dieting sector. For those with eating disorders and altered metabolism due to medical illness, it matters quite a lot what approach is taken and where the pitfalls arise and if they’re approached with compassion. Thanks again. Wishing you wellness on your journey 🙂
The practice today remained me of all those sensory analysis sessions that I had to develop food products or improve their sensorial attributes. It was great to actually practice it in my daily eating. 🙂
Great session. Loved using chocolate. I hate raisins, so I was never able to successfully use that practice. I’m looking for the handout you referenced with the 3-S’s. Can’t seem to locate it.
Thanks!
Really practical advice and a great example of incorporating mindfulness into something we do everyday 3x (or more) a day! BTW, would this be somewhat related to saying grace before every meal? – where you take some time to be grateful for your food and to acknowledge it?
I just accessed the 5 steps to mindful eating and these are different then the ones discussed in the video above of the 5 S’s. Is it possible to link to the resource of that covers Sit, Slow, Savouring, Simplify, and Smile. Thank you.
Yes the video steps seemed so good
Really enjoyed interview. Have tried mindful eating before, both chocolate & raisin. Agree chocolate is better any time of the day!!! Found the 5 “S” steps interesting concept I haven’t heard about them before so will definitely give it a try. Found it confusing when I accessed speakers website as there was a different list of 5 things including eating off a red plate.Perhaps someone could clarify ?
Such vital information about one daily activity which can actually change our lives, and certainly our health, mindset, and energy levels.
No more mindless eating. Abundant food has led to being mindless and overindulgent. Being thoughtful and mindful on 3 times a day is hugely beneficial. Thank you for defining this practice Susan.
Great tips and was happy to try mindfulness eating with a treat instead of the raisin 🙂
Hello and thank you once more for the invaluable advice and practice. I have lived with people with eating problems leading to overeating and obesity (and all associated issues that come up), and I had noticed how often this results from mindless eating, from not being able to distinguish hunger from anxiety or anything else we need for at the moment. It’s a serious problem in our contemporary world , but thankfully there is practical advice to overcome this. I myself had my weight escalating over a period of time and I only realised how much I was eating mindlessly when I started completing a food diary. And interestingly, like Susan said, as long as I became more mindful of the food I take, I also became much more ‘picky’, in a sense that I started noticing what food was bad for me (for instance, sacarose ou a specific type of meat),things I was completely oblivious before. Thank you once more, the talk was very helpful!
I have cleared the dining room table of all the piles of “stuff” , with the help of my 6 yr old daughter, and we are making space to enjoy, savour and share our food, our thoughts and our smiles at the table. Thanks Susan for your practical and positive suggestions- it makes mindfulness very accessible. Thanks also Melli, for an inspiring summit, I am finding mindfulness is in my thoughts more often xx
Sally
Thank you so much Susan,
I found very practical, simple and direct everything you said.
I am going to begin today with this practice
A Hug from Spain
Laura
Susan, thanks for the excellent practical steps and the background info for each. I’ve pre-ordered your new book and look forward to receiving the bonuses you’ve offered with it.
Kerry
Thank you Susan, it was really great. I love the strategies of changing hands when you eat and smiling between bites..
It took me a long time to eat my walnut during the practice.
Enjoyed the mindful eating practice ! I will eat my chocolate is a totally different way from now on ! Truly believe that mindfulness practice will help us to make calm decisions. Thank you !
Hi Melli, I really liked the guided meditation you posted on October 6–the day Susan Albers spoke. (She was also great!) Would it be possible for me to be able to find that again and download it?
Thank you.
Francie Kendall
Where do I find the one page of five tips on mindful eating? I went to the link to the page and only found a different 6 page version.
I LOVE this talk!
I’m still listening to it.
This is sooo important.
Thank you so much Susan!
I was going to skip this session when I saw the topic and I’m so glad I didn’t. I loved it. I happened to be eating a banana at the time so used that for the practice and my mouth is still feeling the sensation of the banana and salivating 5 minutes later. I can see how this will lead to eating less.
Thank you Melli for organizing this Summit and I love listening to your soothing voice
Thank you for this, another brilliantly inspiring video. I too was going to skip this session as I didn’t think it would be relevant to me. I’m so glad I gave it a go! It’s just so lovely to share the company of like minded people and be party to their enthusiasm.
Thank u Susan for your wonderful presentation, I ate my breakfast with my non-dominant hand this morning and it was a great technique for focussing the mind. I’ve also noticed that I’m making more conscious decisions about my food choices since watching this video.
I’m now preparing to sit down for a wonderful evening meal and can’t wait to truly taste every mouthful!
Love and light from Wales,
Hayley
Thank you so much for sharing this talk especially in this season. The weather is just too nice for me to stop craving for food. I enjoyed eating some grapes. I hope mindful eating will help me enjoy eating more and less overeat.