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    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students: A Mindful Eating Program to Fuel the Life You Crave
    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students: A Mindful Eating Program to Fuel the Life You Crave
    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students: A Mindful Eating Program to Fuel the Life You Crave
    Ebook225 pages2 hours

    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students: A Mindful Eating Program to Fuel the Life You Crave

    By Michelle May M.D.

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    About this ebook

    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students will help you discover how to eat mindfully, enjoying every aspect of the experience. You’ll learn to eat the foods you love fearlessly, without guilt or overeating. You’ll learn how to trust your natural ability to eat the right amount of food and meet your other needs in more fulfilling ways.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateSep 25, 2015
    ISBN9781934076439
    Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students: A Mindful Eating Program to Fuel the Life You Crave

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      Book preview

      Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students - Michelle May M.D.

      life.

      INTRODUCTION

      Do you love to eat? Do you obsess about everything you eat? Do you ever feel guilty when you eat certain foods? Do you feel deprived when you don’t get to eat what you want? Are you confused about what you’re supposed to eat? Do you eat while you’re doing other things, like watching TV, studying, or driving? Do you eat so fast that you barely notice the taste after the first few bites? Do you feel stuffed at the end of a meal? Do you eat because you’re hungry? Do you eat because it’s time to, because the food looks good, or because you’re stressed, bored, or one of a hundred other reasons? Do you think of exercise as punishment for eating? Or do you exercise to earn the right to eat? Have you forgotten that the purpose of eating is to fuel your life?

      Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students will help you discover how to eat mindfully, savoring every aspect of the experience. You’ll learn to eat the foods you love fearlessly, without guilt or overeating. You’ll learn how to trust your natural ability to eat the right amount of food—and meet your other needs—coping with stress or relieving boredom, for example—in more fulfilling ways.

      Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students is based on the Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating Program that helps people change their relationship with food. Our program has been adapted for diabetes, binge eating disorder, bariatric surgery, workplace wellness, athletes, and now, for students. Am I Hungry? mindful eating programs have been shared with tens of thousands of participants by hundreds of licensed Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating facilitators, therapists, coaches, and instructors in twenty countries.

      What is mindful eating—and how does it help? Mindful eating has its roots in an ancient mindfulness practice with profound modern applications. Mindfulness is simply awareness of the present moment without judgment. When you become aware of your physical state—your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions as they are in the here and now—every choice you make is an opportunity to understand why you do the things you do and then to choose differently the next time if it will serve you better. Whether you’ve struggled with food, plan to work in a health-related field, or simply want to learn more about mindful eating, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Students will provide you with the skills and tools to make more conscious decisions.

      Throughout this book, you’ll read short stories that illustrate key concepts. Let me start now by sharing my story about how I came to do this work.

      Picture a little girl with red hair, lots of freckles—and slightly chubby. My parents didn’t have a lot of money so we didn’t waste food. Besides, there were starving children in Africa. My athletic, skinny younger brother could, and would, eat anything that wasn’t nailed down, so I made sure to get my share first. My grandmothers were both wonderful cooks and I learned early on that food was love. My mother, on the other hand, was slender and dieted to stay that way. She was the only one in our family who never ate her baked potato. I believed that when I grew up, I wouldn’t get to eat potatoes anymore either.

      When my parents began having marital problems, I found comfort and security in eating. Soon after they divorced, a girl at my new dance school teased me about being fat, so I quit taking lessons and gained more weight. During my early teens, I was relatively slim but I spent most of my free time hanging around with my friends at a fast-food place or eating in front of the TV. I still remember how embarrassed and guilty I felt when my stepdad pointed out that my friend and I had eaten a whole package of cookies—thirty-six to be exact.

      In high school, I was a good student but I put a lot of pressure on myself and used food to relieve the stress. It usually worked—at least for a little while. In the long run, though, my main coping mechanism itself became a major source of stress for me. Upsetting shopping trips to find clothes led to body image issues that added to the stress. The stage was set. In college, I developed disordered eating and a painful love-hate relationship with food. I was ashamed of my body, ashamed of my eating, and ashamed of my cheating. Without realizing what was happening, I became trapped in a vicious cycle.

      Ironically, despite the fact that I wasn’t able to stick to a diet, I clearly had enough willpower to finish college, medical school, and a family medicine residency. I eventually found myself advising my patients to eat less and exercise more, but most of them didn’t fare any better than I had. That was little consolation.

      I felt discouraged and helpless. How could I tell someone to do something I hadn’t been able to do myself? It didn’t seem fair; my husband and children ate whatever they wanted, but they rarely ate more than they needed. Did they just have a better metabolism? That was probably part of it. I knew mine was a mess after years of overeating and dieting. Did they have more willpower? No. I doubt they could follow a restrictive diet for very long either. But there was something else, something fundamentally different about the way they thought about food. I realized they didn’t really think about food at all—unless they were hungry.

      Could the answer really be that obvious? Could I learn to listen again to my body’s innate wisdom to guide my eating? It was surprisingly simple, but it was not always easy. After years of trying to follow other people’s rules about food, ignoring hunger, and eating for all sorts of other reasons, it was difficult to trust my body and my instincts. Gradually, I developed a more mindful, satisfying way to eat and move my body.

      Something else completely unexpected happened along the way. I found freedom, peace, balance, and wholeness. I also discovered a purpose for my life and a passion for helping others find wholeness, too.

      Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!

      Michelle May, MD

      CHAPTER 1

      IN CHARGE, NOT IN CONTROL

      Istruggled with yo-yo dieting for many years, including high school, college, and medical school.

      I know the feeling that comes with I can’t take it anymore. I’d join a gym and buy the latest supplement or diet book.

      I was always so determined. Time to get back in control. I cleaned out my refrigerator, my kitchen cabinets, and my desk drawer. I threw away (or finished off) the chips and cookies and started eating celery sticks for snacks. I read every label so I’d know what I could eat and what I shouldn’t. I took my lunch, drank my eight glasses of water every day, and got up early almost every morning to walk. This feels great! that little voice in my head said.

      I felt in control—and a little smug. As I watched everyone else eating junk, I’d think, If they had willpower like me, they’d know that stuff’s bad for them and they’d resist it, too. Eventually, someone would notice I wasn’t eating certain foods, so I’d talk about my latest plan and they’d tell me about theirs. Soon the conversation would drift to food and eating—our favorite topics.

      Sooner or later I’d start to think, This isn’t worth it. When I saw someone eating ice cream, I’d decide, It’s not fair. When my alarm went off for my morning walk, I’d think, This is too hard. The day came where I turned off the alarm, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

      Inevitably, I cheated and ate a cookie during a meeting. I thought, You’ve been so good; you can have another one. It tasted great and I decided I would walk longer tomorrow so I could have another one. I thought, You already blew it so I got a soft pretzel and ate it on the way home.

      I couldn’t believe I did that after how hard I worked! I knew that at any given moment, I was just one cookie away from blowing it.

      WHY DO I EAT?

      If you’ve ever struggled with overeating, undereating, or both, you may wonder why eating seems so effortless for some people. Living a balanced lifestyle isn’t about being in control. It’s about being in charge. To understand why this distinction is so important, consider the differences between people who manage their eating effortlessly, people who struggle with overeating, and people who are always on a diet. Why do they eat? What role does food play in their lives? Think of their eating patterns—what, how often, and how much do they eat? How physically active are they?

      Let’s explore different eating patterns: Instinctive Eating, Overeating, and Restrictive Eating.

      Instinctive Eating

      First think of someone you know who seems to effortlessly eat the right amount of food for their body and who doesn’t seem to think much about their eating habits. You may be thinking about yourself, a friend, or a relative. Ashley describes her brother Brandon.

      My brother Brandon is so lucky! He can eat whatever he wants. He’s 17 and plays club soccer so it seems like he’s eating all the time. He’s working with a trainer now so he’s becoming more conscious about what he eats, but he says he’s not willing to cut out the foods he loves—and why should he? When he’s not hungry he’s just not interested in food, even ice cream or chips!!

      Overeating

      Think of somebody you know who struggles with eating too much. It may be you or someone you know well. Ashley talks about how she started overeating.

      Food is a big deal in my family. My mom is a great cook and always made sure we had balanced meals. When I moved into the dorm during my freshman year, I missed our family meals the most. I used to love sitting around the table with my parents and my brother, and even though we all loved to eat, I didn’t really start overeating until I got to college.

      My parents bought me a meal card so I could eat anywhere on campus. Of course my mom lectured me about eating healthy since she wouldn’t be planning what I eat anymore. Most of the time I couldn’t get up early enough for breakfast but I ate at the student union during the day—when I had time. I’d get a salad or a burrito for lunch, and maybe frozen yogurt or a giant cookie when I was still on campus in the afternoon.

      At night, my roommate and I would order pizza or pick-up Chinese take-out for dinner because it was easy. We’d also go to the grocery store to get food for the weekend and some stuff to snack on. I got in the habit of eating chips or Skittles while I studied or watched TV. Then, near the end of the semester, I showed up to class one day and realized that I had completely forgotten about a big assignment! I felt like such a failure. When I got back to my dorm room, I sat down and ate an entire bag of chips with salsa by myself. I felt totally sick afterward, but I did the same thing a couple weeks later when this guy I liked asked me for my friend’s phone number instead of mine.

      Restrictive Eating

      Now think of someone you know who is on a diet. You probably know a lot of people like this! Here’s how Ashley began eating restrictively.

      A bunch of girls and guys from our dorm made plans to go to the beach in April for spring break, so in March I started to panic. I went on a cleanse for a week then stayed off carbs until April. I had never been on a diet before and at first, I felt great. I just logged everything I ate into my phone to make sure I didn’t eat more calories than I was allowed. Then it seemed like all I thought about was food! I was hungry all the time so I had a hard time concentrating to study and I was crabby most of the time. I couldn’t wait to eat normally again!.

      The Mindful Eating Cycle

      Do you recognize your own eating in one or more of these examples? The Mindful Eating Cycle is a tool for recognizing and understanding eating behaviors. You can only change what you’re aware of so we’ll follow the path of the Mindful Eating Cycle throughout this book to solve the mystery of why you do what you do—and guide you to a new way of thinking about food.

      There are six questions in the Mindful Eating Cycle:

      Let’s use the Mindful Eating Cycle to help us deconstruct the eating patterns in Instinctive Eating, Overeating, and Restrictive Eating to better understand what’s going on.

      Instinctive Eating Cycle

      Let’s think about how you might answer each of the questions when you are eating instinctively.

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