Gain more control over your food choices with conscious eating
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See available timesWhat is it?
Our brain engages in two primary modes of decision-making; conscious and automatic.
Most of our food choices are made automatically; we select foods based on what has been rewarding in the past, or what we usually eat in a particular setting.
In order to make a food choice different to the one we would usually make, we must engage in conscious processing.
Conscious eating is about learning to bring our automated and reflexive food choices into conscious awareness, to give us greater control over our food choices. It's also about learning to manage the discomfort associated with resisting reflexive food choices, as well as converting our new choices into automated ones which require far less mental effort.
Overcoming the internal battle.
For many of our clients, making food choices can be mentally exhausting. Our basil ganglia (responsible to habitual behavioural routines) urges us to eat the way we usually would, whilst our frontal lobe (responsible for careful decision-making and novel behaviour) urges us to make a new, different, healthier choice.
Often, although we consciously really want to make the choice most in-line with our goals (make a sandwich, for example), the pull of our habitual brain is just too strong, and we order pizza even though we know we really shouldn't today.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying the foods we love. However when we eat them because we can't resist (rather than because we have the spare calories so there's no reason we shouldn't) we rarely actually enjoy it. The pleasure we get from the food is ruined by guilt, anxiety and regret.
Conscious eating is about eating the foods we love because we really want to, rather than because we need to. It's about US being in control, rather than the food.
Bringing unconscious processes into conscious awareness
Taking control over our eating means gaining control over the mental processes which lead to our food decisions. We can start by bringing them into conscious awareness.
Over time, certain aspects of our environment (including location, time of day, people, situations, emotions and thoughts) become associated with particular food choices. For example, for you, getting home from work on Friday evening and feeling stressed might be linked to ordering pizza.
Our brain releases dopamine in expectation of the reward which will come from our usual/habitual response (for example, ordering a pizza or going to the fridge).
When we execute the behaviour (order the pizza) we receive a reward (pleasurable taste + reduction in stress), and the brain releases more dopamine (whilst further strengthening the association between Friday night after work and pizza.
If we resist the urge and make a sandwich instead, a different part of the brain, which deals with the sense of disappointment when the reward doesn't come (the habenula) is activated.
Understanding the function of food.
Our brain repeats behaviours for one reason only: because the reward outweighs the discomfort.
Aside from providing calories and nutrition, food is also a low-effort source of pleasure for your brain Pleasure can come in the form of taste, comfort, visual beauty, texture, stress-reduction, relief from boredom, hunger reduction, identification with a group, pride, and satisfaction, among others.
Attempts to change the way we eat can lead to various forms of discomfort, including unpleasant taste, greater effort, boredom, loss of time, expense, confusion, disappointment, anxiety, loss of comfort, and more.
Understanding what function particular foods and eating behaviours have for your particular brain is a crucial component of building healthier habits.
What's involved?
Conscious eating involves developing the skills of:
Awareness: Learning to bring reflexive processes and urges into conscious awareness
Distress tolerance: mastering strategies to ride the waves of discomfort associated with changing our eating behaviours
Utilising pleasure: increasing the sources of pleasure available to our brains to make change more comfortable, and more enjoyable
