The Power of Mindfulness for Eating Habits and Weight Management

James Hill:
Welcome to Weight Loss And, where we delve into the world of weight loss. I'm Jim Hill.

Holly Wyatt:
And I'm Holly Wyatt. We're both dedicated to helping you lose weight, keep it off, and live your best life while you're doing it.

James Hill:
Indeed, we now realize successful weight loss combines the science and art of medicine, knowing what to do and why you will do it.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes, the “And” allows us to talk about all the other stuff that makes your journey so much bigger, better, and exciting.

James Hill:
Ready for the “And” factor?

Holly Wyatt:
Let's dive in.

James Hill:
Here we go.

Holly Wyatt:
We're going to talk about a topic that I think at first glance might seem a little outside of our lane.

James Hill:
Wait a minute. Nothing's outside of our lane.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, I know we rarely say that, but we're going to talk about mindfulness and meditation. That's not something we talk about a lot. For a lot of people, I think meditation, they think it means sitting quietly for a few minutes, trying to relax, maybe clear their mind. It sounds more like stress management more than obesity treatment.

James Hill:
Yeah, but for the last decade, scientists have been asking a much bigger question. Could training the mind actually influence the way we eat? Does this sound familiar, Holly? We've been talking about mind state over and over.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
Not necessarily by changing the food. Not by changing our metabolism. but changing the way we respond to the cues, hunger, craving, stress, and the food environment. Isn't that interesting that it might work in that way?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, that's what makes this conversation so interesting. We're not talking about replacing nutrition or physical activity or medications. We're asking whether that training, changing how the mind works, can strengthen another part of the weight management practices that we do.

James Hill:
So emerging research suggests that mindfulness may help reduce automatic eating. It may improve emotional regulation. And it may help people respond differently to cravings. Not to make the cravings go away, but to respond differently, even when hunger hasn't changed.

Holly Wyatt:
So today we're going to separate some of the science from the hype.

James Hill:
[2:21] Oh, I love that.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. What exactly are mindfulness and meditation? We're going to define them. What does the research actually show? How might they influence eating behavior? We'll spend a lot of time on that. And could they become another tool for helping people lose weight? And maybe more importantly, you know what I'm going to say? Maintain it. Yeah.

James Hill:
We're going to answer all that, Holly. Oh my gosh.

Holly Wyatt:
We're going to try.

James Hill:
Oh my gosh. Let's dive in.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. I always like to start with why this matters. Kind of why did we decide to do this episode? And this came from one thing that I've learned, and I always tell my students, that managing body weight or helping other people manage their body weight isn't just about knowing what to eat. I think we get stuck on that. If people knew what to eat, if they were educated, if they had the knowledge and access, it would solve the whole problem. But especially, you know, the knowledge. We just need more education. And I think most people already know that vegetables are healthier than potato chips. How many people don't know that, Jim, you know?

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, oftentimes people we work with know as much or more about nutrition than we do, right?

Holly Wyatt:
They do, they do.

James Hill:
Because they've read everything and they're very knowledgeable. And again, if knowledge were enough, obesity wouldn't be the challenge that it is today.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, I think the challenge is what happens really in the moment.

James Hill:
Right.

Holly Wyatt:
You know the difference between veggies and potato chips, but you're stressed, you're tired. You walk past a plate of cookies or you know that those chips are in your cupboard. You open the pantry and really without even thinking about it, the moments happen that where you eat or you make a decision that's automatic before we've even had a chance to make a, I would say a conscious decision sometimes.

James Hill:
Yeah, we've talked before about so much of our behavior is automatic and you have these, a stimulus and a response. So, boom, you do this without thinking, and oftentimes you end up eating, particularly foods that maybe aren't the most healthy, not necessarily responding to physiological cues. It's automatic behavior. And wouldn't it be interesting if we could modify that to some extent?

Holly Wyatt:
Right. I think we're looking at if eating behavior is influenced by what you just talked about, habits, emotion, stress, environmental cues, and it tends to almost be automatic, could becoming more aware of that situation, of those things, help us respond differently, help us potentially make a different choice, not necessarily change it, change how we respond to it?

James Hill:
Yeah. And that's an important distinction. I mean, again, in this field, we're too quick to say, do this thing and you're going to lose weight. Well, we're not asking whether meditation magically makes people lose weight, because I got to tell you, there's no single thing alone that's going to do that. We're asking whether it changes the way the brain responds to situations that can lead and often do lead to overeating. Because even small changes, Holly, small changes again, repeated hundreds or thousands of times over a year can have a meaningful effect on body weight. So if mindfulness and meditation made a little tiny difference day in and day out, wow, that would be amazing.

Holly Wyatt:
And I think we're going to focus a little bit on nutrition because there's some data on that, how mindfulness impacts what you eat. But this also could work for physical activity, Jim. The idea that you don't work out or you don't feel like working out or you choose not to be active, that we could talk about it that way too. Could mindfulness and meditation make you more aware of the decisions you're making in terms of movement and be more proactive and be more, you know, have more options? So, we're going to talk a lot about nutrition, but I think this really is broader than that.

James Hill:
It is. So, Holly, do you think body weight regulation really happens in the brain?

Holly Wyatt:
Well, Jim, that is a loaded question. So I think maybe we could start by saying, is body weight regulated by conscious decisions?

James Hill:
Ah, okay.

Holly Wyatt:
Conscious decisions or is it happening outside of our conscious awareness? Is it happening automatically? What do you think?

James Hill:
I think it is influence. I mean, if you go back to this idea that's been out there for a while at the set point. Your weight then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you do. All of this stuff is temporary. You come back to the same weight. I don't believe that. I think it's hard to change the level at which your weight is regulated, but I think it's possible. And I think that decisions you make that influence your eating, physical activity, mindfulness, behavior can make a permanent effect on your weight.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, I think that's part of why we have this debate is I do think a lot of it is maybe unconscious. I mean, there's a lot of the brain is integrating signals that maybe you're not aware of as much. And that's where there's that biology and that idea of body weight regulation that is occurring automatically. But I don't think that's the only piece. And I think that's what you're saying, right? We can also come in and make some choices if we're aware, if we recognize what's going on.

James Hill:
Yes, it sounds too simple, but you have to recognize that weight management is both biology and environment. Both of those affect your behavior. Your behavior influences your weight, but they're influenced by your biology and your environment. So, so many of our eating decisions, I think, occur automatically. If you think about it, we don't, every time we want to eat, say, “Am I hungry? Does my body really need energy?” No. It's like, okay, it's noon. It's time to eat. I'm going to do this. And environmental cues, emotions, stress, food availability can trigger eating without deliberate planning. You walk by that bakery, you're not hungry, but boy, it smells good. It looks good. You go in and you get something to eat. These automatic responses conserve mental effort. There's a good reason why they do that. They make you expend less mental effort, but they can work against healthy eating in today's environment. What we're going to talk about is can becoming aware of these patterns be a first step in changing them?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So becoming aware that some of this is automatic, that some of this will happen without you thinking about it, It doesn't mean you can't think about it.

James Hill:
Right.

Holly Wyatt:
Doesn't mean, but you do have to have realized this and start working toward it. So, you know, eating a lot of what we do is automatic, but choice does play a role. It doesn't mean, automatic doesn't mean uncontrollable.

James Hill:
Right.

Holly Wyatt:
And I think this creates opportunities if we recognize this for healthier choices throughout the day. And I think this is key. It doesn't mean you'll always make the healthier choice. But it means if you're aware, you might, you know, you have a better shot of saying, okay, I'm going to make a conscious decision about it right now. And sometimes, Jim, I'm aware that I'm about to go for those potato chips because I'm stressed out and I'm pissed and commercial just came on showing people eating chips and all these kind of things. And I have the chips in my cupboard. So there's all these cues. I know it. And you know what?

James Hill:
You do it anyway.

Holly Wyatt:
I do it anyway. So it's not 100%, but odds.

James Hill:
We're talking little things. One of the things that I like where scientists are thinking about this a little bit differently, it's not as if mindfulness and meditation suppresses hunger or cravings, okay? They're still there. So mindfulness and meditation isn't going to make your cravings go away, but it could in a very small way change how you respond to these. And that could be really important. This field is cool, Holly, because it connects neuroscience and psychology and obesity medicine.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. That's why I sometimes feel like it's a little bit out of my wheelhouse because it does involve all those different expertise.

James Hill:
When has that ever stopped us, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:
I know. It doesn't stop us. I'm just saying, I'm just being honest. But I think I like the idea of investigating, and this is where I think the research is going, whether strengthening awareness, working on awareness, if that can improve your eating behaviors, and then can that improve long-term weight management?

James Hill:
And again, I want to stress this so importantly. These are small effects. This is not something that's going to suddenly help you lose weight and not be hungry. These are tiny, tiny effects day in and day out that might be important.

Holly Wyatt:
So, Jim, I'm going to then push you on this. No, this is good. This is good because if they are tiny effects that add up over time, that can make a difference over time. Do you think they would be more impactful in weight loss or in weight loss maintenance? We think of them as separate. We think about having a different plan and a different intervention for weight loss versus weight loss maintenance. Where might it be more helpful?

James Hill:
Well, I think the answer to that is clearly weight loss maintenance. I mean, come on, we know how to produce weight loss. We've always known how to produce weight loss. Now we can produce much more of it. But these are the things weight loss, as we've said before, is a short-term thing. You can do timeout. You don't need these. There are more, more powerful tools to get the weight off. Weight loss maintenance is where things like this can really play a role. Weight loss maintenance is forever. So something that gives you a tiny advantage day in and day out can absolutely be critical.

Holly Wyatt:
In weight loss maintenance, you're trying to stay in energy balance.

James Hill:
Exactly.

Holly Wyatt:
Versus being in a larger negative energy balance to really get the weight off. So to me, yes, this is a tool that I'm excited about. I mean, I think it can be helpful in weight loss and you can start learning it in weight loss so you can have it. But to me, weight loss maintenance is where this could have its biggest impact.

James Hill:
Couldn't agree more. But, Holly, so back up a minute.

Holly Wyatt:
Okay.

James Hill:
What is mindfulness?

Holly Wyatt:
I know. Versus meditation. Are they the same thing?

James Hill:
I don't think so. Are they?

Holly Wyatt:
So this is how I think of it. And I probably will get this definition wrong. I'm sure we're going to get some emails on this. But I think about mindfulness as being intentionally paying attention to your present moment experiences and, being open and without judging. So whatever you're doing, being mindful of it, being in the moment, playing attention to it and not judging it. And that's the one thing I have a problem is I like to kind of put some kind of judgment on it. But for instance, you can be mindful about anything. You can be mindful about eating, but you can also be mindful about washing your hands. When you're washing your hands, are you paying attention to the soap and the water and how it feels. Are you in the moment or are you thinking about what's going to happen in an hour or, oh my gosh, there's no paper towels in the bathroom. I'm washing my hands, but what am I going to do? Mindful would be being in the moment. It may not always be you need to be in the moment, but the mindfulness is the ability and awareness to be in the moment.

James Hill:
So are you saying, Holly, that it's good to use mindfulness to disrupt automatic behavior every now and then? Automatic behavior is good. You don't want to disrupt at all, but mindfulness may help you disrupt that occasionally in a way that's helpful. Does that make sense?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. You have to have mindfulness or awareness to be able to make some choices. If you don't know what's going on, then you lose the power to make a choice. It doesn't necessarily, once again, say what choice you're going to make, but without that being in the moment and recognizing what's going on and that there is this opportunity, to choose to do something different instead of the automatic behavior that you've done for years, then you lose that opportunity. You don't have that. So working on mindfulness just gives you more opportunities to make better choices if you want to.

James Hill:
So how do you become more mindful? Do you just work on thinking about things more deeply? Are there other ways that you can improve your mindfulness?

Holly Wyatt:
There are other ways, but that's one of the big reasons why people do meditation.

James Hill:
Ah, so we just bridged from mindfulness to meditation.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. So I think of meditation is more of a structured practice that for a lot of people is used to develop mindfulness and other mental skills, not just mindfulness, but meditation helps you develop that mindfulness piece. There are many different forms of meditation, and I am not an expert on all those different forms. But most of them do involve intentionally directing and repeatedly returning your attention to whatever it is, your chosen focus, what's happening in that exact moment, not what's going to happen in the future or what happened in the past, but that moment. So with meditation, you're practicing that skill in different ways, different types of meditation, but practicing that same skill of being in the moment, which is something that we don't do that much. I mean, we need to practice it. For some of us, it's not something we've experienced or we do very often.

James Hill:
Yeah, as you said, we're not experts in here, but I do know there are a lot of different forms of meditation. And they emphasize different skills and may have different goals. Some of the approaches, for example, are breath-focused meditation, body scan meditation, loving kindness meditation, mindful movement and mindful eating. So while these practices may differ, the one thing they have in common is they all encourage greater awareness of your thoughts, your emotions, your body sensations, and your behaviors. So it's sort of like really diving deep and thinking about what you're doing and feeling rather than just being on automatic. And researchers continue to study whether these different meditation practices produce different effects on eating behavior and weight management.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And one thing I want to point out is that there are different meditation techniques and some may be easier for certain individuals than others. I was not good at like when I first started sitting in a quiet space and doing nothing. Oh, my gosh. It was very difficult for me. But some moving meditation, that was an easier way for me to start. Now I can do the body scans and I can sit still and do some of the other techniques, but very difficult for me at the beginning. I got into this by more of a moving meditation type. Yeah.

James Hill:
I think we need to get an expert on our podcast to help people know how to get started on this, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
That's true. That's true. I want someone who's overall, because what happens is everybody gets their favorite type of meditation.

James Hill:
We need somebody that can do an overview, that can help our listeners understand, okay, I'm sitting here, I'm buying what you're saying. I need to be mindful. I need to start meditating. How do I do it? What do I do? Where do I go? How do I get started?

Holly Wyatt:
Or how do you figure out which of these techniques to start with?

James Hill:
Which is best for me?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, that individualization we always talk about.

James Hill:
We'll follow up and do an episode where we can guide people more. This episode is really to try to help you understand this may be an important area that you may want to consider helping with your weight management.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, Jim, let's even put a call out. If you're listening and you are an expert in overall, now, if you're just trying to sell one technique, that's not bad, but I want someone who can be a little bit broader than that. Or you know someone who you think would be a great person to talk about this, send us an email.

James Hill:
It's a chance for national prominence. You might end up getting your own TV show by being on our podcast.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, well, you never know, but let's not hold that out.

James Hill:
So this is good. So today's episode is just to talk about why it may be important.

James Hill:
And we can do a follow-up episode to help people understand how to get started. So, Holly, what does the research tell us? What do we know? We like to start with the science. What do we know from a research point of view?

Holly Wyatt:
So let's talk first and say, how might mindfulness influence eating and what is the research around that? So I think we've explained a little bit about why that could be, but what does the research say about mindfulness and eating? And I think overall, there are some studies that are saying that there is this association that we see that increased awareness may help people pause. And if they pause before automatically eating, then that could translate into eating a little bit less. So there's a growing number of randomized trials and a review that have evaluated mindfulness-based interventions for eating behavior and weight management. What would you say overall they say? How would you put it all together, Jim?

James Hill:
Well, I think, are you talking about the meta-analysis?

Holly Wyatt:
Well, let's go ahead and bring that one in since it looked at all of them.

James Hill:
So very recently, there was a systematic review and a meta-analysis. Now, meta-analysis is a way of taking a whole bunch of independent studies and saying, can we conclude something from looking at these studies as a whole? So it's actually a pretty interesting way to sort of take on a topic. So these researchers looked at 46 studies. That's quite a lot, Holly, that involved more than 3,500 participants. So they looked at these studies that involved mindfulness and mindfulness eating, and they sort of pooled the results. There's a statistical way of doing that. And what they concluded is that mindfulness can influence eating behavior, although the magnitude varied from study to study. So the general thing was there's something here. There's something real here. It's a little bit uneven in terms of how much you're seeing in different studies. But the takeaway I have here, Holly, is across these 46 studies, there's clearly a signal there. It's clearly doing something positive.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And then when they look, though, does that then go on to impact body weight?

James Hill:
Right, right.

Holly Wyatt:
What are the effects? Because there is, I think, where it gets a little bit murky, a little bit less clear. But I do think there's some signal for very modest effect. Was that your interpretation?

James Hill:
Absolutely. And again, we've said this over and over. This is not a huge effect. You're not going to start meditating and lose 40 pounds. You're adding a tool that gives you a tiny, tiny advantage day in and day out. And that's why it's particularly good for weight loss maintenance. You don't need it during weight loss. It's okay. There's not a downside, but we've got more powerful tools for losing weight. This can really be important during weight loss maintenance.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. And we're just talking about mindfulness, meditation, whatever, in terms of the data around weight, but there's other things that mindfulness and meditation can be helping with too. So it's not like you're just doing this and you're only having an impact on your body weight. There's other areas of your life this could be important for?

James Hill:
Well, it probably relates very heavily to one of our three pillars, which is mind state, right? That's over and above eating and physical activity. It's things like resiliency and optimism and taking care of yourself. So the effect on food intake seems to be there and small, but there's some effect for mindfulness and meditation on other things that can ultimately help in terms of weight regulation.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, I agree. It's not just about reducing hunger, and it didn't seem to reduce hunger.

James Hill:
See, this is what's fascinating for me. You aren't changing the signals that arise, hunger, cravings, etc. What you're doing is modifying how you respond to those.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes.

James Hill:
And that's why it's really, really fascinating. You haven't changed the biology. You've changed your response to the biology, and I find that fascinating.

Holly Wyatt:
I do, too. So let's apply this to something we call when you're eating on autopilot. I use that term. This is autopilot. Have you ever found yourself? You doing something all of a sudden you're you're open the refrigerator and you're staring into the refrigerator and all of a sudden I'm like, “Whoa How did I get here? What am I doing?” Right? That type of and then I've already grabbed something and started eating it. Or I've even talked about when I've been on a road trip before I've had a whole sandwich that I don't even remember eating. I had to stop the car and look for it because I was sure it was still in the car somewhere. It had fallen down. No, I ate it, didn't even know, don't even remember eating it.

James Hill:
Well, actually, Holly, I think this is pretty widespread of people eating while being distracted. You're eating on your computer. You're eating watching television. And you're not really paying attention to your food. So, yeah, you're eating, but a mindfulness approach would be more paying attention to the food and the taste of food. I think we're all in today's society very guilty of eating without paying attention to what we're eating.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And I think mindfulness may help bring these automatic patterns into your awareness. And so, for instance, when I was in the refrigerator, all of a sudden I was like, whoa, I'm in the refrigerator. What's going on here? This is a pattern for me. I'm now aware of it. Now maybe I can make a different decision if I want to. So that's how I think this mindfulness could start to play a role in that autopilot eating.

James Hill:
Yeah. So you think there's a role for mindfulness and sort of playing a role in the brain's reward system. So we know that eating is influenced by reward and pleasure and learned associations. I mean, this is an area of the brain where the GLP-1 meds are working. Do you think that mindfulness might have some sort of role in these reward-driven urges?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it may, once again, increase awareness of these urges. And if you understand what's going on, then you can slow down and you don't necessarily have an immediate response. This is how it's working. It doesn't get rid of them, but it allows you to understand, be in the moment, make a different decision potentially.

James Hill:
So if you were sitting down eating a meal, saying watching TV, and you look at what people eat, and then you go back and have that same meal, without distractions, thinking about the food, et cetera, what you're saying is you might end up eating just a tiny bit less.

Holly Wyatt:
And I think it could be related to the automatic eating. It could be related to the reward system. It's kind of working the same way. Yeah.

James Hill:
So this is a tool that you can use and develop, not a hammer, more of a subtle tool, but it's there day in and day out to use.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And even with cravings. Ppeople come to me all the time and say, cravings, what do I do with a craving? And there's, we talk about ways to eat to maybe to deal with the cravings physiologically. But here's another way to deal with the cravings. And rather than seeing a craving as something that you've got to satisfy in the moment, you could learn to recognize it as a temporary mental event, and then say, “Okay, what could I do instead?” I mean, it just gives you more options when you're able to do this.

James Hill:
So, Holly, what is decentering? What's that term mean?

Holly Wyatt:
Now, once again, I do not, I am not an expert, but I think about de-centering as the ability to observe your thoughts, your emotions, your cravings (like we just did) without automatically identifying with them or acting on them. I talk about this all the time, stretching out, kind of. We call it stretching out, recognizing what's going on, not automatically saying, “Okay, that's who I am,” or identifying with them. And maybe more important, acting on them immediately. If you can just even stretch out before you automatically act, now you've got a longer period of time. And in that longer period of time where you're recognizing it, you have the opportunity to make more choices. And I say it's an odds game. It's not a guarantee.

James Hill:
Cool. You want to do some listener questions?

Holly Wyatt:
Let's try. I don't know. We may not be able to answer these, but we can give it a shot.

James Hill:
We'll act like we are experts here.

Holly Wyatt:
[27:59] Okay.

James Hill:
I'll do the first one. I don't have 30 minutes a day to meditate. Is it even worth trying if I only have five minutes? This one I know the answer to, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
You do? You do?

James Hill:
I've talked to a lot of people.

Holly Wyatt:
Okay.

James Hill:
Absolutely. Five minutes is not nothing. It's a start. The goal isn't to meditate for hours. Maybe if you're one of these yogis in India or something, you spend hours meditating.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, you can, though, Jim.

James Hill:
You can. I'm not going to stop you.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
For people who want to get started, five minutes is a good start. Research suggests that even brief, regular mindfulness practices can be benefit. Five minutes most days is going to be valuable over time. And the hope is you might increase that a little bit over time.

Holly Wyatt:
So it's kind of like physical activity.

James Hill:
Right. More is better. Anything other than zero is good.

Holly Wyatt:
More is better, but a little bit does a lot. A little bit does a lot. So even five minutes of physical activity is good.

James Hill:
Maybe it's like physical activity where you get the most bang for your buck when you start.

Holly Wyatt:
That's what I meant.

James Hill:
If you're doing nothing, you go from zero to five minutes. That may be better than going from 15 to 20 minutes.

Holly Wyatt:
And even that consistency effect, not necessarily being the weekend warrior and just doing it all at one time. There may be something about doing a little bit each day and a little bit goes a long way. I think there's a parallel there.

James Hill:
Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
We should study that. No, I'm joking.

James Hill:
Let's do.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. Here's one. I'm not really a meditation person. Can mindfulness still help me? And that's where I think separating them is important. I like to think of meditation as one way to develop mindfulness, but not the only way. So you can do some mindfulness practices and develop mindfulness. You can do that while eating a meal, walking your dog, simply taking a few deep breaths and concentrating on your breath. Even noticing your thoughts before acting on them is a form of mindfulness. And it's a skill that you can practice throughout the day. And sometimes I've been just tying it to certain things. I'm like,” I'm gonna be mindfulness when I do something. Not everything, but something.” And just recognizing that. So for me in the morning, when I have my cup of tea, it becomes a moment where I am very, mindful and in that moment and not thinking about the past or the future, but really in that moment. And I've tied that to a mindfulness practice, not a meditation practice, but a mindfulness practice that I do every day.

James Hill:
Very cool. All right, I'll do one. If I'm doing mindfulness correctly, should my cravings eventually disappear? Okay, this is important, Holly, because mindfulness will not take your cravings away. Cravings are a normal part of human biology. The goal of mindfulness is not to eliminate them. It's to help you recognize what's happening, recognizing that it's a craving, and taking a minute to decide if you act on it or not. It's like you're in the potato chips. You recognize it. You might decide to act on it. You might decide not. Maybe one out of every four or five times you don't act on it. And this is where it can give you a small advantage. So the cravings are still there, but how you respond to it could change.

Holly Wyatt:
Yep, that's exactly how I would answer that. Here's one more. Is mindful eating just another diet with a different name? I don't think of mindful eating as a diet. Diets, I think, usually focus on what to eat, how much to eat. There's usually some restriction part, if they're for weight loss, at least. Mindful eating focuses on how you eat. Maybe that's the way I would think of it. Paying attention to your hunger, your fullness, the taste, the texture, the emotions, the experience of eating. So it's more about how you eat. And I think it's a different skill that I think could complement almost any other diet or any eating pattern. You could put it together. You could use it together.

James Hill:
A tool that helps. Okay, Holly, what's next?

Holly Wyatt:
All right, let's do a few rapid fire because I came up with a few rapid fire.

James Hill:
Wait, we don't have a guest.

Holly Wyatt:
I know. So let me do one rapid fire to you and then you do one rapid fire. Yeah.

James Hill:
I have to answer?

Holly Wyatt:
Yes, rapid fire to you, then rapid fire to me. We'll switch it off.

James Hill:
All right.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. So rapid fire. All right, Jim, one word that best describes mindfulness. It's easy.

James Hill:
I would say awareness.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

James Hill:
I got it right.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. All right, Jim, do one for me.

James Hill:
All right. Hunger or habit? Which drives more eating in today's world?

Holly Wyatt:
I'm, going to say habit. In today's world, habit.

James Hill:
Oh, interesting. Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
All right, Jim. Which is harder to change, your biology or your habits?

James Hill:
Can I say both?

Holly Wyatt:
Nope.

James Hill:
I think, yeah, your biology. And that's why we spend so much time helping people build habits that try to work with their biology rather than against it. Let's face it, your genetics determine a lot of your biology. That determines a lot of your behavior. So I think biology is probably harder to change.

Holly Wyatt:
I think it is. It doesn't mean we can't work on the other, but I agree with you. Yeah.

James Hill:
All right. Here's one for you. Mindfulness is less about blank and more about blank.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. Mindfulness is less about controlling your thought or having no thought. I think some people think that, it's about controlling your thoughts. And it's more about noticing them, whatever they are.

James Hill:
Okay. That's a good one.

Holly Wyatt:
All right, Jim. True or false? You have to sit quietly with your eyes closed to practice mindfulness.

James Hill:
I know this one, Holly. That's false. You don't have to.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. You definitely do not have to close your eyes.

James Hill:
All right, Holly, what's one everyday activity that can become a mindfulness practice?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, people have asked me this before. One of the good ones that I think for people who are working on their weight is to just decide that the first bite of every meal, you don't have to say I'm going to do the whole meal, but the first bite of every meal, I'm going to be mindful. So I'm going to stop, slow down, be in the moment, what's going on, I'm about to start eating, and be really mindful of that very first bite and taste it and be in that moment. It may not go on, but at least every meal you could start that way.

James Hill:
Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
I guess that wasn't too rapid, was it?

James Hill:
No.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. Let's see. If someone listening just tried one thing this week, what would you tell them?

James Hill:
Well, I just heard this from an expert. Slow down before taking your first bite.

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, my goodness. I wondered if you were going to say that. All right.

James Hill:
Last one. One word that best describes the goal of mindfulness.

Holly Wyatt:
Choice.

James Hill:
Good one. Good one. All right. Do you want to do a vulnerability question?

Holly Wyatt:
Let's do one.

James Hill:
All right. Holly, when do you find it hardest to be mindful?

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, when I'm stressed, when I'm super busy, when I think I don't have time to be in the moment, when I'm juggling too many things, that's when I tend to go on autopilot. And that's really what kind of autopilot was designed to do, right? To get you through when a lot of things are going on. But I've learned that those are the moments that I actually need mindfulness the most because that's when it's easy to get off track and that's when it's easy to react without thinking. So that's when I tend to find it the hardest and that's when I probably need it the most. All right. I don't know, Jim. What's a good one for you? Let me think. Jim, what have you noticed about your own eating that surprised you?

James Hill:
Well, Holly, that's a good question, but I'm going to answer a different question.

Holly Wyatt:
You are.

James Hill:
I am. Because I've read a lot about mindfulness and meditation over the years, and I've actually started doing that. You're going to be shocked. When I get up in the morning, I take 15 minutes and I do mindfulness meditation. And we'll talk about that later on. But I will tell you, I've been doing this maybe four to six weeks. It's already made a huge difference.

Holly Wyatt:
Oh, so this is new. So this is why I don't know about this.

James Hill:
This is totally new within the last month and a half.

Holly Wyatt:
So I didn't want to ask that question because I thought the answer was going to be no.

James Hill:
It would have been before this. You know who got me started as our mutual friend here in the dean's office.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes, yes. All right. Okay. It's new.

James Hill:
And I will tell you, as somebody, I've never practiced meditation and mindfulness, although I've recommended it for others, but now I've done it and I can tell you it actually makes a difference. And we can talk more about that later.

Holly Wyatt:
Okay. I can't wait to hear exactly what you do and the outcome. So that's great.

James Hill:
All right. So the goal of today's episode was to make you aware that mindfulness and meditation is a tool you might want to think about adding to your arsenal of weight management techniques. I think what we're going to do, Holly, is follow this up with someone who knows much more about it than you and I to help guide our listeners to, “Okay, if you buy that this is an important tool, how do you get started?” And I'd love to hear that myself. So we'll try to get an expert on. And if you are that expert and know an expert, let us know and we'll get you on the podcast. But this is something that fits with our third pillar. We talk about food is medicine, physical activity is medicine, and the mind is medicine. And I think we're learning every day how powerful the mind is medicine is.

Holly Wyatt:
And Jim Hill is gone on record saying that he is absolutely doing some mindfulness meditation practices every morning.

James Hill:
Absolutely. I'll keep you appraised, but it's a habit. It's become automatic. So that's the key.

Holly Wyatt:
Already? The mindfulness has become automatic. Oh, wow, Jim. Okay.

James Hill:
I'm doing it, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
You do it without thinking about it?

James Hill:
Well, it's part of my routine. It's just what I do when I get up.

Holly Wyatt:
You put it into your routines. Got it.

James Hill:
It's my routine.

Holly Wyatt:
Okay. That makes sense.

James Hill:
All right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us on Weight Loss And, and we'll see you next time.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. Bye everybody.

James Hill:
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Weight Loss And. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of weight loss with us.

Holly Wyatt:
If you want to stay connected and continue exploring the “Ands” of weight loss, be sure to follow our podcast on your favorite platform.

James Hill:
We'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions by reaching out at weightlossand.com. Your feedback helps us tailor future episodes to your needs.

Holly Wyatt:
And remember, the journey doesn't end here. Keep applying the knowledge and strategies you've learned and embrace the power of the “And” in your own weight loss journey.