I believe in mindful eating. The practice of mindfulness has helped hundreds of my clients to live more intentionally and develop the skills necessary to manage weight, chronic pain, disease, depression, sleeping problems, and anxiety. It also has become the focus of an approach to eating that fulfils the criteria necessary in changing one’s overall approach to eating. I believe that without behaviour change, a diet is useless. Although we pay significant attention to studying diets to determine which is the most effective, we still come up with the same answer: they are all effective in the short term, and none is effective in the long term.

Mindful eating (i.e., paying attention to our food, on purpose, moment by moment, without judgment) is an approach to food that focuses on individuals’ sensual awareness of the food and their experience of the food. It has little to do with calories, carbohydrates, fat, or protein. The purpose of mindful eating is not to lose weight, although it is highly likely that those who adopt this style of eating will lose weight. The intention is to help individuals savour the moment and the food and encourage their full presence for the eating experience.