This Week's Intention: Mindfulness - The Simplest Way to Eat Better

Welcome to your weekly digest of the Mindful Queer’s Wellness Club!

~Here's what to expect each week from Wellness Club~

-Last Week’s Recap
-This Week’s Intention
-Practice of the Week
-Game Plan for the Week

Before we dive into this weeks intentions,

Here’s a recap of Last Week (2/5 - 2/11)

-Last week’s Mindful Intention was focused on Sleep, working on the practice: Creating a Bedtime Routine, putting a focus on the front of your sleep, so you can get relax and wind down before falling asleep.

-On 2/8, Episode 2 of Wellness & Wellbeing IN REAL LIFE - Let’s Talk Body, was released.
This episode discusses how LGBTQ+ people face unique struggles with eating disorders and body dysmorphia due to the pressures to adhere to cis-normative body standards. It highlights the importance of rejecting these standards, cultivating a growth mindset, loving one's body and taking care of it, and showing compassion towards oneself in order to feel empowered and confident.

-On 2/10, I released February’s batch of Disco songs in my year long Disco playlist - Disco Fever
In this month’s grab (51-100), you’ll find artists like Gayle Adams, Sister Sledge, First Choice, Patti LaBelle, Tara Gardner, Frankie Knuckles, Martha Wash, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Loleatta Holloway, Donna Summer (of course), Chaka Khan, Sylvester, Diana Ross, and of course Aretha Franklin.
Each Second Sunday of the month, I will drop 50 songs to the playlist, with a cohesive vibe, perfect to get you through the month. Come vibe with me for the month and add some disco to your life :)

This Week’s Intention

Hopefully you didn't get too caught up in the Super Bowl last night (if you so partake in America’s game) …I for one do not know a thing about football, but will be around for the food & the halftime show.

And speaking about food…I wanted this week’s intention to be focused on mindfulness.

See being “present” doesn’t just allow us to enjoy the here & now, it can segue into other parts of our life, like mindful eating (or intuitive eating).

For me, it’s been the simplest way to live and eat mindfully without feeling the guilt or shame that “bad” food gives off.

Although it takes time to get to the point where food is neither good nor bad.

Once you reach that moment, all the BS diet culture & yo-yo’ing of your weight will be kicked to the curb. So don’t be like her 👇 and keep reading.

This week, we are focusing on the power of eating mindfully and how it can simplify your eating habits, as well as a mindfulness practice to tune into your senses.

Being mindful is a powerful tool that allows us to be more conscious of our thoughts and feelings in the present moment. Through mindfulness, we can cultivate self-awareness, find inner peace and be in control of our emotions in difficult situations.

Mindfulness involves being attentive to your thoughts, feelings and senses. When we tune into our senses & feelings, we can use this powerful skill in areas of our life like sensing our hungriness & fullness. See our stomach sends our brain a signal when we are full, but that takes about 20 minutes from the second you put food into your mouth, Read more below

With mindful awareness, you can make decisions with clarity and insight. You can be the master of your emotions and respond to stress and anxiety with strength and grace. Take the time to practice mindfulness and you will be surprised at the transformed you.

In this newsletter, we will explore the benefits of mindful eating, 6 Tips to Slow Down, and offer practical tips on how to go small, and get present.

So, take a deep breath, relax, and let's dive into the world of eating, mindfulness and slowing down.

When it comes to eating better, most folks worry about the little details:

🤔“Are potatoes fattening?”
🤔“If I don’t drink a protein shake after my workout, is it even worth exercising?🤔“Is keto really the best way to lose weight? Or should I be doing Paleo? Or what about the alkaline diet?!”

Yet they eat over the kitchen sink. Or in their car. Or in a daze while in front of the TV.

And who can blame them?

We’ve been taught to think about what we eat, not how we eat.

That’s too bad since…

Eating slowly and mindfully can actually be an incredibly powerful habit for driving major transformation.

Instead of having to figure out which foods to eat, in what frequency, and in what portions—all important factors, of course—eating slowly is the simplest way anyone can start eating and feeling better, immediately.

Why?

Two reasons:

1. It takes about 20 minutes for your body’s satiety signals to kick in. Slow eating gives the system time to work, allowing you to better sense when you’ve had enough.

2. When you slow down, and really try to savor your meal, you tend to feel satisfied with less, and feel less “deprived.”

But…

People struggle with this habit

(Oh, do they struggle.)

So....What do You do?

🕓Practice at slow eating and know you won’t be perfect. That’s okay

🤔It’s also why it’s not a bad idea to spend a whole month on just this one habit.

Directions: To help you, try one of these tips: 1) You can experiment with them for just one meal, or 2) take on a full “30-day slow-eating challenge,” if you feel up to it!

1️⃣ Take a breath.

Before you eat, pause. Take one breath. Take one bite. Then take another breath. Go one bite and one breath at a time. That’s it.

2️⃣ Add one minute per meal.

At the beginning of a meal, start a clock and see if you can make each meal one minute longer than the meal before.

3️⃣ Do something between bites.

Besides taking a breath (or three), try:

- setting down your utensils
- taking a sip of water
- asking someone at the table a question

4️⃣ Savor your food.

When you eat… eat. Enjoy it. Really taste it. Is it salty? Sweet? Does it coat the roof of your mouth? What’s the texture like? Think about these questions with each bite.

5️⃣ Notice what affects eating speed.

Even something as subtle as silence or background music can trigger you to speed up or slow down, which is why some folks have found success with listening to a 20-minute “slow eating” playlist.

6️⃣And finally…

Try to remember: Don’t put food on your fork... if there’s food in your mouth!

Happy Slow Eating!

Tag me in your story @mindfulqueer on instagram with ways you are slowing down your eating! Use #WELLNESSCLUB in your post!

Practice of the Week

Practice #3: Go Small, Get Present

Pillar:
Mindful

Skill:
Self-Awareness

Toolbox of Creativity:
-Focus on the moment-to-moment sensations, sensory input, & other experiences of the immediate present
-Try attuning to each of your senses
-Focus on your physical sensations
-Consider only your tiniest next movement

Why?
It's easy to get caught up in life. Meditation is a great tool that helps us to live more in the present by tuning into life & the processes that keep us functioning.

So sit up tall, clothes your eyes, and begin your focus by breathing deep & slow.

And begin the process.

How to Do it Better?
🧘🏻 4242 Breathing Pattern

Inhale: 4 | Hold: 2 | Exhale: 4 | Hold: 2

Each time try to focus on different areas of the body. Try to tune into your senses in one area at a time. If repeating the same area, see if you gain different and new experiences

Journal your experiences!

Coaching IRL Notes:
Mindfulness allows us to be better humans when it counts. It gives you the ability to tune into what's going on in the here and now, like a superhero power that lets you to sense everything going on around you. 🦸🏻

Think of what you could do with all that knowledge and power!

Becoming more mindful also helps us in those stressful moments in life we never see coming.

Although you might not be able to avoid stressful moments as a whole from just from mediating, you can certainly use it to your advantage.

Instead of letting a stressful moment consume your whole day, you can use a short moment to breathe to regulate and get yourself back to baseline.

When you encounter a tough situation, you can use meditation to tune into your senses & notice where stress is building up (fun fact: Stress tends to build up in your shoulders and upper back, so make sure you roll out, or stretch your back up after a long days work)

When we are running from meeting to meeting and its lunch time. Instead of working through or eating while sending 20 emails, take 15-20 minutes and eat your lunch REAL SLOW. Use it as a "power meal" kinda like a "power nap", to fully break down your meal into digestible nutrients, hydrating in between bites, and breathing to get allow your body to tell you when you are full

However you want to use the powers of mindfulness, be my guest, keep breathing and trying different ways that work for you!

Game Plan for the Week

Choose 1x Daily Practice to follow habitually for the week (or more)

• My Daily Practice this week is:

• How Ready are you (on a scale of 1-10):

• How Willing are you (on a scale of 1-10):

• How Able are you (on a scale of 1-10):

If you score under a 6, make the daily practice easier or less frequent till you get over an avg of 8.

If you score above a 9, and you want to push yourself, try to make that daily practice a tad bit more challenging (only if you are capable of handling that)

If you want to download a copy of my Blueprint Planner - my free 90 day goal planner that allows you to breakdown any goal into daily practices to help change behaviors and smash your goals, click here! 

(If you want to try Practice #1: 5 minute Action, to easiest and quickest way to building actionable habits in your life, check it out!)

🫶🏽That wraps up the Wellness Club for this Monday!

Thank you for being a loyal subscriber, and keep an eye out for some new and exciting events coming up just for Wellness Club subscribers!

🚨New Episode of Ask the Mindful Queer airs on 2/16. Make sure you are following me on Youtube!

If you have any questions or feedback, please send a DM or email over!

Good vibes,

John Kim (They/Them)
THE MINDFUL QUEER