Provided by:
The University of Arizona College of Agriculture &
Life Sciences - Cooperative
Extension
March 24, 2016
Newsletter 1:
Mindfulness: The Eating Edition
Welcome and thank you so much for participating
in the 2016 Walk Across Arizona (WAAZ)
Next Week…
program! We are thrilled to report that we have
exceeded last year’s participation not only by the
number of teams, but also by individual
Mindfulness: The
Resting Edition
Rest and sleep are a few
important things that
Americans don’t tend to get
enough of these days. We’ll
explore the topic of mindful
resting and how it can improve
mood, productivity and health.
registrations. We thank you and appreciate you
making this year’s program such a success!
For the past few years we have focused on a
particular theme for our WAAZ newsletters and
although we didn’t have these ready to go in
time to send out during the first few weeks of the
program, we’re making up for it! This year, we are
focusing on the theme of mindfulness. What
Walk Across Arizona Newsletter
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exactly is mindfulness? According to The Greater Good Science Center at
University of California, Berkeley, mindfulness is maintaining a moment-bymoment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding
environment. Rooted in Buddhist meditation, the secular practice of mindfulness
has caught on and studies have recently shown a variety of physical,
psychological, and social benefits resulting from only a few weeks of practicing
mindfulness.
Unlike activities that require little-to-no thought, like turning on the faucet to
wash our hands or pouring ourselves that first cup of coffee in the morning,
lifestyle behaviors like sleeping, eating and exercising do tend to require more
thought and awareness. When we simply “go through the motions” and
mindlessly engage in the latter activities, we can encounter unpleasant health
results.
When it comes to eating, being mindful not only about what we eat but how we
eat can make a huge difference to our health and how we feel. Mindful or
intuitive eating helps reconnect us to the experience and enjoyment of this action.
The goal is not only to “think before we eat,” but to explore feelings of hunger,
satisfaction and environmental and emotional cues that influence what, why and
how we eat.
Here are a few ways you can incorporate mindful eating into your daily routine:
 Take your time. Eating slower can help promote the enjoyment of your
meal. Take time to chew your foods and taste them. Notice the colors
(bright, dark, pale), textures (crunchy, soft, chewy), and flavors (salty, sweet,
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savory) of foods. One trick that can help slow down the pace of eating is
putting down your eating utensil between bites.Enjoy the silence. In a busy
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putting down your eating utensil between bites.
 Enjoy the silence. In a busy office or in a bustling household, this can be
challenging, but taking a mindful bite of food or sip of a beverage can be
calming. Even among chatter and noise, quiet your mind and savor the
silence within and pay close attention to your actions at that particular
moment.
 Respect fullness. Babies have a distinct intuition about the sensation of
fullness and stop eating or drinking when they feel satisfied. Influences and
cues from all sorts of places disrupt this over time, but you can tap back into
this instinct by recognizing signals of fullness. Pause after several bites of
food to ask yourself how full you feel, how the food tastes, and if you are
satisfied.
How will you incorporate mindful eating into your daily routine? Email us or tag
us on social media with your ideas using the #WAAZ hashtag.
Image courtesy of nenetus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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