Fuel Your Success: Why Mindful Eating is the Secret Energy & Stress-Management Weapon Every Woman Entrepreneur Needs

Being a woman business owner is demanding and it can be stressful. In addition to constant pressure at the office to meet deadlines, manage your team, and drive revenue growth, we also have to juggle managing our home, the kids, and other family and community responsibilities.

This stress can lead to unhealthy eating habits, including overeating, emotional or stress eating, and choosing high-calorie hyperpalatable foods as a way to comfort ourselves and feel better. This increases our risk for weight gain and obesity and negatively impacts our metabolic health.

I was a stress eater. Whenever I felt pressure or stress of any kind, I immediately went out to buy salty chips, preferably Sour Cream & Cheddar Ruffles, or reached for crackers at home and mindlessly devoured the bag in a whiff.

I’ve since changed my stress management strategies to include mindful eating. In this article I'm going to show you how mindful eating can help you reduce stress, enhance your focus, and boost your productivity. In addition, I'll share with you the eight easy steps to mindful eating so you can get started with your next meal.

If we’re going to talk about mindful eating, however, we first have to talk about mindless eating.

What is Mindless Eating?

Mindless eating is when you eat while distracted and not present or aware of what or how much you are consuming. These are the top three reasons we might indulge in mindless eating.

1. Boredom

Simply put, if you are bored or have nothing to do, eating gives you something to do. Eating a bag of chips or going to buy some chocolate ice cream gives you a purpose for the time being making it easy to fall into this habit.

2. Distracted

Eating while distracted is common and is a key reason why we overeat. Distractions include eating in front of the television, while talking with friends, scrolling through social media, watching videos on your phone, and as many of us know, while working.

Woman mindlessly eating while working and/or watching TV with headphones on — Photo Credit: PR Image Factory via Canva Pro

3. Stress or Emotional Eating

Eating when stressed or emotional is a way to comfort ourselves and soothe our emotions. We've all seen the scene in the movie or TV when a woman breaks up with her partner, she heads for the fridge and pulls out the container of ice cream. She then curls up on the couch with the container and a sad movie to cry it out.

What is Mindful Eating?

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, mindful eating is the practice of becoming aware of and paying attention to the physical sensations of hunger, stomach fullness, taste satisfaction, and food cravings, the identification of emotional and eating triggers, and self-acceptance (Kristeller & Wolever, 2011)

Mindful Eating graphis with healthy foods — Photo Credit: Juan Moyano via Canva Pro

To that, I add settling into and becoming fully present and aware of the sensory experience of the food, how it tastes, the colors, texture, scent, and variety of flavor nuances.

What Are the Benefits of Mindful Eating for Women Entrepreneurs?

1. Enhanced Energy, Mental Clarity, & Performance

Energy and mental clarity directly are essential for business owners. What we eat directly impacts how we feel and perform throughout the day and how we feel about ourselves.

By practicing mindful eating, we are giving ourselves the opportunity and capacity to make healthier food choices as well as making mindfulness a practice.

This powerful combination will boost your energy level, enhance your mental clarity, heighten your focus, and propel your productivity.

Woman enjoying being productive after mindful eating — Photo Credit: Latino Life via Canva Pro

2. Stress Management and Emotional Well-being

When we stress eat or eat emotionally, we are using food as a stress management tool. It is ineffective and can be counterproductive by causing more stress, guilt, weight gain, health issues, and even shame. As a recovered stress eater myself, I say, Stop the madness!

Food is not a stress management tool. Mindful eating, however, is part of your stress management toolbox.

Imagine sitting down for lunch during a particularly stressful day, and settling into your chair, feeling the solid support it provides you. You relax because you've placed your phone on silence and put it away knowing this is your time, and as you take a deep breathe, you get present to your hunger and the fresh and delicious Greek Salad in front of you.

You smile as you look down at the array of colors that make up your Greek Salad, and you pierce a forkful of goodness.

As you take a bite, you get present to the refreshing crunch of the romaine lettuce and cucumbers, the sweet burst of the grape tomatoes, and the tangy richness of the feta cheese. You chew slowly, feeling the different textures, and savor the array of flavors.

Woman practicing mindful eating getting present to her food — Photo Credit: RossHelen via Canva Pro

Before your next forkful, you consider the various nutrients you are taking in to fuel your body as you take another deep breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds and gently exhale through your mouth for five seconds. Every few forkfuls, you consider if you are still hungry before continuing to eat.

Just from the description alone, you can see how mindful eating will help relieve your stress.

3. Enhancing Focus and Decision-Making

As a business owner dealing with all kinds of demands on your time, the last thing you need is to feel sluggish, have brain fog, and/or feel bloated. Not the bloat!

Mindful eating helps you make better choices about your food which will improve your overall well-being and put into practice better and more mindful decision-making while enhancing your ability to focus.

How to Practice Mindful Eating?

1. Take your time. Slow down. Don't hurry.

Slow down. Take a deep breathe when you sit down, and between forkfuls, breathe in for five seconds through your nose and exhale through your mouth for another five seconds. If that feels too long, start with just three seconds in and three seconds out.

2. Take small bites.

When you look down at your food and you see a giant forkful of food, half the portion.

3. Take a break from your devices.

Silence your phone and put it away, turn off the TV, and close the laptop. They'll be there when you are done.

4. Savor your food.

Feel the different textures, take in the nuanced aromas, and savor the different flavors of your meal.

Woman savoring food practicing mindful eating — Photo Credit: Dean Drobot via Canva Pro

5. Sit down at a table to eat.

If you are sitting down, you are more likely to eat more slowly and to practice mindful eating. I work standing up, but I always sit down to eat during the day.

6. Use a food diary.

Personally, I love NutritionIx. It's free, very easy to use, and super robust. The point is to be able to see your nutritional intake based on what you are eating.

7. Be thankful.

Take this moment to be thankful for the nutrition in every bite, the energy the macronutrients in your meal are providing, the wonderful sensory experience you are having, and the abundance of being able to eat such a healthy and delicious meal.

8. Breathe.

Just breathe. Use each breathe to settle your body. Release your shoulders, focus on your meal and the sensations, and enjoy the experience.

Being a business owner can be stressful, but eating is not a stress management tool. By practicing mindful eating, you will seamlessly leverage your meal times as self-care, stress-reducing moments, during which you nourish your mind, body, and spirit. You will emerge more focused, relaxed, and centered with greater clarity of mind, a boost of energy, and heightened performance and productivity capacity throughout your day.