As a registered dietitian and mindfulness meditation teacher trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), I’ve spent over two decades helping people build intentional, compassionate relationships with food and helped countless of them find freedom from rigid diet rules, reconnect with their bodies, and improve long-term health through mindfulness and evidence-based nutrition.
My professional story started in 2002 when I became a registered dietitian and a researcher in the field, investigating how behavioral changes can affect the way we eat and live. As an Assistant Professor on the faculty at Rush University in Chicago, I helped design and manage programs to reduce dementia risk and promote well-being through the MIND diet and other lifestyle habits. I also designed and directed behavioral intervention trials, including the largest U.S. study exploring the impact of lifestyle habits on cognitive decline.
My own journey from dietitian to mindfulness practitioner
Over time, our research team at Rush became aware that we needed to add an “inner” component to our lifestyle programs – one that helps people tap into their own wisdom and capacity for change, rather than relying solely on willpower. Intrigued by the growing body of evidence surrounding “mindfulness” and the promising potential benefits of this evolving practice, we invited Dr. Kristeller to collaborate with us in developing more effective programs.
Dr. Jean Kristeller is the co-founder and past-president of The Center for Mindful Eating. She has received multiple NIH-funded research grants to study the science and clinical application of Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT), which she developed, with the valuable input from many students and colleagues. She is a clinical and research psychologist who has worked in the areas of obesity, eating disorders and the therapeutic value of meditation, with over 30 publications in these areas. She conducts workshops on mindful eating nationally and internationally.
Inspired by Dr. Kristeller’s work, I joined a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course as a participant, which gave me a firsthand experience of the core principles of mindfulness in practice.
That’s when something really “clicked” for me and I and fell in love with mindfulness and the transformative potential it holds.
Then, I started my personal mindfulness and meditation practice in earnest.
After this early training, we started to incorporate some of the mindfulness and meditation practices into our lifestyle-focused research groups and clinical programs. In many ways, I stepped into the role of a mindfulness “teacher” before I had fully established my own personal practice. Teaching pushed me to deepen my understanding and challenged me to embody the practice, not just explain it, for the research participants and clinic patients.
Over time, I was able to notice the personal benefits. I discovered that mindfulness training was helping me reconnect the body and mind. As I slowed down, even for just a moment, I could tune in, feel more grounded, and shift from reacting to responding. This started to seep into my work as I engaged with individuals who thought they were seeking control over their eating habits to lose weight or improve their health — but what they were actually discovering was a deeper sense of awareness, balance, and connection.
Within a few months, I mustered the courage to attend a retreat – first, a 3-day silent at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, then a truly transformative 10-day silent retreat at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, led by Joseph Goldstein. I have since tried to maintain the habit of one retreat each year.
Joseph Goldstein’s book “Insight Meditation” in particular was very impactful in my understanding of these practices, as it tied Buddhist and Western mindfulness and meditation practices together.
I eventually completed professional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, where I became a fully qualified MBSR teacher in 2020. Bringing the full MBSR teaching to Rush presented some challenges. The participants – busy healthcare executives, allied health professionals, and medical students – often did not have time for a daily 45-minute sitting practice. To help tailor the experience to their needs, I developed and adapted 8-week course with one-hour weekly sessions and shorter daily meditations delivered through the Insight Timer app. The course was well received—over two years, nearly 100 participants completed it, with an average 25% reduction in perceived stress and a 15% increase in mindful attention and awareness.
Dietitians struggle with food too!
My own relationship with food was complicated. Even as a dietitian, there were times when eating felt anything but simple for me – especially during stressful periods, when patterns of attachment, control, and using food to cope would resurface. Although I had believed that deepening my education had somehow gotten me over these issues, mindfulness and meditation practice allowed me to see and understand those patterns more clearly. I was brought back into an awareness of those struggles – and more importantly, the underlying patterns that were tied to stress, mood, and my overall sense of well-being.
I became able to recognize how distressing feelings were triggering coping strategies such as overeating and reaching for food when what I really needed was rest, comfort, or connection. And over time, I became able to “separate” the feelings from the coping strategy and to notice the urge without immediately acting on it, and to make space for a different kind of response, even if that simply meant meeting myself with self-compassion after giving in to the habit.
As is true in many of the healing arts, the best teachers are the ones who have experienced the issues themselves. For me, mindfulness was a way to bring balance into every aspect of my life, including how we eat. By adding a component of “inner wisdom” (tuning into my body’s signals and personal experience) to my already established “outer wisdom” (nutrition science and personalized guidance), I began to approach eating in a more balanced and compassionate way.
So, if you or someone you know seem to be experiencing painful and constant struggle over most meals and many foods, it may be time to consider other ways of relating to your eating, yourself, and the many, many food choices we face each day. Mindful eating is simply another powerful way of relating to your experiences of food, your relationship to your body, and the joy that is possible in savoring your experiences. Then moving on to the many other parts of your life that eating supports – what it gives you energy for and how it nourishes your whole self!
The basics of mindful eating
Hunger signals: Mindful eating involves tuning into our own natural physical hunger signals. Sometimes, we confuse physical hunger with an impulse to eat because the food is there, or because we are bored or anxious. So, we first need to learn what does hunger feel like, where is it located in the body, how strong is it right now, can it be held for a moment without reacting?
Slowing down to really taste and honor food: Mindful eating involves really tasting our food. And to sustain the enjoyment, we need to slow down, and notice when our taste buds are no longer registering pleasure after a few bites. Sometimes, it is best to stop eating once the enjoyment has subsided.
Tuning into the body satiety signal – when enough is enough: Mindful eating involves learning to know when we’ve had enough. We become mindful of when our stomach is full at just the right level – to fit the circumstance and the moment – it may be less if we are on our way to the gym, or more if we are enjoying a special family gathering. ‘Body satiety’ is a special form of feedback from our body that lets us know when it has taken in enough nutrients. It takes skill and awareness to attune to this body sense.
Choosing wisely: Mindful eating involves choosing foods wisely, both for pleasure and for health. As we give a break to our inner “food police,” we move toward gentle self-acceptance knowing when to allow a small indulgence and when to walk away. We tune in, seeking to balance our natural pleasure-seeking with the health needs of our body.
A little bit of knowledge goes a long way: Mindful eating also involves cultivating our basic knowledge about nutritional value and quality of the foods we regularly eat. Instead of being afraid and anxious about checking on ‘calories,’ we can learn to cultivate a self-accepting curiosity. Foods we often label as ‘fattening’ can have a place with balanced eating behaviors in small amounts, whereas even some of those so-called ‘healthier’ foods can contribute to overeating if we don’t adopt some outer wisdom, like nutrition knowledge and guidance, helping us to make more informed choices.
The power of small Changes for Big Shifts
Through my ongoing passion for helping people, I have discovered over and over the power of small, sustainable lifestyle changes. For example, if you can’t sit in meditation for 45 minutes each day, maybe you can sit regularly for 5 minutes as a starting point.
We all have a capacity to be mindful. Mindfulness meditation offers a powerful path to strengthen that capacity bring it more fully into our lives. You might consider exploring the basics of mindfulness meditation – not as another task, but as a way to offer yourself more balance, clarity, and wisdom.
Whether or not you join a course, mindful eating is something you can start today:
- Bring a little more attention to your next meal.
- Take a moment to notice the colors, smells, and textures.
- Pause and gently ask yourself, “What would truly nourish me in this moment?”
These small acts of awareness may seem simple, but over time, they can create meaningful and lasting change.
You might also consider keeping a mindful eating journal. Jotting down your thoughts before and after meals can provide valuable insights into your habits, emotions, and hunger cues. Remember, the goal is not to overanalyze or judge—but to observe with kindness.
Here is to your next meal!
If you found this article useful and would like to further explore the concepts of mindfulness and compassion, head over to our programs page where you find additional events and programs to deepen your knowledge and practice.