I often find when I’m stressed out or busy I tend to either forget to eat (you do not want to be around me when I haven’t eaten…) or stress eat unhealthy foods such as gold fish and currently Halloween candy. I think it is extremely important to focus more on eating and listening to your body when you are hungry and when you have had enough. Additionally, for obvious reasons it is extremely important to nourish yourself with healthy food choices throughout the day. This is not to say treats and junk food are not ok and should not be consumed as it is important to have balance, however where the mindfulness comes into play is regarding how much and how often you choose to eat these kinds of foods. The same goes for forgetting to eat, as we all know how awful it can feel to try to cope and get through the day on an empty stomach. I think this is so important for both teachers and administrators, as it is sadly not uncommon to go without food on a busy day of school (my mom is a principal and often comes home hungry because she did not have time to each lunch). In this blogpost, I will be discussing what mindful eating is, my own personal strategies, why it is important for teachers, and how it can be incorporated into a busy school day.

First of all, what is mindful eating? In my own understanding, mindful eating is literally the practise of being mindful of your eating. This has to do a lot with recognizing the signs your body is telling you it wants food or it has had enough. For example if you’re hungry and you feel hungry listen to your body and give it some energy, when you feel that you have had enough listen to what your body is telling you and don’t eat more. I would like to mention, mindful eating also comes into play when you don’t feel neither full or hungry. For example you see a cupcake sitting in front of you, it is very temping to eat it and looks delicious, however your body is content in terms of it’s nourishment, I personally alway ask myself the following three questions:

1.Will this cupcake make me feel happy if I eat it?

2.Is this cupcake for a special occasion/special treat? (meaning how often do I eat cupcakes?)

3.Will I enjoy this cupcake if I eat it?

If your answer is yes to all of these questions, I suggest you just eat the cupcake!

How can a teacher mindfully eat during a busy day? Here are my ideas:

1.Eat your lunch in the classroom with your students: I think eating lunch in the classroom can really help grow relationships and connections with students. I understand why some teachers like to have a break away from their students, however I’m becoming a teacher because I like being around kids and I want to support them as much as I can in order to gain trust and grow greater connections with them, and at lunchtime I can do all of this while eating lunch and nourishing myself at the same time, why not?

2.Take the time in the morning to eat breakfast: I’m sure we’ve all heard thousands of times by our parents, teachers, doctors ext…. that it is extremely important to eat breakfast in the morning. What is surprising is that even after all of the emphasis on the importance of eating breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day that is the most commonly missed. I personally find if I don’t eat breakfast in the morning, I become hungry and grumpy quite fast, making it hard to focus on school work and learn (and I’m probably quite miserable to be around too). I would also like to mention that when you are mindfully eating your breakfast, put your phone, work, or tasks down and take the time to enjoy your breakfast and be grateful for the food you have in front of you.

3.Educate students about mindful eating and practise it with them to role model it: If you are hungry during class time, even if it’s not lunch time or snack time yet, I don’t see the problem in taking the time to eat a snack and the same goes for students. I believe, if a child is hungry they should be allowed to eat wether it’s snack/lunch time or not. Part of mindful eating as discussed above is listening to your body when it’s telling you it needs food and so I don’t see the point in starving yourself for hours when you have moments you can have a quick snack.

4.Eat in a healthy balanced way: As discussed with the cupcake scenario, it is ok to treat yourself and you should, however I do not consider eating a cupcake every single day healthy and balanced. Additionally, I do not consider completely cutting treats and junk food’s balanced or healthy either. Therefore, I find by asking myself the questions I asked above, I actually tend to enjoy treats more, as I feel less guilty about eating them and enjoy the moment and every bite.

5.Live in the moment while eating: I often see people looking at their devices or doing work while eating, however this is not mindful eating. Enjoying your food and taking the time for yourself to eat is extremely important. For both teachers and as a student I often find myself doing this as well, however I don’t believe it is healthy, and I don’t think any of us should feel guilty for putting work down to nourish ourselves and our mind and to enjoy and be grateful for the food we are eating.

*Feature image by Ana Tukhfatullina on Unsplash