Handout

360° of Mindful Eating:
5 Core Skill-Sets to
Overcome Overeating
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
07/09
Copyright © 2009
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07/09
MATERIALS PROVIDED BY
Pavel Somov, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, graduate of SUNY

Buffalo, is the author of Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices
to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time (New Harbinger,
2008). He has experience with compulsive spectrum presentations
(substance use, overeating, etc.) and has worked in a variety of clinical
settings (community mental health hospitals, county jail, primary
care/behavioral medicine/pain clinic settings, VAs). He is currently in
private practice in Pittsburgh, PA.
His writings have appeared on Huffington Post, Psychology Today

online, and Intent.com, and he has appeared on Sirius Radio’s
“Fully Alive.” Dr. Somov is currently under contract with New
Harbinger Publications for a book on mindful strategies for addressing
perfectionism which is due out in summer 2010.
As part of his private practice he has been involved with gastric bypass
pre-operative psychological evaluations. Dr. Somov has peer-reviewed
publications in the area of Logotherapy, Psychodrama, Substance Use,
Pain Psychology and Hospice Outcome research.
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360⁰ of Mindful Eating
5 Core Skill-sets for Overcoming Overeating
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

copyright, 2009 www.eatingthemoment.com
Section 1/7
Introduction: Broadening the Definition of Mindful Eating
• Defining overeating
• History of mindful eating
• Contributions of Buddhist psychology to
managing eating behavior
• Beyond the “raisin meditation”
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

TO DEFINE OVEREATING, WE NEED TO FIRST UNDERSTAND WHY WE
EAT
UNLESS YOU’
YOU’RE EATING TO SATISFY BODY NEEDS, YOU’
YOU’RE OVEREATING
OVEREATING IS ANY EATING THAT EXCEEDS THE NEEDS OF THE BODY
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
MINDFUL EATING: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Ōryōki is an ancient Buddhist, process-focused, meditative form of eating;
oryoki eating protocol emphasizes mindfulness by adhering to a precise order
of eating movements, and stopping when you are full; oryoki translates as
“just enough.”
Horace Fletcher (1849-1919) is an American health-food faddist; emphasized

importance of chewing before swallowing; argued that each mouthful should
be chewed 32 times to aid digestion; more than just “Great Masticator:”
Fletcher also emphasized that thorough chewing can help turn a “pitiable
glutton into an intelligent epicurean;” became a millionaire from promoting
“fletcherizing;” 1st mindful eating self-help book millionaire?
Jon Kabat-Zinn (b.1944) is the founder the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine,
Healthcare and Society; author of Full Catastrophe of Living and Wherever
You Go, There You Are; introduced a mindful eating exercise, “raisin
meditation,” which appears to have kicked off contemporary mindful eating
self-help genre.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
4 Contributions of Buddhist Psychology to Mindful Eating
Ōryōki Meal: Process Focus and Fullness Recognition
Oryoki is a meditative form of eating that emphasizes mindfulness by
adhering to a precise order of eating movements, and stopping when
you are full; “oryoki” means “just enough.”
Middle Way: Emphasis on Moderation

Historical Buddha’s character arc of awakening/enlightenment:
Siddhartha-the-Prince (indulgence/excess, ”bulimic”) > Siddhartha-
the-Ascetic (renunciation/bodily mortification, ”anorexic”) >
Siddhartha-the-Awakened (Middle Way, eating in moderation); the
concept of “middle way” and the emphasis on moderation is a
conceptual precursor to Harm Reduction approaches.
Mindfulness Training as Habit Modification

mindfulness training serves as an effective platform for habit
modification and disrupting mindlessly maintained behavior patterns.
Mindfulness Training as Craving Control

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,
mindfulness training, as a form of dis-identification from thoughts,
copyright, 2009
www.eatingthemoment.com
feelings, sensations can be used as an effective craving control tool.
360⁰ of Mindful Eating

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., Copyright, 2008 www.eatingthemoment.com
MINDFULNESS, RELAXATION, SELF-TALK,
DISTRACTION/EXPOSURE-RESPONSE PREVENTION
APPROACH
INTEGRATING EATING INTO
ONE’S OVERALL PHILOSOPHY
STIMULUS AVOIDANCE
OF LIVING, MEDITATIONAL
DESENSITIZATION
EATING
HARM
REDUCTION
APPROACH,
LEVERATING
GREATER
MINDFULNESS
DURING
EMOTIONAL DIFFERENTIATING
EATING, CRAVINGS FROM
REDUCING HUNGER
COPING
PERFECTIONISM
SOMATIC
PATTERN-DISRUPTION, MONITORING,
CONDITIONING AWARENESS, REDEFINING
MINDFULNESS OF FLAVOR, of FULLNESS
MOVEMENTS OF EATING,
ETC.
SATIETY INDEX EDUCATION,
NON-FOOD FOCUSED PREVENTING OVEREATING
CELEBRATORY EATING, THROUGH RESIDUAL SATIETY
SHIFTING FOCUS FROM SOCIAL
BINGE-EATING TO SAMPLING & PRE-LOADING ON LIQUIDS &
SAVORING SMELL
Section 2/7
Hunger Recognition Training
• Differentiating cravings from hunger

• Hunger recognition exercises
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

CRAVING ==
/ HUNGER
• Craving is a pseudo-hunger signal that mimics hunger.
Cravings prompt us to eat as if we were hungry, when we
actually aren't.
• Hunger is a physiological need with a physiological signature,

a state of body. Craving is a want, a psychological state,
essentially a thought of desire, a motion of the mind.
• Hunger is generic - you need food, any food that'll make

hunger go away. Cravings are specific - you want a particular
food.
• Hunger depends on your physiology. Cravings depend on the

situation/context.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,
copyright, 2009, www.eatingthemoment.com
HUNGER RECOGNITION EXERCISE
“HUNGER ESSAY”
Write an essay about true hunger. Chances are, you haven't had the
experience of true hunger for quite some time, if ever. Not to
worry: once you feel the hunger, you can relieve it by eating.
After consulting your physician about whether it's safe for you to
delay a meal to experience a state of hunger, plan a day
(preferably a day off) when you'll allow yourself to abstain from
eating until you get hungry. Push the envelope a bit: allow yourself
to get hungrier than you have in a long time.
Once at a point of rather intense hunger, first describe the

experience in an essay, and then eat. Note the physiological
signature of this moment of hunger (if any); reminisce about the
last time you felt this hungry; and meditate on what this moment
of hunger brought to your mind (emotionally, philosophically,
spiritually).
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

HUNGER RECOGNITION EXERCISE

“CRAVING ESSAY”
Practice distinguishing between a state of hunger and a craving. In
the days to come, when you feel like eating, read over your
Hunger Essay and ask yourself: "Is this experience I am having
right now a state of hunger?" If the experience doesn't feel like
hunger and seems to be a craving, then describe it in an essay.
Note what triggered your craving, what you are craving, the
duration of the craving (if it already subsided).
Shall you satisfy your craving? Make a conscious choice: eat or don't
eat. Note in your essay that you made a conscious choice to eat or
not eat but resist the temptation to specify which particular
choice you made. After all, the idea is not to track your
"abstinence resolve" but to help you differentiate your cravings
from hunger and to practice making conscious choices about
eating.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

Section 3/7
Craving Control Training
• Not all craving control strategies are created

equal
• Craving control master skill: mindfulness +
relaxation
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Craving Control Training

• DISTRACTION: strategy of trying to not think about eating often backfires
since not thinking about something usually means thinking about it even
more.
• SELF-TALK: involves the use of self-motivational statements; in its reliance

on logic and reason, is of limited utility: craving is an emotional state that
takes the otherwise rational brain and reduces it to irrational simplicity.
Rational self-talk is hard to pull off when your mind's wisdom has been
reduced to a nutritional tantrum of "I want!“
• RELAXATION : is an improvement on either distraction or self-talk as it

allows the craving-aroused mind to return to its rational baseline.
• MINDFULNESS, as a craving control technique, involves "just witnessing" or

"just noticing" craving thoughts as they pass.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

Not All Craving Control Strategies
Are Created Equal
RELAXATION
METHOD
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

MINDFULNESS as CRAVING CONTROL

“Dots & Spaces” Exercise
Close your eyes, and place your hands on your knees, palms
down.
Trigger yourself to think about a favorite food of yours.
When you notice the first craving thought, tap your index
finger on your knee and re-focus on the up and down
movement of your chest.
The chances are your breath-focus (which is, in this case, the
relaxation element) will be disrupted by another craving
thought.
At that point, “just notice” the thought, “ground it away,” so TAP WHEN YOU
to say, by tapping the index finger on your knee, and NOTICE A CRAVING
immediately refocus on the “breath-space” in between the THOUGHT and
craving thoughts. REFOCUS ON
BREATH
Do this until there are no more craving thoughts to tap
away, until you comfortably rest in the “breath-space” of
calm mind. Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,
Section 4/7
Process-Focus Training
• Four process targets of awareness - flavor,

eating movements, meal setting, and meal
script
• Pattern-disruption techniques to leverage
awareness of the process of eating
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

PROCESS FOCUS:
4 ASPECTS OF EATING TO NOTICE
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

TASTE is communicated by four taste receptors that detect
sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Taste Recognition Exercise:

The Essence of Flavor Strawberry Factor?
Arrange a plate with fresh strawberries, a piece of strawberry cake, a

scoop of strawberry ice-cream, and a piece of strawberry flavored
chewing gum. Try a series of tastes to track down the strawberry
factor. Ask yourself: What is the essence of strawberry? Is the
strawberry-ness expressed in the smell, taste, texture, color,
temperature? Would I recognize the taste of strawberry in a piece of
strawberry-flavored chewing gum if it came in green, not red?
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
PATTERN-DISTRUPTION: DECREASE MINDLESSNESS OF EATING
MOVEMENTS TO INCREASE MINDFULNESS/PRESENCE
Eating is a complex motor behavior that consists of the coordination of

arms, hands, neck, and mouth. The kinesthetic awareness of eating
involves monitoring one’s eating posture, eating movements, the use of
utensils and of the specific kinesthetic signature of the given foodstuff.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

PATTERN-DISTRUPTION EXERCISES
Eating behaviors are so basic that we do them without thinking.

Shadow-eating, like shadow-boxing, is movement without an
opponent, i.e. going through the motions of eating without the
actual food. Imagine a bowl of soup. Shadow-eat the whole
bowl. Note the uncertainty of your movements, the thoughts
about whether you are doing it right.
Note the tendency to skip the steps of eating or to do them out of

sequence. Are you unsure about what to do with your hands
between the bites? Isn’t it amazing that without the sensory
feedback of the actual food and tableware, our minds find it so
challenging to replicate a series of motions that they had
performed on so many occasions so mindlessly?! Try this with
different kinds of food.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
PATTERN-DISTRUPTION EXERCISES
Eating with Wrist Weights
Put on wrist weights and try eating a few meals with them
on. Note a new-found appreciation for the previously
ignored precision of your eating movements. Note the
difference in your level of mindfulness.
L/R L/R
Eating with a Non-Dominant Hand
Try eating with your non-dominant hand. Not knowing

your handedness and the eating manners you’ve been
taught (as to what hand to hold the knife with, etc.), do
this: switch everything around from however it is that
you eat now. Note the confusion of the mind and an
increase in your level of mindfulness.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
PATTERN-DISTRUPTION EXERCISE
Utensils are part of the ritual of eating. They cue our hands (and minds) to a certain
complex of motor behaviors. As such, a utensil is an ignition key to the
mindlessness of eating.
Utensil U-Turn
To this day some cultures employ their hands for eating instead of utensils. Whatever
your opinion of eating with your hands might be, at least try it. Eat a dish – say,
rice – with your hands. Get extra napkins. If eating in company, consider having a
central bowl for an additional degree of intimacy. Note the new choices you have
to make: should you pinch clusters of rice with your fingers and carry it over to
your mouth a pinch at a time or should you use one of your hands as a make-shift
bowl while you feed yourself from it? Appreciate this new interface of touch
between your body and the food, with the skin of your fingers suddenly becoming
a source of information about the heat and the texture of the food. Now, if you
are a hand-eater to begin with, I invite you to a similar “utensil U-turn.”
Experiment with using utensils.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Section 5/7
Fullness Training Training
• Continuum of fullness
• Fullness recognition exercises
• Redefining fullness: from stomach fullness to
mind-fulness
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

STRANGEREASONS
STRANGE REASONSWE
WESTOP
STOPEATING…
EATING
You stop eating because you ran out of the food you like
You stop eating because you ran out of time. Not out of food, not out of appetite,
but out of time. Back home after a long day at work, you stand in the kitchen
grazing and browsing the mail. Feeling guilty about putting your spouse on hold
while you “veg out,” you promise that you’ll be up in five minutes to say goodnight.
And now that the time is up, you gotta go.
You stop eating because the entertainment came to an end. The show you’ve been
“snacking to” has ended. With nothing fun to watch, you stop eating, because
“just eating” is boring.
You stop eating because your plate is finally clean
You stop eating because you’ve been busted overeating by your partner. Now that
your nutritional “crime” has been witnessed, you stop, not out of fullness, but out
of shame. “I’ve had a long day, can you just get off my case, please?!” you protest,
slamming the pantry door.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
A Continuum of Fullness: Three Stopping Points
Assuming you were hungry in the first place, the following three
sensations happen after you begin eating.
• First, the sensation of hunger goes away. This is a moment of
HUNGER RELIEF.
RELIEF This happens almost too fast for us to have time to
enjoy a meal. If you stop eating at this point, then you no longer feel
the painful emptiness of hunger, but you also do not yet feel full.
• If you keep on eating, you will next experience a moment of
PLEASANT FULLNESS as the food distends the lining of your stomach,
but not so much as to cause pain.
• If you keep on eating, you will eventually experience a moment of
UNPLEASANT FULLNESS as the stomach distends to a painful degree.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

FULLNESS RECOGNITION EXERCISE
Zip It (a “lo-
lo-fi biofeedback”
biofeedback” exercise)
To become more mindful of fullness, tune in to the gradual changes in your stomach
distention as you fill it up with food. Get a gallon-size Zip-Loc . This transparent
plastic bag will represent your stomach and will serve as a visual barometer of
what’s going on in your stomach.
Prepare double portions (one for you and one for the bag). As you eat, place equal
amounts of food into the Zip-Loc bag in front of you. Say you are eating a serving
of pasta. When you’ve finished the plate, dump the same amount of pasta into the
bag. Notice the plastic bag bulge and expand; notice your stomach bulge and
expand. As you chug down a glass of lemonade, pour a glass of lemonade into the
plastic bag. Notice the plastic bag bulge and expand; notice your stomach bulge
and expand. Having a slice of carrot cake? Dump a slice of cake into the bag.
Notice the plastic bag bulge and expand; notice your stomach bulge and expand.
To leverage more mindfulness of the gradual changes in your stomach distention,
“feed” the plastic bag one bite at a time – one for the mouth, one for the bag.
Notice the plastic bag bulge and expand; notice your stomach bulge and expand.
When done “feeding” the bag, see if you can zip it! Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
REDEFINING FULLNESS Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
What if you redefine the portion size…
Section 6/7
Mindful Emotional Eating Training
• Harm reduction vs. abstinence approaches to

emotional eating
• 5 principles of mindful emotional eating
• Mindful emotional eating exercises
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

EMOTIONAL EATING – OK
EMOTIONAL OVEREATING – NOT OK
Eating to relieve stress works! If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have a
problem abusing it in the first place. What doesn’t work,
however, is overeating when stressed.
Sure, it’d be optimal to never have to cope with food. But in the
meantime, as you help clients work on the long-term goal of
food-free coping, help them rethink their habit of emotional
eating with compassion. Before they can give up emotional
eating altogether, help them learn to make better use of this
coping strategy, by becoming a more mindful emotional
eater.
Emotional eating isn’t a problem: mindless emotional eating is!

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
Eating as a Learned
Emotional eatingForm
is aoflearned
Coping with Stress
form of
coping
We’ve been socialized to cope with stress by eating. From day
one, feeding has been a default parenting intervention and the
pacifier has been our first coping tool.
Many cultures explicitly equate feeding with caring. So then, why

is it that it is okay to show your care for others by feeding them,
but self-feeding is not an acceptable form of self-care?!
Finally, we keep equating dinner time as being family time,

conditioning ourselves to see eating as a feel-good family ritual,
as a time of togetherness, as an opportunity for social relating
and belonging, as a means to emotional well-being.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Eating as a Grounding Ritual

Eating is a ritual, and as such it’s comforting in its predictability.
Also eating is a sensation-rich, unambiguously physical activity. As such, eating is

an effective reality check at a time of uncertainty or confusion, a behavior that
grounds and centers a suffering mind.
Therefore, to maximize the coping usefulness of emotional eating, we have to

make emotional eating more ritualized, more systematic, with clear start and end
points.
Rituals
are
centering
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Eating as a Parasympathetic Activity
From the physiological perspective,
a choice to eat can be seen as an attempt
to directly manipulate the nervous system,
by switching on the part of our wiring that is associated
with relaxation and rest.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) of your body consists of the sympathetic
nervous system (SNS) which is activated during stress and prepares the body
for flight or fight, and of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) that is
responsible for conservation of energy and rest.
A choice to eat can be seen as an attempt to turn on the PNS. While eating has
been associated with increased in PNS activity (Uijtdehaage, Stern, and Koch,
1992), the mere act of mindless eating in and of itself is unlikely to turn on the
PNS when you are stressed. But mindful, conscious eating might: smell and
taste your food to assure maximally prompt activation of the parasympathetic
relaxation response.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

2 CAMPS:
Abstinence vs. Harm Reduction
• Abstinence Camp: DO NOT EAT TO COPE
• Harm Reduction Camp:

1) OK TO EAT TO COPE IF UNABLE TO COPE
OTHERWISE
2) REDUCE EMOTIONAL OVER-EATING/PREVENT
EMOTIONAL BINGE-EATING BY MAKING
EMOTINOAL EATING MORE MINDFUL
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
5 PRINCIPLES OF MINDFUL EMOTIONAL EATING
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

RELAXATION AS THE FIRST COURSE
To assure maximum emotional gains (rather than weight gains) from

emotional eating, use relaxation as a prelude to an emotional eating self-help
intervention. Begin any of your emotional eating meals with a course of
breath-focused relaxation. Doing so will allow you to leverage maximum
parasympathetic (relaxation) response from your emotional eating self-help
intervention: the less stressed you are, the less you will have to eat to cope.
PATTERN INTERRUPTION TO INCREASE MINDFULNESS
By maintaining mindfulness during an emotional eating episode you can

prevent it from becoming a run-away train of emotional overeating. The
following are a few tips on how you can maintain a degree of mindfulness as
you cope by eating.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

RITUALIZE EMOTIONAL EATING
Habits, routines and rituals offer a soothing, stabilizing sense of predictability

and help us feel in control of the moment. Emotional eating episodes are often
haphazard and unstructured. To help clients rely less on food and more on the
activity of eating during emotional eating episodes, I encourage them to
ritualize and structure their emotional eating “protocol.”
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

RITUALIZE EMOTIONAL EATING: example

Begin by stating to yourself that you are making a conscious choice to cope by eating and that in doing so,
you are giving yourself a permission to not feel guilty since emotional eating is, however imperfect, a viable
form of self-care. Remind yourself to cope without judging yourself. Clarify to yourself that your goal is to
cope by eating, not to binge-eat.
Then, identify how you feel and what you are trying to cope with. You might follow this by stating your
expectations of how you wish to feel after you eat. Then, consciously consider what you will eat and decide
on a “dose.”
Then, with mindfulness of the process of eating, eat the food. Take your time to savor and appreciate the
flavor of the food as well as the subtle changes in your state of mind and body. Use pattern-interruption
techniques (eating with non-dominant hand) to slow down and remain present.
Pause to check to if you have attained a desired emotional state; if not, proceed with another serving and
check again.
When you feel you have attained a desired state (whether you use psychological or somatic/physiological
markers for that), allow yourself the realization that you have once again been able to successfully self-
soothe with food. Congratulate yourself on another coping success.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Section 7/7 Conclusion
Sowing the Seeds of Mindfulness
• Mindful eating is an opportunity to infuse a

greater degree of presence and self-awareness
into day-to-day living.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

EATING as a COG in the overall MACHINERY OF

MINDFULNESS
that COUNTERS the MACHINERY OF MINDLESSNESS
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Copyright, 2009
www.eatingthemoment.com
ENCOURAGE CLIENTS TO PRACTICE VARIOUS MINDFUL EATING EXERCISES
AT EACH MEAL IN ORDER TO CULTIVATE A HABIT OF MINDFUL EATING
Hmm, I am tuning to the

process of eating, food’s
flavor…
Aha! Aha!
Aha!
Hmm, I am noticing Hmm, I am noticing how

the onset of pleasant my stress level plays into
fullness… my eating patterns…
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
EACH MEAL –
AN OPPORTUNITY TO AWAKEN THE EATING ZOMBIE
to a GLOBAL/WORLDVIEW-LEVEL AWARENESS
Hmm, everything’s
interconnected (a sense of
connection, belonging)
Aha!
Hmm, something had Hmm, everything is

to die for me to live… impermanent… ( a sense of
(a sense of gratitude) presence in the moment)
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
SOWING THE SEEDS OF AWARENESS
AT EACH MEAL
INSIGHTS ACCUMULATE…
ACCUMULATE… PATTERNS CHANGE…
CHANGE… WE GET WELL…
WELL…
PAVEL SOMOV, PH.D., AUTHOR OF “EATING THE MOMENT” WWW.EATINGTHEMOMENT.COM COPYRIGHT 2009
360 Degrees of Mindful Eating: 5 Core Skill-Sets to Overcome Overeating
Program Objectives
Please use the objectives below to answer the online objective questions.
At the completion of this seminar, I have been able to achieve these seminar
objectives:
- Describe the difference between hunger and cravings.

- Describe strategies for helping clients reduce harm of emotional eating by
making emotional eating more mindful.
- Utilize mindfulness (meta-cognitive distancing/dis-identification) as a craving
control strategy.
- Demonstrate how to combine mindfulness and relaxation into a master
craving control skill.
- Optimize the craving control value of self-talk and distraction strategies.
- Summarize use pattern interruption techniques to increase mindfulness of the
eating process.
**Please mark any additional objective questions online “not applicable”.

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360° of Mindful Eating:

Printed in the United States

For information on this and other PESI manuals

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, graduate of SUNY

His writings have appeared on Huffington Post, Psychology Today

The Activity Planner and Presenter have indicated that the

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

MINDFUL EATING: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Horace Fletcher (1849-1919) is an American health-food faddist; emphasized

Middle Way: Emphasis on Moderation

Mindfulness Training as Habit Modification

Mindfulness Training as Craving Control

360⁰ of Mindful Eating

• Differentiating cravings from hunger

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

• Hunger is a physiological need with a physiological signature,

• Hunger is generic - you need food, any food that'll make

• Hunger depends on your physiology. Cravings depend on the

Once at a point of rather intense hunger, first describe the

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

HUNGER RECOGNITION EXERCISE

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

• Not all craving control strategies are created

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Craving Control Training

• SELF-TALK: involves the use of self-motivational statements; in its reliance

• RELAXATION : is an improvement on either distraction or self-talk as it

• MINDFULNESS, as a craving control technique, involves "just witnessing" or

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.,

MINDFULNESS as CRAVING CONTROL

Trigger yourself to think about a favorite food of yours.

• Four process targets of awareness - flavor,

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Taste Recognition Exercise:

Arrange a plate with fresh strawberries, a piece of strawberry cake, a

Eating is a complex motor behavior that consists of the coordination of

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Eating behaviors are so basic that we do them without thinking.

Note the tendency to skip the steps of eating or to do them out of

Eating with Wrist Weights

Try eating with your non-dominant hand. Not knowing

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

You stop eating because your plate is finally clean

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

FULLNESS RECOGNITION EXERCISE

What if you redefine the portion size…

• Harm reduction vs. abstinence approaches to

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Emotional eating isn’t a problem: mindless emotional eating is!

Many cultures explicitly equate feeding with caring. So then, why

Finally, we keep equating dinner time as being family time,

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Eating as a Grounding Ritual

Also eating is a sensation-rich, unambiguously physical activity. As such, eating is

Therefore, to maximize the coping usefulness of emotional eating, we have to

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.