Eating Mindfully – Mastering the Art of a Balanced Relationship with Food

When Your Dinner Break Is a Moving Target

Ever found yourself wolfing down a meat pie between emergency calls? Or maybe you’ve found yourself in the fast-food drive-thru at 3 AM, barely registering what you’re ordering before scarfing it down between calls?

When your workday involves unpredictable emergencies, long night shifts, and high-stress situations, food often becomes fuel you hastily consume rather than a meal you actually experience.

But what if changing how you eat could help you feel better, perform better, and even cope better with the unique stresses of your job?

Enter the practice of mindful eating.

In this article, we’ll dive into the difference between mindless eating and mindful eating—why it matters, how it affects you, and how you can make it work even with the craziest of schedules.

What is Mindless Eating?

Mindless eating involves consuming food without paying attention to what and how much you’re eating. It happens when you eat on autopilot—disconnected from your body’s hunger and fullness signals and unaware of the eating experience itself.

Do you ever find yourself…

Standing at the kitchen bench, snacking on sweets or biscuits without even sitting down?
Eating leftovers straight from the container while the fridge door is still open?
Eating an entire bag of chips without realising it until you’re reaching for the crumbs at the bottom?

These are all examples of mindless eating, which usually involves consuming large amounts of food very quickly. This is often highly processed foods, like biscuits, salty chips, or leftover pizza—you stuff them in your mouth before thinking through how hungry you really are, and what your body really needs.

If this sounds like you, know that you’re not alone—research shows that shift workers are particularly prone to this style of eating.

One study of nurses found that those on a shift schedule were more likely to mindlessly binge at least once per week compared to their daytime working counterparts.1 This makes sense when your mealtimes are irregular and your body’s hunger cues get confused by changing schedules.

What is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating is the opposite of mindless eating. It involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and using all your senses to notice colours, smells, flavours, textures, and even the sounds of your food. It also involves being aware of your body’s hunger signals and stopping when you’re satisfied, not stuffed.

When you eat mindfully, you treat eating as a sensory experience. In practice, it looks something like this:

You smell the food. This triggers saliva in your mouth, which signals your stomach to produce enzymes that improve digestion.
You look at the food. This helps you appreciate what you’re about to eat—because we eat with our eyes first.
You chew slowly. This helps you to fully taste the food, noticing all its flavours and textures.
You take your time. This helps you notice when you’re about 80% full, which is a good time to stop as it prevents overeating.
You enjoy each bite. This allows you to feel genuine gratitude at the end of a meal.

This probably sounds nothing like grabbing a quick snack between emergency calls or during a night shift. But the good news is that mindful eating doesn’t have to mean lengthy meals. Even a five-minute break where you focus fully on your food can make a difference.

Why Shift Workers Need Mindful Eating

As a shift worker, your work schedule creates unique challenges that make mindful eating all the more important:

Disrupted body clock. Shift work throws off your body’s natural rhythms, making you crave high-calorie foods at odd hours. Mindful eating helps you recognise whether it’s real hunger or just fatigue talking, so you can make better food choices.
Stress eating. After handling traumatic situations, food can feel like an easy escape. Mindful eating helps you pause and ask yourself what you really need—comfort from food or another form of relief, like rest or connection.
Limited time. When your schedule is packed, eating can feel like just another task to rush through. Mindful eating helps you make the most of those short breaks—turning them into a chance to nourish your body and reset your mind.

Still not convinced?

Know that mindful eating has been shown to support the health and wellbeing of workers across a range of high-stress industries. For example, veterans found they could better notice their hunger signals, made healthier choices, and even lost weight following a 10-week mindful eating program.2

Even better is that mindful eating can be a practical stress-management technique as it helps reduce the stress hormone cortisol.3 This means that taking those few minutes to actually taste your food can work like a chemical “reset button” for stress levels—a mini-meditation in a chaotic day.

Practical Strategies for Shift Workers

Next time you feel tempted to eat mindlessly, try these techniques instead:

Step away. Remove yourself from the kitchen or break room.
Name your feelings. Identify your current emotion—if it’s unpleasant, acknowledge that it will pass.
Reach out. Message a friend for a helpful chat.
Brush your teeth. Many say this creates a mental “full stop” to eating.
Move your body. Do a quick set of stretches or take a short walk around the station.
Write it down. Jot down what’s bothering you in a notes app.
Check for thirst. Have a large drink of water or a cup of tea in case you’re actually dehydrated, not hungry.
Wait it out. If you’re still hungry after 20 minutes, choose a healthy protein-rich snack or meal.

Making It Work on Shift

Even with a demanding schedule, you can still practise mindful eating. Here are some useful tips you can try:

Prepare portable meals that you can eat mindfully even in short breaks.
Schedule eating breaks in your shift when possible, even if just 5-10 minutes.
Create a “no screens” rule while eating, even during short meal breaks.
Use the “first bite, last bite” rule: If you can only be mindful for two bites, make it the first and last ones.
Keep a food journal to spot emotional eating patterns after difficult shifts.

The Bottom Line

Food is more than just fuel; it’s one of life’s great pleasures.

Mindful eating isn’t about strict rules or denying yourself enjoyable foods. It’s about getting more in tune with your body’s actual needs so you can nourish it appropriately—whether that’s with a nutritious meal, a moment of rest, or occasionally, that chocolate biscuit you truly want to enjoy.

As a first responder, you take care of others in their moments of crisis. Mindful eating is one small way to take care of yourself, too. So, give it a try—you might be surprised by how much better you feel, one mindful bite at a time.

References

Almajwal, A.M. (2016). Stress, shift duty, and eating behavior among nurses in Central Saudi Arabia. Saudi Medical Journal, 37(2), 191-198.
Herrmann, T., Preib, E., French, M., Beckstrom, J., Nazarenko, E., Lackner, R., … & Yabko, B. (2022). Veterans’ experiences with mindfulness-based eating: A mixed methods study on MB-SAVOR. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 47, 101548.
Daubenmier, J., Kristeller, J., Hecht, F. M., Maninger, N., Kuwata, M., Jhaveri, K., … & Epel, E. (2011). Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: An exploratory randomized controlled study. Journal of Obesity, 2011(1), 651936.