Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food »

Jan Chozen Bays, MD, is a Zen master in the White Plum lineage of the late master Taizan Maezumi Roshi. She serves as a priest and teacher at the Jizo Mountain–Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Oregon. She is also a pediatrician who specializes in the evaluation of children for abuse and neglect.

The art of mindfulness can transform our struggles with food—and renew our sense of pleasure, appreciation, and satisfaction with eating. Drawing on recent research and integrating her experiences as a physician and meditation teacher, Dr. Jan Bays offers a wonderfully clear presentation of what mindfulness is and how it can help with food issues.

Mindful eating is an approach that involves bringing one's full attention to the process of eating—to all the tastes, smells, thoughts, and feelings that arise during a meal. Whether you are overweight, suffer from an eating disorder, or just want to get more out of life, this book offers a simple tool that can make a remarkable difference.

In this book, you'll learn how to:

   • Tune into your body's own wisdom about what, when, and how much to eat
   • Eat less while feeling fully satisfied
   • Identify your habits and patterns with food
   • Develop a more compassionate attitude toward your struggles with eating
   • Discover what you're really hungry for

Mindful Eating also includes a 75-minute audio CD containing guided exercises led by the author.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

Persuasively arguing that Americans have become obsessed with the constant pursuit of satiation, often to the detriment of their health, pediatrician and Zen teacher Bays calmly and systematically explains how a thoughtful approach to eating and drinking can positively affect one's weight and overall health. Through a series of guided exercises and meditations (and an accompanying CD), Bays encourages readers to examine their eating habits and relationships with food. Bays blames the "Seven Hungers"-of eye ("boy those donuts look good"), mind ("I really should eat more grapefruit") heart ("this apple pie reminds me of my grandmother") and so on-for shaping our unhealthy and/or irrational eating patters; our inner perfectionists, critics and pushers only add to the cacophony, and Bays gives readers tools for silencing these discouraging voices. Bolstered by third-party research and a wealth of anecdotes, Bays's case for introspection over ice cream binges should connect with many. Though she doesn't promise instant results, Bays offers readers a guide to lifelong health through a measured attitude toward food; hers may well be the healthiest, most sane diet book to hit shelves in a while.
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Foreword ix

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

1 What Is Mindful Eating? 1

2 The Seven Kinds of Hunger 15

3 Exploring Our Habits and Patterns with Food 63

4 Six Simple Guidelines for Mindful Eating 93

5 Cultivating Gratitude 131

6 Conclusion: What Mindful Eating Teaches Us 143

Summary Tips 157

Dedication of Merit 159

Notes 161

Resources 165

Index 169