More often than not, diets fail. Whether you’re trying a new style of diet or just trying to be more restrictive for a few weeks before a special event, you’ll likely end up going back to your previous way of eating. Your brain tends to think about diets in the short term, and because of this, diets aren’t always successful in the long term. Mindful eating, on the other hand, is a way of eating intuitively. You eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, don’t deprive yourself of weird or random cravings, and overall just listen to your body. And lucky for you, there are some great apps out there that can help get you started on your mindful eating journey.
1. Thunderclap
When you first open Shutterbite, you can see an overview of your current routines, daily summaries from the day before (and weekly summaries if there’s enough information), and a place to quickly enter meals from the day before. current day. You can tap the plus sign in the bottom right corner to add a new routine, check in, or enter a meal.
Then there is a Log tab where you can see all your past entries. From here, you can see past meals you’ve entered and copy them to save time, view a timeline of your recordings, or scroll through your activity for individual days. The free version of Shutterbite gives you 50 recordings available, but if you want more, you’ll need to subscribe to a premium plan.
The last tab available in Shutterbite gives you a more detailed overview of your week. You can see data on your hunger level, why you ate, how many meals you ate, your satiety level, and how you felt overall.
To download: Shutterbite for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
2. Mindful Eating Coach
If you need help adjusting to intuitive eating, try the Mindful Eating Coach app. The app helps you practice before you eat to resist cravings, reflect on what you just ate, think about the day as a whole, and plan for the next day.
For people who like to snack throughout the day, the coaching section of this app will call you if you’re not really hungry. The app asks you what you notice about feeling hungry, how much you’ve eaten in the last two hours, and why you want to eat. This recording helps you determine if you are really hungry or if you are just eating because you are bored, sad, excited or having some other emotion.
This mindful eating app records all of your responses and compiles the data into the Exam tongue. Here you can see six different goals tracked by the app: types of eating events, mindfulness after eating, whether Worth It ratings improved after eating, fullness after eating, reasons why you wanted to eat and why you might have eaten too much.
There is also a great Course where you can find super helpful information on the different reasons people eat, the self-compassion mindset, and other tips and tricks for mindful eating.
To download: Mindful Eating Coach for Android | iOS (Free)
3. Undiet your mind
UnDiet Your Mind is a fantastic nutrition app to try if you’ve struggled with constant dieting and find that nothing has ever worked for you. Unfortunately, you need a premium subscription to use most of the app.
With the free version, you can read a ton of useful articles and find out if the app is worth it or not. By subscribing, however, you’ll get daily prompts and action steps, access to the community, twice-weekly live coaching sessions, and monthly bonuses. Then you can also access meditations and movement classes to incorporate gentle exercise into your daily routine.
To download: UnDiet your mind for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
4. Eat now
Eat Right Now is another great mindful eating app and guide to being healthier and fitter overall. The app does a lot to educate you about mindful eating and why it’s so important. Under the Course tab, you can do one learning module per day, which takes about 10 minutes to complete. A few modules in Week 1 include Food Science, Emotional Eating, and Body Analysis.
Then, under the Tools , you’ll find breathing exercises, a guided body scan, and a few other pre-recorded audio clips. Otherwise, everything you need on a regular basis is on the home screen. At the top of the home screen, you’ll see the learning module you’re currently on, and below that, you’ll see four options to select: Registration, thirst tool, Stress testand Want-O-meter.
The Craving Tool can help you manage cravings whether you crave a particular food or an unhealthy amount of a certain food. The stress test helps to determine if you are really hungry, if you are looking for food out of habit or if you are feeling stressed. Similar to The Craving Tool, the Want-O-Meter is used when you currently have a bad craving; the app will offer you some useful mental exercises to stop the craving.
If you like the app and want more, you can pay for a premium subscription. This unlocks the Community where you can keep journal entries and participate in weekly video chats with doctors and other food experts to learn more about mindful eating practices.
To download: Eat Now for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
Have a happy relationship with food
Short weight loss plans and other fad diets are notoriously difficult to follow and stick to, making you feel like a failure in the end. Anything super restrictive ends up making you crave what you’ve given up even more, but mindful eating connects your body to your mind and helps you make the smartest decisions for you.
By practicing mindful eating, you may find that you are drawn to a specific diet or tactic, such as intermittent fasting. It’s also worth mentioning that not being restrictive while practicing mindful eating doesn’t mean eating sugary snacks whenever you want. Instead, intuitive eating involves listening to your body’s natural signals and eating mostly whole foods and an occasional snack.
