For me at least, snacking is the same as mindless eating! I love to walk around with a snack, drive with a snack. Take something on the way out the door.  Socialize with friends while my hand goes in and out of the trail mix bowl.  Eating popcorn while playing card games.  When there are snacks, there is mindless eating in my world.

The easiest and most painless way for me to continue on my journey of mindful eating for weight loss is to avoid snacking.  As I practice this, it actually becomes easier.  What I’ve found is I have to be OK with being bored.  I have to accept stressful situations and live in the situation, rather than run away from it.   I have to socialize with people when I feel insecure.  I have to feel hard feelings and not numb myself from them. I have to decide with black and white clarity that no matter what, I will wait to eat till I can sit at the table to a proper meal.  I’ve been using snacking to avoid a lot of things like working on hard projects, but once I decide that isn’t how I will deal with life, I can accept it.

Why is it that we want to live in the hard things rather than escape them?  Because life is BETTER when you experience it from a place of awareness, rather than numbness.  Living an elevated life can never come from the bottom of a cereal box!