Healthy eating isn't just about what food is on your plate, it's also about the way you feel before you eat, according to nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin.
The author of Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard explains that many of us bring stress, guilt and self-criticism to mealtimes without even realising it.
Macklin says we should be focusing on what’s happening in the mind, not on the plate.
“We’ve been looking at health the wrong way round,” she says. “Rather than thinking about food, we need to first build on the foundation of our mind and how we see ourselves.”
Her go-to solution is a 10-second self-compassion prayer before eating, which she says helps shift the body out of stress mode and can support a healthier relationship with food—a helpful mindset ritual that creates a gap between feeling and feeding.
“We often emotionally eat on autopilot,” says Macklin. “Ever found yourself standing in front of the fridge at 9pm at night and not even asking yourself if you’re hungry?
“The ritual creates a small pause between emotion and action. That gap is often where choice comes back in.”
Macklin says stress and negative emotions can drive unhealthy food choices, but we can change the way we think about food by practicising self-compassion, which gets stronger over time.
She says: “Self compassion is hard but it’s our superpower, and like a muscle it needs to be trained.”
How to do the 10-second self-compassion prayer ritual
Macklin says that when we practice self-compassion we can better connect to what she calls the mindful brain and therefore have a less emotional reaction to food.
She recommends the following simple ritual before eating:
- Put down your phone and avoid other distractions such as eating in front of the TV.
- Pause for 10-20 seconds before eating.
- Take a deep breath then say something compassionate to yourself. For example, “I deserve to nourish my body with this meal” or “This meal is an act of care, not something I need to earn”.
“What this does is it creates a space before you eat to connect away from your screen, away from your phone, back to intention,” says Macklin. “It brings you back to the present moment, and it helps to create feelings of gratitude and joy around food.”
Self-criticism can trigger the body’s stress response, says Macklin, increasing cortisol levels and shifting the body into threat mode. This signals to the body to divert blood flow away from digestion.
“When we’re in a threat response, digestion is deprioritised. Your blood is going to your extremities because your body is getting ready to run, not rest and digest,” she says.
Macklin says the self-compassion prayer acts as a circuit breaker, interrupting that stress response before eating, allowing the body to settle into a more relaxed state.
“When we’re more compassionate and more mindful, the whole body is calmer.”
Why self-compassion is a muscle you need to train
Negative self-talk can quickly get out of hand, explains Macklin, and we can berate ourselves in ways we would never consider saying out loud to others.
“If you actually spoke to your friend the way you sometimes speak to yourself, you probably wouldn’t have any friends,” she jokes.
“We need to be gentler with ourselves. Self-compassion is a muscle that you have to build and grow. It doesn't just happen.
“Over time, it gets stronger and you step into more mindful decisions that are right for you, whether that's health choices or in other areas of your life."
She finishes by explaining that research has shown that your brain will believe what you tell it when it comes to what you’re eating, so it’s important to be kind.
“We’re often unaware of the constant internal dialogue running in the background. But it’s those small shifts in self-talk—self-compassion rather than criticism—that can create the most powerful long-term change.”
This 10-second self-compassion prayer is just one of the mindset tricks Macklin uses with clients to help them overcome emotional eating—all of which are listed in her new book.
Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard by Sarah Ann Macklin is out now.
