Today, I became certified as a MB-EAT Qualified Instructor as you can see by the picture below. I am grateful to be able to add this certification to my toolkit as I have been teaching mindfulness for a number of years now. Subsequently, I wanted to share with you the process of becoming trained in this space.
What is MB-EAT?
MB-EAT is mindfulness-based eating awareness training. It was developed by Jean Kristeller PhD and is a 12 session program. It blends mindful eating with mindfulness meditation practices, didactic instruction, experiential exercises and self- reflection to cultivate awareness and a more balanced and positive relationship to eating, weight and food. MB- EAT promotes self-compassion, self- awareness, and can help you put an end to mindless, stress-related and/or emotional eating.
My Interest in Nutrition
My interest in nutrition started when I was a professional athlete. Then when I was doing my double undergraduate degree, we covered a subject of nutrition with the dietetic students. The subject didn’t resonate with me (and now I can see why as it was focused more on dieting).
Fast forward a few years and I started my own healing adventure and discovered many unconscious beliefs I had that needed healing. Some were about my weight, food / what I ate and and my body. From “you’re not the right shape to be an athlete”, “you need to lose weight as your skin folds are too high” and “you can’t eat that as it’s fattening”. Unbeknownst to me, this was having an impact on me and my life and I was ready to find support to change my relationship with food.
Throughout my adventure in mindfulness, I came across mindful eating and wanted to learn more.
What Training Did I Have To Do to Be a MB-EAT Qualified Instructor?
As I was already teaching mindfulness, there was 42 hours of training to complete this certification over 3 months. This included the following –
- 12 x Weekly one hour and 45 minute live interactive webinar sessions,
- 1 x 25 minute Personal Coaching Session,
- 1 x Daylong Retreat,
- 2 x 45-minute Group Online ‘Q and A’ sessions, and
- 15 x Mindfulness Teachback Sessions.
What Have I Learnt So Far?
The biggest lessons for me have come in relation to food. I have been practising mindfulness for many years now, however adding food to the equation has changed the depth of practise. My awareness of my hunger and fullness cues and also my triggers around food (especially when I am feeling stressed) evolved.
Until today (11/12/18), I haven’t taken on any clients with a focus on mindful eating, however that will change now.
Over to You…
I hope this post has given you some insight in to my adventure of becoming a MB-EAT Qualified Instructor. If you have any questions or comments, please write them below. There are many aspects to mindful eating (more than the ones I have discussed above), so you can click here is you would like to read more.
Also – you are invited to download the free 10-minute mindful eating exercise here or if you would like to find out about the coaching program, click here.
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