“I think Lorilee Hamann is an outstanding Mindful Eating instructor. The aspects that stand out to me include: her ability to cultivate a kind, inclusive classroom environment; her ability to relate compassionately to her students on the subject matter; her listening skills and genuine caring; her ability to bring a certain joyfulness to class; and the educational materials included in her Mindful Eating course.”

Student
Mindful Eating: Awareness and Wellbeing

“Lorilee provided a safe space to explore a complex topic that was targeted to the needs of all participants. It was a wonderful experience, and I have definitely walked away with a lot of knowledge and a lot to think about.”

Student
Mindful Eating: Awareness and Wellbeing

Mindful Eating: Awareness and Well Being
Mindful eating is eating with kindness, awareness, and non-judgment. Practicing mindful eating promotes gratitude, self-care, and a healthier internal and external experience.

Explore your habitual patterns with food.
This 8-week series explores how mindfulness-based practices can be applied to nourishing one’s body with food and drink. Students will learn how to bring awareness to the direct experience of eating. There will be opportunities to explore one’s relationship to the thoughts, emotions, and body sensations associated with food preparation and eating.

Discover the possibility of freedom.
Practices to increase one’s ability to notice and respond to body sensations will be offered each week and students will be invited to practice in between sessions. The role of your automatic pilot, the importance of “Vitamin T” (Time), and how to skillfully respond rather than react to internal and external stimuli will be explored.

Schedule with Lorilee

Course Registration Options and Pricing

Course pricing is set to allow for generosity while meeting individual’s needs. Course prices include Pay-It-Forward, Standard, and Scholarship rates. We encourage you to pay what you can afford, and we appreciate your care and thoughtfulness when deciding.

Pay-It-Forward
$675

This is an opportunity to support those with limited resources, making courses accessible to those that cannot pay the standard rate. Paying at this level is an act of generosity.

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Standard Rate
$525

The standard rate covers the costs of this course, making it possible to continue to offer it.

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Scholarship
$375

This rate is available for those who cannot afford to pay the standard rate. We ask you to use this rate only if paying the higher rate creates a hardship for yourself and/or your family.

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What is the Science and Research on Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating, which applies mindfulness principles to eating experiences, has been increasingly studied as a way to address disordered eating and improve psychological health. Research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce emotional eating, binge eating, and other problematic behaviors by increasing awareness, supporting self-regulation, and reducing reactivity to internal and external cues (Liu et al., 2025).

Central to mindful eating is the cultivation of interoceptive awareness, or the ability to perceive internal bodily sensations such as hunger, fullness, and satiety. Robinson et al. (2021) demonstrated that individuals with greater interoceptive awareness were more likely to engage in intuitive eating patterns.

Research also points to the role of self-compassion and body appreciation in fostering a healthier relationship with food. Oswald et al. (2017) demonstrated that higher levels of body appreciation were linked to more intuitive eating and greater positive emotional experiences.

This is consistent with findings from Mantzios and Wilson (2015), who reported that mindful eating practices grounded in self-compassion reduce the likelihood of eating in response to stress or difficult emotions.

Bays (2017) emphasized the importance of recognizing different types of hunger, such as distinguishing physical hunger from emotional hunger.

This awareness supports a deeper understanding of one’s eating habits, helping to identify underlying causes and address them more effectively. Complementary strategies like eating more slowly, minimizing distractions during meals, and savoring food have also been associated with positive health outcomes (Hawton et al., 2019; Hermann et al., 2022).

Together, these findings highlight mindful eating as a promising, evidence-based approach for improving eating behaviors, emotional balance, and body appreciation. By enhancing interoceptive awareness, cultivating self-compassion, and breaking habitual patterns, mindful eating fosters sustainable, long-term change and offers a pathway toward healing one’s relationship with food.

Sources Cited:

Bays, J. C. (2017). Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food. Shambhala Publications: Boulder, CO.

Hawton, K., Ferriday, D., Rogers, P., Toner, P., Brooks, J., Holly, J., Biernacka, K., Hamilton-Shield, J., & Hinton, E. (2019). Slow Down: Behavioural and Physiological Effects of Reducing Eating Rate. Nutrients, 11(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11010050

Herrmann, T., Preib, E., French, M., Beckstrom, J., Nazarenko, E., Lackner, R., Marchand, W.R., & Yabko, B. (2022). Veterans’ experiences with mindfulness-based eating: A mixed methods study on MB-SAVOR, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101548.

Liu, J., Tynan, M., Mouangue, A., Martin, C., Manasse, S., & Godfrey, K. (2025). Mindfulness-based interventions for binge eating: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. J Behav Med, 48(1):57-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-025-00550-5

Mantzios, M., & Wilson, J.C. (2015). Exploring mindfulness and mindfulness with self-compassion-centered interventions to assist weight loss: Theoretical considerations and preliminary results of a randomized pilot study. Mindfulness, 6(4), 824-835.

Oswald, A., Chapman, J., & Wilson, C. (2017) Do interoceptive awareness and interoceptive responsiveness mediate the relationship between body appreciation and intuitive eating in young women? Appetite. 109:66-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.11.019

Robinson, E., Marty, L., Higgs, S., & Jones, A. (2021) Interoception, eating behaviour and body weight. Physiol Behav. 237:113434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113434 \

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Weekly Overview of Mindful Eating: Awareness and Well Being

The Mindful Eating curriculum presented here serves as a general overview and is subject to potential modifications based on the unique needs, insights, and discussions that may arise during class.

Class 1: Introduction to Mindful Eating

The course begins with an introduction to the principles of mindfulness and how they can be applied to eating. Students engage in mindful eating exercises to practice focusing on the sensory experiences of eating. This class sets the foundation for recognizing automatic eating patterns and encourages participants to establish intentions for the course.

Class 2: Understanding Nourishment

Students explore the concept of nourishment, extending beyond mere caloric intake to encompass physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. The class addresses the role of the nervous system and stress responses in influencing eating behaviors. Techniques to reduce automatic eating and multitasking are introduced, highlighting the importance of presence and intentionality in meals.

Class 3: Interoceptive Awareness and Satiety

Students focus on developing interoceptive awareness, which is the ability to perceive internal bodily cues such as hunger and fullness. Practicing self-compassion is emphasized to support a non-judgmental approach to eating.

Class 4: Types of Hunger
The differences between physical and non-physical hunger cues are explored, and students learn to identify and respond to different types of hunger. This awareness helps cultivate a more nuanced understanding of cravings and eating triggers.

Class 5: Nourishing the Whole Person
This class emphasizes nourishment and self-stewardship, fostering a caring and respectful relationship with oneself. Mindfulness practices are integrated to enhance positive emotions associated with eating.

Session 6: The Role of Gratitude
This class focuses on the role of gratitude for food through practices that invite students to investigate various elements of appreciation.

Session 7: Cultural and Familial Influences on Eating
This class explores how cultural and familial contexts influence eating behaviors and perceptions of nourishment. Students reflect on their personal and cultural food narratives and engage in practices that support approaching these influences with balance and acceptance.

Session 8: Integration and Next Steps
In the final class, students consolidate their learning and develop strategies for integrating mindful eating practices into daily life. The session emphasizes the importance of continued practice and reflection to maintain mindfulness in eating. Mindfulness practices are revisited to support long-term behavioral change.