The Wednesday Word is: SNACCIDENT

I recently learned this made-up word: snaccident. A snaccident is what happens when you eat a family-sized bag of chips in one sitting without thinking. In other words, eating mindlessly. I also recently learned some people think the word mindless means stupid. While the person who said this to me is anything but, what they are is mistaken. We can mess up, get it wrong, make an error, and also not be stupid. In this case mindless is: to do something repetitively without thought. Once awareness comes back to the forefront, we become mindful. Such is the case of having a snaccident.

Many people who come to me for mindful eating training are familiar with frequent snaccidents. The good news is that in mindfulness there is hope. Even if you fall off the mindful eating habit and have a snaccident, you can begin again with the next meal or even scratch this day and begin again tomorrow. Falling off the mindful eating habit doesn’t mean you’re stupid either. Beating yourself up, being riddled with guilt and shame, over a simple snaccident only adds fuel to the fire which feeds the force behind the snaccident; emotional eating.

The moment you realize you had a snaccident, take a deep breath into the awareness, exhale the bull crap you feel creeping up within, and begin your mindful eating habit again. You CAN do this. Truly. The moment you realize you’ve had a snaccident, put the chips away and remember your goal and target. Remember why you started eating mindfully. A snaccident is just a snack accident. One from which you can easily recover. Forgive yourself and the chips, and move into the next now better because of it, as a more mindful eater.