The Program Aligned With Goals and Expectations
eating, learning, weight loss
Participants expressed that they came to the program hoping to reframe their relationship with eating and their weight (eg, to decrease self-judgment; for some, to lose weight; and for better health) as well as for mindfulness training:Just to get on track and figure out how I can use this mindfulness tool to jumpstart my weight loss and work toward my health goals. I know what to do, and I know I need to stick with a program, and I thought that the app would be a good choice. Try to be kind to yourself and know that being fat is not a bad thing. My goal was not to lose weight. It was just to see if anything would change. I know I do binge eat and I do eat a lot of sweets and I’m an emotional-response eater. I was curious about how my behaviors would change in the program. They also expected to apply mindfulness practices to change their relationship with eating and food in a direction conducive to health (eg, lower eating to cope, emotional eating, and healthier choices) as well as, in some cases, lose weight:I think it pretty much lined up with my expectations, particularly when I understood a little bit more about what it was about and started using the app. I think it pretty much lined up with what I expected.I’ve done a lot of stuff with mindfulness in terms of mental health but applying it to eating was a whole new world. It’s really cool, but you can do the same thing but with eating. I was hoping to see if something like this would be helpful and change the way I think about food and deal with weight. It was on mindfulness and eating, learning about how it can relate and help in eating issues, cravings, and things like that. Almost all participants indicated that the app met expectations and exceeded a few. Several appreciated that they felt it had no shame-inducing language or content specifically mentioning weight. Some explained that there was a learning curve, and one stated that they found it less appealing than other meditation apps:I feel like it could be more modern or more appealing. It looks like a well-designed app but like older, in that the design isn’t super modern. 