Kathy Bates says mindful eating helped her lose 45 kgs: Is it good for weight loss?

How many times have you given up on a weight loss diet? It can be difficult to stick to a diet and majority of people give up on a diet in a few weeks. But what if there were a diet that you can stick to for a lifetime without worrying about any side effects? Mindful eating is one such diet and Academy Award winner Kathy Bathes is testimony to it. She lost a staggering 45 kilos in 6 years, and that is after battling cancer – twice! The 76-year-old recently revealed in an interview that she has lost the incredible amount of weight with mindful eating which has been “a game changer” for her.

Kathy Bates lost 45 kgs with mindful eating
In an interview with Variety, the Titanic and Misery actress opened up about how she is at her slimmest since college. After facing complications while starring in 2011 NBC drama Harry’s Law, Bates revealed that she was having difficulties walking and has to sit down every moment she got. After a health scare in 2019, she starting losing weight with conscious eating. In the interview, she credited mindful eating for her weight loss transformation.

“It’s communication between stomach and brain telling you you had enough and what I discovered is if you listen to that sigh and push that plate away for just five minutes, you realize you’re satisfied and you don’t have to eat more,” she told Variety.

Mindful eating helps you be more aware of your choices when it comes to food. This amalgam of mindfulness and conscious eating helps you become more aware of your choices and can even help you lose weight.

What is mindful eating?

Have you heard of mindfulness? It is a form of meditation that helps you recognize and cope with your emotions, and mindful eating stems from this Buddhist concept. Just like mindfulness, mindful eating is about paying attention to your food. According to a study published in the journal Diabetes Spectrum, eating mindfully is about being fully aware of what you are eating and how much you are eating.

The major rules of mindful eating include:

• Focusing on the food without any distractions such as your phone or TV.
• Being aware of your food choices and triggers.
• Listening to your body to determine when you are hungry and when you are full.
• Observing and eating food without any judgement.
• Engaging your senses while eating so notice the taste, texture and aroma of your food.
• Appreciating the food.
• Eating to maintain overall well-being.

The purpose of mindful eating is to promote a healthier, more enjoyable way to nourish your body and being aware of what you are consuming.

Does mindful eating help with weight loss?

Kathy Bates shed 45 kilos over the span of six years, which is what mindful eating is known for. You have to adapt it as a lifestyle rather than thinking of it as just another diet. If you make it a part of your life, it will help you lose weight as there are many benefits of mindful eating for weight loss.

As per a 2019 study published in the journal British Medical Bulletin, mindful eating can help you lose weight by changing your eating behaviors and reducing stress. Another study published in Obesity Reviews found that mindful eating has positive effects of people trying to lose weight. Mindful eating is not a weight loss

• It makes you aware of what you are eating and how much you are eating, which can help prevent overeating.
• Mindful eating encourages you to recognise true hunger and fullness signals, helping you eat only when necessary and stop when satisfied.
• You focus on flavours and textures when you eat mindfully, which enhances satisfaction and you become less likely to rely on snacking.
• When you become non-judgmental towards food, you eat less for emotional comfort and more for overall well-being.
• Practicing slower eating will naturally reduce the amount of food you consume, which will help you avoid overeating and make you feel full for longer.

Also, every person is different so what may have worked for Kathy Bates might not work for you. Talk to your healthcare provider to know what is best for you, especially if you have an underlying condition such as PCOS, diabetes, etc.

How to practice mindful eating for weight loss?

Practicing mindful eating for weight or in general requires patience and your willingness to take it up as a lifestyle. Here are some ways in which you can practice mindful eating:

• Eliminate distractions when you are eating.
• Chew slowly to savour all the flavours.
• Notice the colours, textures, smells and tastes of your food.
• Listen to the signals of your body. Pay attention to signals of fullness and stop eating when you feel satisfied.
• Practice portion control which means serving smaller portions on your plate. This will help you prevent overeating.
• Appreciate where the food comes from and what went into preparing it. This will help you enjoy your meal.
• Eat in silence and concentrate on every bite you take.
• Focus on how the food makes you feel if you want to feel satisfied.

Are there any common mistakes people make while following a weight loss diet?

Raise your hand if you have ever felt that you fail at keeping up with a particular diet. Well, the reasons are multifold and include these mistakes:

• Extreme restriction: Cutting out entire food groups or drastically reducing calories can lead to sudden cravings and binge eating.
• Skipping meals: Another mistake people tend to make is skipping meaks which make them overeat later in the day and disrupt your metabolism.
  Ignoring portion sizes: Regardless of how healthy you are eating, you should practise portion size control if you want to lose weight.
• Relying on diet foods: If you tend to rely on packaged foods that are labelled healthy, you might be overestimating their food. Most of these foods are high in sugar and contain unhealthy ingredients, which are not good for weight loss.
• Neglecting liquid calories: If you drink too many sodas, juices and even smoothies, you may end up consuming more calories than required. Pay attention to what you drink.
• Not working out: Weight loss goals can be achieved by creating a balance between a healthy diet and exercise. Diet alone would not be enough for weight loss. Incorporate regular exercise to maintain overall health and manage your weight.
• Not drinking enough water: You have to stay hydrated to help your body properly metabolize stored fat or carbohydrates. So, drink at least 8-10 glasses of water every day if you want to lose weight.

While it is good to practice mindful eating, it is important to listen to your body and see what works for you best.

Nobody Wants This star Justine Lupe pooped herself on set with Kathy Bates

“I don’t know if Kathy ever caught wind that that’s why I was taking so long in my trailer.”

Justine Lupe is reflecting on one of her crappier moments on set.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Succession star recalled an unfortunate incident on set as her Nobody Wants This costars Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn egged her on. “I told a story about me s—tting my pants on set and s—tting into my dress and then pulling it up onto my body. And that’s when I realized I had pooped in my dress,” Lupe recalled or a previous interview.

Simons prompted an important piece of context. “And we found out after — tell them who it was with,” he said.

Lupe responded, “Kathy Bates,” thus revealing that the incident must have occurred on the set of the short-lived legal drama Harry’s Law, on which she starred alongside the Misery actress in 2012. “After they called cut on the last interview. She looked over at us and she goes ‘And that was with Kathy Bates’ and I’m like, ‘You didn’t mention that?!’,” Tohn added.

 

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Lupe didn’t care for Tohn’s misrepresentation of the facts. “It wasn’t in front of Kathy, it was in my trailer,” she said.

 

Tohn dug in deeper, joking, “If Kathy Bates was holding my hand, while I s— my pants, I have to say, I’d be embarrassed!”

Nobody Wants This stars Kristen Bell as sex-positive podcaster Joanne and Adam Brody as hot rabbi Noah, who fall in love as they grapple with their cultural and familial differences. Lupe plays Joanna’s disapproving sister and pod cohost Morgan, while Simons plays Noah’s goofy brother Sasha, and Tohn plays Sasha’s stern wife Esther.

 

Series creator Erin Foster, who based the show on her real-life conversion to Judaism, told EW that her actual sister actually got along with her real future husband. To enhance the tension at the show’s core, she added a layer of disagreement between the fictionalized sisters. “I loved the idea that Morgan feels threatened by Joanne getting into a serious relationship,” she said. “I do think that in real life when two people are stunted or unable to find love, and then one person does find a healthy relationship, then the other person feels really left behind by that. And I’ve had that in friendships before — when people settled down before me, it felt really threatening when they could figure it out before I could.”

 

 

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Kathy Bates breaks down that massive Matlock premiere twist

Bates discusses opioids, the power of motherhood, and the challenges of playing a duplicitous protagonist: “I don’t know if I could do all of these things, be so devious and lie.”

CBS’ Matlock premiere ended with a staggering twist.

After spending the first 40 minutes of the episode presenting herself as a widowed, inexperienced ex-attorney with heaps of debt and a drive to make big bucks in big pharma cases, Kathy Bates’ Matty Matlock reveals a massive secret: she’s wealthy, cunning, and in love with her husband who is very much alive (played by Lost alum Sam Anderson).

Matty doesn’t take the bus to the office from her tiny apartment — she has a personal driver who shuttles her to and from her enormous mansion (she just uses the bus for one stop to keep up appearances).

Bates’ protagonist is on a righteous quest to infiltrate the central legal firm and expose one of her new bosses for their role in the opioid epidemic, as the firm frequently defends pharmaceutical companies. “One of those three hid documents that could have taken opioids off the market 10 years earlier,” she says, looking at a bulletin board with photos of characters played by Beau Bridges, Jason Ritter, and Skye P. Marshall attached. “I’m gonna figure out who knew what when, and then I’m gonna put them in jail.”

Matty’s mission is deeply personal: earlier in the episode, she told a key witness about the death of her daughter, who died following a long battle with addiction. “I carry the weight of that loss every day,” she says midway through the episode. “I thought about what I’d do for my daughter. And the answer is: anything. Everything.”

Matty’s secret adds a delightfully tense layer of drama to every case, as she must continually maintain her mild-mannered facade to avoid suspicion from her peers. In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Bates breaks down the premiere’s big twist and what it means for the series moving forward.

KATHY BATES: I thought it was important to see how these opioids affect the individual, no matter how poor or how wealthy you are. It’s a long-term battle, and people get involved just through no fault of their own.

What’s challenging about playing a character living a double life?

Well, the first challenge for me was ‘Is it believable?’ And I remember talking to a friend who’s in the corporate world, and I said, ‘Do you believe that someone could do this?’ And he paused and then he said, ‘Yeah, I could do it.’ And he’s someone I’m very close to.

Then you have to track what’s going on with her in terms of her mission. Why is she reacting to this person in this way? How can she go this far? All of these different things. It requires really thinking things through. I think our showrunner said it’s a Rubik’s Cube, and so figuring all of that out is quite fun, actually.

 

What other challenges does Matty present?

I don’t have a child. That’s a real challenge for me. Luckily, Aaron D. Harris, who plays my grandson, is lovely, and we’ve had a lot of fun working together. But I remember talking to my niece, who does have a child, and I said, “I don’t know if I could do all of these things, be so devious and lie.” And she said that her love for her child was savage, and she said, “You don’t know what it’s like.” And I’ve since then talked to others that [say] they would go the full distance to protect their child.

What emotions drive Matty?

Certainly, I think that there’s a level of guilt, which is in the deep marrow of Matty. The fact that she feels tremendously guilty that she failed her child, and was unable to win the battle between the drugs and her child’s future, no matter what she did. It’s like Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol: we drag those boxes around behind us. And that’s certainly the big thing for Matty, that level of guilt. And also the level of, she’s been grieving for 10 years and I think she spent the last couple of years with her grandson Alfie cooking up this plan and using their wits. And I think all of that level of excitement and joy of working with him and finding that he was very passionate about bringing those people to justice that killed his mother.

 

Is there any passion in Matty’s work beyond her personal mission?

There’s an unexpected gift in coming back to work. I think she didn’t expect to get involved with the people that the firm represented in their cases. She forgot what it was like. There’s the scene in the pilot when she realizes, “I can’t do this. These are real people. I forgot what this was like.” But then as she gets into it, she feels a tremendous reward. It’s like that old cliche they say to people who are in mourning: go and do something for other people and get out of your own way. And that’s what happens with Matty. She gets very involved. And of course, her relationship with Olympia starts to grow.

Matty loved being a lawyer before her daughter died. She loved her life, and this is awakening her to what she enjoyed with all of it. So it becomes tremendously complex for her to navigate those waters. Every day she goes in to work, to continue the mission, to not be discovered, but then to discover all these things she didn’t expect to discover. Her relationships, the people that she begins to feel close to, and she sees her daughter in the young people.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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