Mindful eating
Most people chow down their food while multitasking on something else. This is most of us, right?
You may be eating the right foods and still not losing weight, let’s now focus on how you eat.
Mindful eating helps us develop a healthy relationship with food and our body can tell us when we are genuinely hungry and satisfied. It’s about focusing our attention and awareness on the present moment. Mindful eating is about how we eat and not what we eat. This is not a diet but helps control binge eating or overeating and helps our minds keep in touch with the body’s signals of hunger and satisfaction.
Take a short break from whatever you are doing and let’s focus on our food for a moment.
Here are 5 healthy habit tips to help you eat more mindfully.
This isn’t a race, chew your food Sounds simple, right? Try and chew 20 times for each mouthful of food, see how you notice the difference to the way you eat now. It’s a very simple and effective way to develop a mindful eating habit and helps with proper digestion. It’s not essential to reach 20 chews but more that you choose a number to reach and focus on while you eat. This will help you focused on slowing down and pacing yourself.
Take the time to sit down Take time out from your busy day and sit down somewhere to eat your food. Scoffing the food down in the car, standing the kitchen, walking around the house or in front of the TV isn’t a mindful practice. Sitting down will help you keep focused on what you are eating and avoid over eating while you are focused on something else.
Remove Distractions Put your phone aside while you eat, turn off the TV or step away from your desk to eat. This helps with your focus on what you are eating and creates a great mindful practice.
Enjoy your food Focus completely on the food you are eating, what does it smell like, taste like, look like. Make sure you are hungry before you start eating and then enjoy each mouthful and the sensory experience.
Don’t eat until you are full It’s time to stop eating when you no long feel hungry or feel satisfied. If you eat until you are full, then it’s too late and you have overeaten. Over time, mindful eating will help the brain realise when you have actual physical hunger and not emotional eating or are just thirsty.
It can be hard when you are eating with others or have children to feed. Start today and practice
mindful eating; practice makes perfect. Time do develop a mindful eating habit.
Above all, don’t beat yourself up if you overeat or lost focus on the task at hand. Just let it go, forgive yourself and focus on the next meal or snack.
