Mindful eating is maintaining an "in-the-moment" awareness of the food and drink you put into your body, observing rather than judging how the food makes you feel and the signals your body sends about taste, satisfaction, and fullness. Mindful eating requires you to simply acknowledge and accept the feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations you observe—and can extend to the process of buying, preparing, and serving your food as well as consuming it.
Many of us lead busy lives and we often find ourselves eating as fast we can to save time, or eating in the car while commuting to work, eating and working at the desk in front of a computer screen, or even on the couch while watching TV. We eat mindlessly, shoveling food down regardless of whether we’re still hungry or not. In fact, we often eat for reasons other than hunger—to satisfy emotional needs, to relieve stress, or cope with unpleasant emotions such as sadness, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom. Mindful eating is the opposite of this kind of unhealthy “mindless” eating.
Mindful eating is not about always eating the right things, or never allowing yourself to eat on-the-go again. It is also not about establishing strict rules for how many calories you can eat or which foods you have to include or avoid in your diet. Rather, it is about focusing all your senses and being present as you shop, cook, serve, and eat your food. Many people find that by eating this way, even for just a few meals a week, you can become more attuned to your body. This can help you avoid overeating and make it easier to change your dietary habits for the better and enjoy the improved mental and physical well-being that comes with a healthier diet.
Benefits of mindful eating
By paying close attention to how you feel as you eat—the texture and tastes of each mouthful, your body’s hunger and fullness signals, how different foods affect your energy and mood—you can learn to savor both your food and the experience of eating. Being mindful of the food you eat can promote better digestion, keep you full with less food, and influence wiser choices about what you eat in the future. It can also help you free yourself from unhealthy habits around food and eating.
Eating mindfully can help you to:
Slow down and take a break from the hustle and bustle of your day, easing stress and anxiety.
Examine and change your relationship with food—helping you, for example, to notice when you turn to food for reasons other than hunger.
Make a greater connection to where your food comes from, how it’s produced, and the journey it has taken to your plate.
Derive greater pleasure from the food you eat, as you learn to slow down and more fully appreciate your meals and snacks.
Make healthier choices about what you eat by focusing on how each type of food makes you feel after eating it.
Improve your digestion by eating slower.
Feel fuller sooner and by eating less food. This helps with weight loss too!
Eat in a healthier, more balanced way.
How to practice mindful eating
To practice mindfulness, you need to participate in an activity with total awareness. In the case of mindful eating, it’s important to eat with all your attention rather than on “automatic pilot” or while you’re reading, looking at your phone, watching TV, daydreaming, or planning what you’re doing later. When your attention strays, gently bring it back to your food and the experience of cooking, serving, and eating.
Try practicing mindful eating for short, five-minute periods at first and gradually build up from there. And remember: you can begin mindful eating when you’re making your shopping list or browsing the menu at a restaurant. Carefully assess each item you add to your list or choose from the menu.
Start by taking a few deep breaths and considering the health value of each different piece of food. While nutrition experts continually debate exactly which foods are “healthy” and which are not, the best rule of thumb is to eat food that is as close as possible to the way nature made it.
Employ all your senses while you’re shopping, cooking, serving, and eating your food. How do different foods look, smell, and feel as you chop? How do they sound as they’re being cooked? How do they taste as you eat?
Be curious and make observations about yourself, as well as the food you’re about to eat. Notice how you’re sitting, sit with good posture but remain relaxed. Acknowledge your surroundings but learn to tune them out. Focusing on what’s going on around you may distract from your process of eating and take away from the experience.
Tune into your hunger: How hungry are you? You want to come to the table when you’re hungry, but not ravenous after skipping meals. Know what your intentions are in eating this specific meal. Are you eating because you’re actually hungry or is it that you’re bored, need a distraction, or think it’s what you should be doing?
With the food in front of you, take a moment to appreciate it—and any people you’re sharing the meal with—before eating. Pay attention to the textures, shapes, colors and smells of the food. What reactions do you have to the food, and how do the smells make you feel?
Take a bite, and notice how it feels in your mouth. How would you describe the texture now? Try to identify all the ingredients, all the different flavors. Chew thoroughly and notice how you chew and what that feels like.
Focus on how your experience shifts moment to moment. Do you feel yourself getting full? Are you satisfied? Take your time, stay present and don’t rush the experience.
Put your utensils down between bites. Take time to consider how you feel—hungry, satiated—before picking up your utensils again. Listen to your stomach, not your plate. Know when you’re full and stop eating.
Give gratitude and reflect on where this food came from, the plants or animals involved, and all the people it took to transport the food and bring it onto your plate. Being more mindful about the origins of our food can help us all make wiser and more sustainable choices.
Continue to eat slowly as you talk with your dining companions, paying close attention to your body’s signals of fullness. If eating alone, try to stay present to the experience of consuming the meal.
Tags: #mindfulness, #meditation, #antistress, #focus, #now, #sense, #mindful, #inthemoment, #digestion, #slowdown, #relax
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