Mindful eating can be helpful for weight loss
Because life is so fast today, it’s simple to eat too fast, stuff ourselves or eat meals that aren’t good for our health. Mindful eating allows one to enjoy food, knowing what and how much they are eating. If you listen to your body, eating slowly and notice your hunger, you might eat less and still feel comfortable afterward. The essence of this practice is to shift your attitude toward what you eat.
This article explains what mindful eating is:
This is a way to pay full attention during your meals. You should take time to notice how your food looks, feels, smells and tastes, taking tried to listen to your hunger and when you feel full. You avoid rushing your meals and end up choosing what to eat more wisely, eating less and still getting to enjoy your food. It can make people less attached to eating their feelings, better manage their digestion and make food less of a challenge in their lives, all important points for losing weight sustainably.
“Instead of food being in charge of your life, mindful eating lets you stay in charge, each moment you eat.”
Mindful Eating is helpful for both our minds and bodies
Knowing When to Eat: Allows you to realize there is a difference between emotional and physical hunger.
Better Impulse Control: Brings about a decrease in binge eating or overeating due to emotions.
By enjoying your meals in small bites, your brain is more likely to let you feel that you’ve eaten enough.
Privilege from Diet Culture: Helps practice self-control with no pressure to calculate the calories of everything you eat.
More Nutrients in Your Body: Taking your time to chew and pay attention to your meals improves your body’s ability to take in nutrients.
Here Are Some Ways to Eat with Mindfulness
1. Serve Yoursel
Serve yourself less food compared to what you are used to. As your meals are smaller, your body can tell you whether or not you are hungry before overeating.
2. Try to use all of your senses when exploring nature.
Look at how your food is prepared, notice its color and smell it. Try to feel, hear, smell and look at your food before you begin eating.
3. Take your time chewing your food.
Remember to chew all the time you have your food in your mouth. This helps your food be digested and allows your brain to sense that you are full.
4. Determine When You Need Food and When You Are Already Full
Sometimes stop eating during a meal and see if you are still hungry. Stop eating when you’re full and not because the food looks good.
- The study in “Appetite” (2018) reported that mindful eating practices helped reduce binge eating and body weight.
- Every day, I remind myself to eat with awareness.
- Ensure there are no distractions when you eat, as this can help improve your digestion and how pleased you feel after the meal.
- Go for Smaller Sized Dishes: It will help you eat less and find your meals more satisfying.
- After Each Bite, Put Your Fork or Your Spoon Down and Check How You Feel.
Be thankful: Consider all that went into getting the food you eat. Expressing gratitude helps us to focus on what we are thankful for.
Mindful eating can have effects on the metabolism and hormones in our body. Current research suggests mindfulness in eating might play a part in selecting the right amount of food by regulating ghrelin and leptin. When you eat calmly and thoughtfully, your cortisol hormone decreases, since chronic stress has been linked to gaining weight in the abdomen. If you calm your mind about food, it will positively affect your hormones as well as your weight.
In her book “Mindful Eating,” Dr. Jan Chozen Bays writes that mindfulness has the power to help us develop new healthy eating habits.
• Interacting with People: Being mindful about your food may be challenging among friends and at parties. Try to take small bites, set down your fork after each bite and continue focusing on the taste while talking.
• Stress makes different situations challenging: Whenever you feel like eating something you want, stop for a moment and wonder: “Could I actually be hungry or is it just anxiety?” Taking a walk, meditating or journaling may help you avoid eating food.
How can mindful eating improve your health in the long run?
Healthy Weight Loss: Abandon crash diets and counting calories; just focus on losing weight sensibly and steadily.
Better Approach to Food: Makes you forget guilt, shame and food obsession.When you eat slowly, your body can remain stable in terms of energy and attention.
Real-Life Experience
Previously, I did not usually enjoy my meals due to rushing during them. I would eat too much while I watched TV and feel unhappy about it afterward. When I stopped eating quickly, munched on my food well and paid full attention, I realized I didn’t need much food. Between one and three months, I lost 5 pounds simply by eating differently rather than changing my diet. These days, I trust my physiology and diet isn’t an issue.
Expert-Recommended Resources
- The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) looks at water and nutrition.
- Harvard Medical School – How much water should you have every day?
- Getting Enough Hydration for Activities and Physical Exercise, from ACE
- In essence, mindful eating is good for your health.
Mindful eating is important for health reasons, aside from its role in lowering weight. Working on being mindful helps you appreciate your meals, improves digestion and aids your health. Spending more time at the table will give you a sense of balance in your life.
