Table of contents:
- What is that mindful eating?
- What's a part ofmindful eating?
- Mindful eating can help you lose weight
- How to start applying mindful eating?
Eating is an activity that you certainly do every day, an activity that you are always waiting for in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Often times, you don't realize what and how much food you ate today, especially if you were eating while doing other things. This habit is dangerous if done continuously because it can cause weight gain that you are not aware of. Therefore, you need awareness when eating, applying mindful eating may be needed.
What is that mindful eating?
You need to know that eating is a complex process that involves the mind and digestive organs. It takes about 20 minutes after eating to feel full. So, if you eat too fast, you are more likely to miss your feelings of fullness, which in turn will overeat you before you stop eating. For that, you need to exercise mindfulness when eating. This is what is called with mindful eating.
Mindful eating based on awareness when you eat, meaning that you are fully aware of what you eat, how much, your emotions when you eat, your physical cues when you eat, and so on. Mindfulness helps you to recognize and deal with emotions and physical sensations, such as hunger and fullness.
What's a part ofmindful eating?
Mindful eating involves:
- Eating slowly, meaning that you are not in a hurry to chew your food
- Eating without interruption, the activities you do when you eat are just eating, not while doing other activities
- Eat only when you feel really hungry and stop eating when you feel full. You can tell the physical cues your body is giving you.
- Distinguish between true hunger and non-hunger, which can trigger eating
- Engaging your senses when you eat, you notice colors, smells, sounds, textures and tastes when you eat
- Learn to deal with guilt and anxiety over food
- The purpose of eating is to maintain overall health
- Pay attention to how food affects how you feel
- Appreciate the food you eat
Mindful eating can help you lose weight
Many experts have proven that mindful eating can aid in weight loss and also assist patients in adopting a certain disease diet. Lilian Cheung, a nutritionist and lecturer at Harvard School of Public Health has proven that mindful eating can help you lose weight. Additionally, Stephanie Meyers, nutritionist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, also using mindful eating in a cancer patient's diet in a number of different ways.
Research also shows that eating more slowly and mindfully while eating can help you deal with weight problems and may also lead you to stay away from processed foods and other less healthy foods.
A study published by the Journal of Obesity shows that mindful eating can aid weight loss in obese people. This is done by changing the eating behavior and reducing the stress of the participants involved in this study.
In addition to overcoming obesity, mindful eating can also be applied to overcome deviant eating behavior, such as binge eating. Many studies agree with this result. One of them is research in journals Eating Behaviors which shows that mindful eating effective in reducing binge eating and emotional eating.
Changing the way you think about food can change your awareness, increase self-control, and positive emotions when you eat. In this way, your eating behavior can be more controlled and your plan to lose weight can be more successful.
How to start applying mindful eating?
If you want to try applying it, start gradually. Focusing and doing it mindfully at mealtimes is the key to practice mindful eating.
Here are tips for getting started mindful eating:
- Before you take a meal, it's best to ask yourself if you are really hungry right now? Are these foods healthy?
- Eat slowly and not in a hurry
- Chew food thoroughly, until it's really soft before swallowing it
- Avoid distractions when eating, such as not watching TV, working, or handling cellphone You. Always try to eat at the dinner table to avoid distractions.
- Silence while eating, not while talking
- Focus on how food makes you full
- Stop eating when you feel full
To start with, try starting to apply these tips once a day while you eat. If you are already doing this, you can increase it to more than one meal a day. Over time, this awareness will arise more naturally and become a habit.
