Mindful eating for healthy weight loss

culled from:.tescohealthandwellbeing.com

Did you know that at any one time, a third of people in the UK are on a diet of some sort? That’s quite staggering when you think about it. But what if you could banish dieting from your life for good? Sounds impossible? It’s not. With mindful eating, you could change the way you look at food, achieve healthy weight loss and gain a whole new appreciation for what you eat. Interested? Then read on.

What is mindful eating?

Mindful eating is the practice of eating food slowly and consciously without any outside distractions. It helps you learn to taste and appreciate your meals while listening to your body so you become aware of the signals that tell you when you are full. By making your meals a time when you sit down and really focus on your food, you can re-tune your taste buds and rediscover a love for healthy eating while cutting your intake of excess calories and moderating your portion size. Mindful eating could be the key to changing your relationship with food forever while achieving healthy weight loss.

The more you eat, the less flavor; the less you eat, the more flavor Chinese proverb

Mindless eating – why we gain weight

As the pace of modern life has quickened, eating has become something we do while concentrating on other tasks. This is known as ‘mindless eating’ because, when distracted, we don’t taste what we are eating and don’t register the signals our body is sending to tell us when we have had enough to eat. Here are some prime examples of mindless eating:

• Eating lunch at your desk while rushing to meet a deadline
• Grabbing breakfast on the go while travelling to work
• Eating while watching TV or using social media
• Reading at the table

Often, we are not even aware of what we are eating and then wonder where the extra pounds came from. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, there is a way to change this. Mindful eating.

Benefits of Mindful eating

It can take time to get into the routine of eating mindfully, but the rewards are numerous. Here are just some of the benefits to be gained from mindful eating:

• Appreciation of nutritious food
• Positive changes in eating habits
• Reduced calorie intake
• Regulation of portions – quality over quantity
• Eliminate bingeing and emotional eating
• Improved body awareness
• Healthy weight loss

A recent Japanese study involving 1,700 women concluded that eating more slowly resulted in feeling full sooner, and thus eating fewer calories at mealtimes.

How to eat mindfully

Mindful eating takes time, so if you are new to this concept, it’s probably best to try it when you are not in a hurry anywhere and can take your time with your meal. You want to be able to focus 100% on your food. Now, get ready for a tastebud-tingling experience!

1. Turn off the TV, phone and all electronic devices. If you are a bookworm, lose the reading material.
2. Use a timer and set it for 20 minutes. Aim to take at least this long to eat your meal.
3. Take a few moments to enjoy the sight of the food on your plate. As the saying goes “The first bite is with the eye” so take it all in.
4. Smell your food. Enjoy the aromas and try to analyse the ingredients with your nose. Is your mouth watering yet? So far, so good.
5. Take your first bite, but don’t swallow it straight away. Chew slowly and savour your food. How does it taste? What ingredients can you identify?
6. Put your fork down between each mouthful and don’t pick it up again until you are ready for the next.
7. Be aware of your body signals. Once you feel full, stop eating.

Once you get used to eating mindfully, you will be less likely to eat in large quantities because you are eating in the moment without distractions. You know how easy it is to munch your way through a big bucket of popcorn at the movies, right? If you were to sit down at the table with that same bucket of popcorn, I guarantee you would be sick of it before hitting the halfway mark. Mindful eating helps you to appreciate good food in small quantities over bad food in large quantities. With mindful eating, there are no forbidden foods because everything is enjoyed in moderation.

Mindful eating exercises

Like anything, mindful eating takes practice so here’s some homework to help you re-tune those taste buds and really get into eating mindfully. Don’t worry, there’s not going to be a test. ;)

• Take something small like a raisin, peanut, grape or pea. Eat it in tiny bites, fully analysing how it looks, tastes, smells and feels.
• Take a ‘trigger’ food or a food item you normally feel guilty about eating and eat it mindfully. Did it taste as good as you anticipated? Did it make you feel as good as you expected? If the experience fell short of your expectations it may help you to shake off your emotional attachment to that food.
• Be conscious of every food choice you make throughout the day. There are more than you think. Tracking is a great way to accomplish this so use our handy app or food diary.
• Make a list of foods you really enjoy eating mindfully. Make another list of foods you find you don’t enjoy so much and eliminate them from your diet. As you become more attuned to your taste buds, you will find yourself choosing tasty, nutritious food and cutting out foods that are high in calories and low on taste.
• Eat with your non-dominant hand. It takes longer to eat and discourages mindless eating.

By only eating when you actually feel hungry, you can help to eliminate eating from boredom and emotional eating as well as cutting excess calories. Become a gourmet instead of a gourmand and exist in the moment when you eat. Not only will you achieve a healthy weight loss, you will change the way you think about food.

Serenely full, the epicure would say ‘Fate cannot harm me, for I have dined today' Sydney Smith