Food serves many purposes, from providing nutrients in our body to sometimes just a comforting agent. The ongoing global pandemic continues to disrupt everyday life, causing daily stressors that can lead to emotional eating. Mindful eating and being aware is therefore more important now than ever, with conscious eating being a good way to stay present in the moment and focus our thoughts and intentions.
What is mindful eating and how can it help you develop a healthier relationship with nutrition?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines mindfulness as:
'The quality or state of being aware or aware of something.'
"A mental state achieved by focusing one's consciousness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting his or her feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique."
Mindfulness Far from a passing fad, it's a vigorous exercise with many potential health and wellness benefits. For example, it is recommended by the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a way to help prevent depression and anxiety.
It is also very helpful for developing a healthy relationship with food. Studies have shown that mindful eating can help you better control your weight, reduce overeating and binge eating, and really help you appreciate your food a lot more.
Mindful eating is a technique that helps you take control of your eating habits. Food is both a fuel for us and a source of comfort, ultimately affecting how we feel. It is extremely important to nurture a healthy and conscious relationship with food. We would therefore like to explain why it is important to avoid emotional eating and how you can practice mindful eating in your daily routine.
Mindfulness makes perfect sense, but in today's busy world it's not always easy to stay 'present' and 'calm' or 'accept'. So how can you practically implement mindfulness in your daily life to improve your relationship with food? Here are five tips for mindful eating ...
Identify why you eat
Ask yourself why you are going to eat something. If you're really hungry and you know it's a good time to eat, then go ahead. But if you're honest with yourself, you might find that there are other reasons why you might be tempted to eat that have nothing to do with hunger. Habit, fatigue, stress, and boredom are common triggers. It can help to keep a food diary, in which you not only record what you eat, but also how you were feeling at the time. You may be surprised how often you are attracted to food when you are actually not hungry.
Ask what your body needs
Before you eat, it's a good idea to think about what you want to eat. What foods will feed you best at that time?
Questions to ask yourself include:
- Would a lighter or heavier meal feel better?
- What did I eat earlier in the day?
- What could I eat later?
- How will I feel after eating this food?
Focus on your food
Computers, cell phones, televisions… how well are you going to connect with your food when scrolling through Instagram? Or binge-watching Netflix? This can be tricky to overcome, but getting into the habit of detaching ourselves from a screen and focusing on the food in front of us can get us so much more involved with the look, smell and taste of food.
Gone are the days when we had to forage for our food, or grow and prepare it all ourselves. But in a world where food is so readily available, it's worth taking a moment to consider where your food came from and appreciate the effort put into preparing the meal right in front of you.
Eat slowly
One question you should ask yourself is, are you chewing food well? The answer to this question is often something like 'I try'! We are aware that thorough chewing is important, especially from a digestive point of view, but it also slows down the pace of our eating giving us time to interact with our food.
Taking the time to eat more slowly also helps us recognize when we get full and stop eating before we are full. It may take some effort to get into the habit of chewing your food thoroughly. A good way to start is to count the number of times you chew - 30 chews will make sure your food is completely soft before you swallow it. As you adopt better habits, it becomes more natural to chew until your food is soft instead of solid, and in a good condition for it to go straight into your esophagus.
Develop an attitude of gratitude
When we are not satisfied with our weight, it is easy to get into a negative relationship with food, feeling that we have to choose between eating foods that we like or foods that will help us achieve a figure and maintain what we are happy with. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. It is entirely possible to achieve optimal weight and health status, while still enjoying the food.
Developing a happy relationship with food involves being grateful for the pleasure and nourishment it provides, and not being dissatisfied with the calories and frustration it can bring.
A healthy relationship with food is about so much more than just what we eat. Eating with mindfulness can go a long way in developing a long-term positive relationship with food, often with weight loss as a positive side effect!
Sources a.o. Harvard (link), JCMH (link), KimPearson (link), NCBI (link)
