Switching to mindful eating
Mindful eating is a technique that helps you gain control over your eating habits.
It has been shown to promote weight loss, reduce binge eating, and help you feel better.
Mindful eating is about using mindfulness to reach a state of full attention to your experiences, cravings, and physical cues when eating
What is Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness is a form of meditation that helps you recognize and cope with your emotions and physical sensations'
Fundamentally, mindful eating involves:
eating slowly and without distraction
listening to physical hunger cues and eating only until you’re full
distinguishing between true hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating
engaging your senses by noticing colours, smells, sounds, textures, and flavours
learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food
eating to maintain overall health and well-being
noticing the effects food has on your feelings and figure
appreciating your food
These things allow you to replace automatic thoughts and reactions with more conscious, healthier responses.
When you eat too fast, the fullness signal may not arrive until you have already eaten too much. This is very common in binge eating. By eating mindfully, you restore your attention and slow down, making eating an intentional act instead of an automatic one.
What’s more, by increasing your recognition of physical hunger and fullness cues, you are able to distinguish between emotional and true, physical hunger. You also increase your awareness of triggers that make you want to eat, even though you’re not necessarily hungry.
By knowing your triggers, you can create a space between them and your response, giving you the time and freedom to choose how to react.
Take Inspired Action
Choose to eat without the distraction of phone, television and computer by turning it off.
Notice the colour, the taste/ aroma and feel the texture of your food.
Eat more slowly and don’t rush your meals.
Chew thoroughly.
Eat in silence.
Focus on how the food makes you feel.
Stop eating when you’re full.
Ask yourself why you’re eating, whether you’re truly hungry, and whether the food you chose is healthy.
Pick one meal per day to focus on these points.
