Surely you’ve heard of mindful eating lately, right? And it is that more and more are pointing to this practice that could well be translated as “conscious eating”. But what exactly does this mean?
What is mindful eating ?
In a world of rush and stress, many people express their day-to-day anxiety by seeking refuge in food, eating after hours and using ultra-processed products. However, mindful eating invites us to relate to food in a healthy and natural way through the control of the mind. In other words, what mindful eating proposes is to eat consciously according to our physiological needs. For this, it is essential to learn to differentiate when you need to eat because you are hungry and when you are not. Likewise, it also helps to detect when we are satiated and the body no longer needs food.
Obviously, acquiring these skills is not a matter of a day, but they are achieved after a training process and that we could summarize in the following mindful eating techniques .
Mindful eating exercises
To start practicing mindful eating, start with the following tips.
- The first question to ask yourself is whether you are really hungry before you start eating. If the answer is no, the next question to ask yourself is why do you want to eat at that precise moment. Why is it time to eat? Have you considered leaving it for later when you really feel like eating?
- During the meal, it is important to remain calm. Chew calmly, stay calm between bites to curb anxiety and because this will make it easier for you to identify when your body no longer needs more food. One trick to slow down while you eat is to leave your silverware on the plate when you are chewing.
To know if you are eating at a healthy rate, keep in mind that meals should last about 20 minutes, as it has been shown that this is the time it takes the body to detect the feeling of fullness.
- When we are nervous we tend to prepare dishes with more food than necessary. The mindful eating proposes to use small dishes that allow us to follow we have the feeling plate full, but this control how much. If later you continue to feel a need for more food, you can repeat, but now you will be doing it in a conscious way.
- Don’t blame yourself for leaving some food on your plate. There is a false belief that leaving food on the plate is a bad habit. However, one of the mindful eating techniques consists precisely in not seeing an obligation to finish all the food served. It is essential to listen to our body and stop eating when it no longer asks us for food, regardless of whether you have eaten the entire plate or not.
- Eating standing up, watching television, consulting the mobile, in front of the computer … etc. they are not usually good table companions. All these habits evade us from food and do not allow us to enjoy the pleasure of eating. If you are alone, focus on what you are eating, and if you are accompanied, nothing better than a pleasant and relaxed chat.
Benefits of mindful eating
As you have seen, mindful eating is far from being a simple diet, it is much more. It is, above all, an attitude towards food. However, all those who have fallen for the benefits of mindful eating agree that they have lost weight and that is because their relationship with food is different. They eat the food they need, when they need it. And above all, they enjoy eating.
And when you have mastered the mindful eating technique , why not put it into practice for the rest of the aspects of your life? Remember what mindfulness is , its techniques and benefits.
