Mindful Mondays: Confession: I eat too fast. Can we practice mindful eating together?
What I love about our weekly emails is we get to explore mindfulness and life together.
So this week can we talk about food?
I love food!
I was raised with a mom who cooked everything from scratch. Her food was and is so amazing - and the rest of my family loves to cook as well. Getting together for family dinners is a big part of our connection.
And having said all of that...I don't always practice mindful eating.
I make this amazingly delicious food and...
I eat too fast!
I want to change this.
So interestingly enough, Shari Broder, a food coach from New Hampshire, U.S. emailed recently to tell me how much she loves my Mindful Monday messages.
So I thought hey...this is perfect! Maybe Shari can share some of her genius with us this week.
Shari helps people lose weight without diets by teaching them how to eat mindfully so they can enjoy the foods they love while permanently losing their desire to overeat along with their excess weight.
Here are some simple tips from Shari...
Mindful eating is the single most effective way to lose weight and keep it off, or to maintain a healthy weight throughout your life.
You don’t need to give up carbs, count calories or follow a restrictive diet.
Have you noticed how few people actually pay attention to their food when they’re eating?
If you love good food, you want to really enjoy it, right? When we love something, we give it our attention. So why would wolf down a few cookies while being distracted?
Here’s how to eat mindfully:
1. Start by listening to your body and eating only when you’re truly hungry. There is a difference between head hunger, which is what you feel when you want some of that cake your coworker left in the lunch room, despite still being full after lunch, and body hunger, which you experience with hunger pains and a feeling of emptiness in your belly.
2. Choose foods that your body wants. I promise it won’t tell you to eat chocolate all the time! Maybe that is what your brain might say, but if you listen to your body, it will want food that makes it feel good and energetic.
3. Sit down and take a few deep breaths. Smell your food and notice the colors and textures on your plate.
4. Eat slowly, savouring the flavours.
5. Stop eating when your body feels slightly full.
When you eat mindfully, this is what happens:
1. You really taste your food. That means you’ll enjoy certain foods more than you have in the past and you might notice that there are other foods you thought you’d liked but don’t taste so good anymore.
2. You might find that sometimes, eating is boring and that you’d rather do something else.
3. You’ll notice your body telling you, “I’ve had enough, thanks!” before you’ve eaten too much. Often, we miss that signal because we aren’t paying attention.
4. You’ll have fewer cravings … maybe even NO cravings! When you eat mindfully, one small brownie may satisfy your sweet tooth, and quiet your craving.
5. You’ll be more aware of how certain foods make you feel. Why do you sometimes feel sleepy in the afternoon? Unsettled after breakfast? If you pay attention, you’ll have a better idea of how different foods feel in your body.
6. If you are overweight, you will lose weight. When you pay attention to your food, you will inevitably eat less than when you don’t, which means you will lose weight without restrictive diets.
Eating mindfully is an important part of a mindfulness practice and of healthy living. If you aren’t already practicing mindful eating, I hope you’re inspired to start!
I'm going to take some of Shari's tips and practice them. I hope you will join me!
To your peace, well-being + savouring every delicious bite!
Diane