Mindful eating is the act of being present while eating or drinking.

Mindful Eating

You probably eat while working, watching TV, talking on the phone, or doing any number of tasks throughout your day. You may not notice when you’ve eaten a few pieces of candy, poured yourself another cup of coffee, or finished the crust from your child’s breakfast, because eating is second nature to you.

You Eat While Watching TV

If you’re food secure, you’re eating numerous times throughout the day. You might feel too busy or too stressed to take a break to eat, but how often do you eat without distraction or interruption? How often do you savor the food and drink that you’re consuming? Chances are you’re eating on auto-pilot and not paying any attention to the way food tastes, feels, and impacts your body and brain.

Eating On Auto-Pilo

Mindful eating allows you to stop, slow down, and really pay attention.

Why Mindful Eating? 

<ul><li>Be conscious of the activity. Follow a single bite from start to finish, Dr. Naidoo recommends, and pay attention to the sounds of cutting the food, the smell as it wafts up to your nostrils, the texture of the food as it reaches your mouth, the flavors that change as you chew, and the feeling as you swallow your food. </li></ul>

Tips To Follow Mindful Eating: Tip #1

<ul><li>Recognize your body’s signals. We’ve all experienced that deep, growling feeling in our stomach when we’re hungry. This is a signal. Cravings are also signals, but they don’t necessarily mean you need food. Sometimes we experience cravings when we’re feeling stressed or anxious. As you begin mindfully eating, journal what you’re eating and how you feel before, during, and after.</li></ul>

Tip #2 

<ul><li>Slow down your eating so your body and brain can communicate. When you eat quickly, you don’t usually experience fullness as quickly, and this can lead to overeating .3 In the process of slowing down, you allow your body and brain time to communicate.</li></ul>

Tip 

<ul><li>Socialize over food. “The act of preparing and sharing meals with others is a social activity that has withstood the turbulent test of time, and we know that social engagement is a pivotal factor in our well-being,” says Dr. Naidoo. Joining a friend for dinner or cooking with a loved one can help you practice more mindful eating, all while supporting your mental health.</li></ul>

Tip #4

<ul><li>Focus on the sensory details. With each new food, Dr. Naidoo suggests paying attention to one sensory aspect, such as the smell of an orange as you unpeel it, the sound of your lunch bag unzipping, or the sight of the bright carrots and beet hummus.</li></ul>

Tip #5

<ul><li>Practice mindfulness throughout your day. If you want to work on mindful eating, it will help to incorporate mindfulness into other areas of your life. Dr. Naidoo suggests adding affirmations to your morning routine, practicing yoga, exercising, or trying guided meditation. Mindfulness, in any form, can help you stay grounded and present.</li></ul>

Tip #6

Mindful eating is not a diet. The purpose of mindful eating isn’t to lose weight or cut back on calories; the purpose is to improve your relationship with food and overall eating experience.Knowing the negative impact of certain foods on your body doesn’t mean you have to remove those foods from your diet. With mindful eating, you can learn to enjoy the taste and feel of a single chocolate chip cookie, for example, as opposed to eating half a dozen without realizing it.

Important To know!!

Mindful eating is the act of being present while eating or drinking. It's a way of slowing down and paying attention to the experience.

What Is Mindful Eating? 

<ul>
<li>There is a complex hormonal reaction that affects those who are in love, and also their food choice.</li>
<li>Even early on in a romantic relationship, food plays an important role, as one can cook for their partner or buy them a fancy dinner.</li>
<li>The quality of the food and how it is presented is crucial as it affects the quality of the relationship.</li>
<li>New research points towards a ‘reward hormone’ called norepinephrine that shoots up in new romantic relationships, increasing the feeling of euphoria, while also suppressing appetite.</li>
</ul>

The Link Between Food And Love

<ul>
<li>A study showed that married women are more likely to become obese, due to more food intake.</li>
<li>Once a person settles down, they are less likely to stay in shape and work towards looking their best, as there is no competition in the dating field.</li>
<li>Couples spend more time on the couch having food, leading to weight gain.</li>
</ul>

Love Hormones: Eating More Than Before

Health

How Food And Relationships Are Linked In The Brain

Snacks keep us over till the next meal. Balanced snacks and meals at consistent times during the day keep your blood sugar stable and keep you from overeating.
Healthy snacking include protein, fibre, and other nutrients that will keep your blood sugar in an optimal range. In contrast, low blood sugar causes exhaustion and makes you crave sugary or fatty foods.

Snacks are part of a healthy diet

Establish a regular eating schedule and stay with it. For example, breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at noon, a snack around 3 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m.
The biggest health benefit to eating at regular times is appetite regulation. Your body will adjust to the pattern within a week and you will become hungry at expected times. It will help you to recognise when you are really hungry or just desire to eat because of boredom or stress.

Eat meals and snacks at regular times

Eating three meals doesn't work for everyone. Some people like to graze. They may crunch on veggies and dip, potato chips, cheese with cracker, chips and salsa, or rice crackers and hummus.
A snack should match your nutritional need. Higher-calorie snacks give energy, while lower-calorie choices with more fibre and protein help to feel full and satisfied.

How nutritionists snack

Snacks can be seen as fuel that helps to keep your energy up until mealtime.
<ul>
<li>Before a workout, nutritionists eat things like peanut butter and jelly toast, a banana and peanut butter, yoghurt, frozen berries and flax seeds or cereal.</li>
<li>During long exercising sessions, nutritionists eat bars that include protein, carbohydrates and sugar, or bananas.</li>
</ul>

How nutritionists fit snacks into their workouts

Parents can provide six meal opportunities: three meals, with two to three snacks.
Kids that graze all day may not learn to listen to their hunger and fullness signals. However, with designated snack time, kids are often more willing to eat what they need or stick with healthier options.

Snacking for kids

If you want to eat some snacks right now, consider if you're just thirsty. It is not uncommon to confuse hunger with thirst.
Reach for a glass of water or a can of seltzer before grabbing a snack. You may discover that you were not really hungry.

You might just be thirsty

Nutrition experts share what they eat, how often and when for optimal health.

What's Better: 3 Square Meals Or Snacking Throughout The Day?

Many people continue to practice the same diet fad or routine to lose weight even after the effort is proven to be ineffective. This mentality of dieters is called the False Hope Syndrome and happens due to:
<ol>
<li>Overestimating the weight loss amount.</li>
<li>Misjudgement of the time it would take to lose weight.</li>
<li>Not knowing how easy or difficult it would be.</li>
<li>Unrealistic expectations of the result of weight loss.</li>
</ol>

False Hope Syndrome In Dieting

A dieter often believes the diet is the cause of failure, and he or she hasn’t tried hard enough. They overlook their own habits and behaviours and blame their intake.
We like to be in control of any situation, and have false hopes about the benefits of the ‘perfect diet’ we are consuming. The media and marketing companies are also contributing to plant unrealistic expectations in many people trying to lose weight.

Searching For The "Perfect Diet"

Dieting is not as easy as portrayed by the media. Many people abandon the process midway or replace them with realistic and scaled-down versions.
<ul>
<li>One has to realize that dieting is a long-term process and one has to create systems that encourage habitual and behavioural changes that are not abandoned after a month.</li>
<li>One should not see a failed effort as something to be ashamed of, but try to learn and evolve from it.</li>
<li>One has to let go of unrealistic expectations and be practical.</li>
</ul>

How To Diet Successfully

Why do people continue to use the same strategy to lose weight time and again, even though it repeatedly fails? 

False Hope Syndrome Reveals a Big Problem with Dieting

Mindful eating is a mini-meditation that pulls us away from our distractions and multi-tasking to intentionally focus on something that we would want to relish.
Eating with intention, awareness and attention is called mindful eating. Eating what we love, like chocolate, can be made infinitely better by giving it one’s full attention.

A piece of chocolate, eaten mindfully:
<ol>
<li>Select the piece of chocolate keeping in mind your craving.</li>
<li>Set aside any guilt or distractions and be fully present, sitting down to savour the experience.</li>
<li>Unwrap the chocolate paying attention to the aroma and the sound.</li>
<li>Pause a while after taking the first bite, feeling the texture and flavour inside your mouth.</li>
<li>Chew the chocolate noticing the change in the flavour and the arising feeling of pleasure.</li>
<li>Pause and let the taste linger after swallowing.</li>
<li>Repeat slowly until your treat is consumed.</li>
</ol>

How To Eat Mindfully

Take a moment to savor your Valentine’s Day treat.

What Is Mindful Eating?

How Food And Relationships Are Linked In The Brain

What's Better: 3 Square Meals Or Snacking Throughout The Day?

False Hope Syndrome Reveals a Big Problem with Dieting

How to Be Mindful While Eating Chocolate

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