Mindful Eating: Conscious Eating That Will Help You Improve Your Health

Have you ever realized that you are eating just to eat? Do you eat out of boredom? Do you eat eagerly? Do you eat until you are full or until the food on your plate runs out? Normally we feed ourselves every day using distractions that make us not pay attention to food; from television to mobile or even conversations. Many times we do not remember what we have eaten throughout the day and even hours before and that is because we do not pay attention to what we eat. Therefore, it is interesting that you know mindful eating a different way of perceiving food and the moment of eating.

What is mindful eating?

He mindful eating It is a type of mindfulness, or the Spanish translation: full consciousness. Mindfulness is based on meditation and the belief that we can do any task while being fully aware of what we are doing, that is, with all our senses. Thus, mindful eating is based on learning to eat in a conscious and healthy way. It teaches us the ability to enjoy eating, know when to eat, how much to eat and listen to our emotions that we often relate to food.

Surely, you have heard of ‘mindfulness’. Mindful eating is a mindfulness in eating, that is, they try to apply the full awareness of this type of meditation to eating habits. Therefore, the goal of this type of eating is to try to change our external thinking about food and how we perceive it in order to enjoy our eating experience more. Mindfulness eating can be an effective help to face the eating problems typical of a society where stress and anxiety are present in many of our routines.

In many cases, people who tend to eat quickly or unconsciously may present psychological problems such as binge eating due to anxiety or pay with food for the emotional instability to which they are involved. In these cases, practice the mindful eating or going to a professional psychologist can be a good measure to change your eating habits.

What does mindfulness eating entail?

In order to apply mindfulness to our daily diet, it is important to take the following aspects into account:

• Speed: In order to practice the mindful eating We must reduce the speed at which we eat our food. This happens because when we eat quickly we are less likely to be able to fully enjoy our food. So much so that this speed is also the reason why we can eat much more food than we really need. By practicing mindfulness eating and slowing down our meals, we give our stomach time to transmit the message of ‘I’m full’ to our brain.
• Awareness: When we are aware of our food we allow ourselves to make choices that are more beneficial to us. In this way, people through mindful eating They can make decisions that support their commitment to being healthier and more respectful of both our bodies and their needs.
• Pleasure: Pleasure improves when we apply mindful eating to our meals. The reason for this is that the mindfulness in eating It helps us to better taste our meals and the foods we have in them.

Mindful eating: Exercises to apply mindfulness to eating

Every time we eat food we do it without being aware of what we are doing. We chew little, we swallow quickly, we are in the rush of work or we have simply become accustomed to eating quickly. We often eat standing up and doing other things at the same time. We do not look at what we eat or the quantities we ingest. The result can be anything from indigestion to overweight. How can we change this?

1. Ask yourself a question: Am I hungry? If the answer is affirmative, we must obey our body. It is important to eat 5 meals a day but it is not necessary for the quantities to be very large. In each meal we have to listen to our body and the signals it sends us about hunger and satiety. Thus, it is important to follow the mindfulness eating Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. You should not continue eating just because there is still food on your plate.
2. Sit down to eat Even if you are in a hurry, it is important to sit down to eat. Eating can be very pleasant if we learn to enjoy it and for that it is not necessary to take longer, you can eat in the same time standing as sitting, but if we eat standing up that eating will be less pleasant and uncomfortable. This way you will have more comforts to be able to eat with mindfulness and be more conscious of your meals.
3. Stop and look at your food: Before taking your first bite, enjoy what you see; the presentation of the dish, the colors, the smell that the food gives off, etc. They say that food is also enjoyed with sight and smell. Don’t act as if you lack these senses.
4. Savor every bite: Make small pieces of what you are going to eat and enjoy them by chewing and distributing the food throughout your mouth and tongue. Sometimes it seems that we gobble up food, we put large pieces in our mouths and that prevents us from chewing normally and enjoying what we do. We only think about swallowing and when we swallow the good thing is over. Try to discover the different flavors: sour, bitter, sweet and salty as well as the textures of what you eat.
5. Avoid distractions: Watching television, reading the newspaper, playing with your cell phone or talking on the phone or working while eating prevents you from enjoying your food. Remember that it is about listening to your body and if we are distracted we are not listening to it, we are ignoring it. In it mindful eating, it is not about always eating in silence, but that talking does not prevent you from enjoying the food. Of course, it is important to leave the rest of the distractions aside and only take them out once you have finished eating.
6. It takes a minimum of 20 minutes to eat: Remember that the signal of satiety comes 20 minutes after starting to eat. If you eat the first course, main course and dessert in less time, it is likely that you are ingesting more than your body needs, since the satiety signal has not yet reached the brain and therefore, you may be overeating. If you find it difficult, put a clock in front of you, it will help you control meal times or observe the people around you. Look at whoever eats the slowest and try to imitate them. Between bites, leave the cutlery on the table, this will take you longer and cut the food into small pieces.
7. Get started in meditation: Normally we go everywhere stressed and in a hurry. We don’t enjoy what we do and we are always thinking about what we have to do next. Meditating for 15 minutes a day is enough to see what thoughts we have, simply listen to them, welcome them and then let them go. In addition, we will be relaxing the body and focusing attention on ourselves. Imagine that you are in a river, listening to the water flow, and you see how leaves fall from a tree. Every leaf that falls is a thought you have. Visualize how the leaf falls into the river and when you lose sight of it is when we will abandon that thought.

Remember that both mindfulness like mindful eating They are a training that takes time. We cannot be experts in meditation without practicing every day. So be patient, let the thoughts interfere with you, it’s okay, but let them go and enjoy the meditation while enjoying a good meal.