Mindful Eating: Cultivating a Balanced Attitude Towards Food
The time taken in consuming foods has become part of the background activities given the busy schedules that most of us have to deal with. Consequently, people have an unhealthy attitude toward the meals as they consume food without being conscious of what they are taking in their systems. Nevertheless, with mindful eating one is given an opportunity to engage a more balanced and positive attitude towards food.
Understanding Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is actually founded on mindfulness which is a technique that entails zeroizing on the current moment without passing judgment. If this concept was to be incorporated with eating, it would mean that the attention would be paid on hunger signals, food textures and emotions ordinarily related with food consumption. It also helps to improve the understanding of the value of the food as well as the capacity to make the right decisions concerning meals.
Tips for Practicing Mindful Eating
1. Slow Down and Savor
This is one of the most effective methods of practicing mindful eating since it involves the act of slowing down. Do not just rush through your meal, take your time to savour the meal and even analyse the texture and taste of food. Follow your sense; attempt to find the shapes of vegetables or the texture of grains or the best colors. This of course recommends that unless you want to end up with a bloated stomach, you should try to chew your food thoroughly or even better take small portions of the food in your mouth at a time. This not only helps in digestion but also helps to associate the body with the food taken, and thus have better digestion and its products.It helps one to direct their attention, and have strength to focus on the kind of food taken, instead of other things.
2. Learn How to Listen to Your Body’s Hunger Signals
Some of the general principles of mindful eating include: eating when hungry. There are some times in the day when you might feel bored, stressed or have some other emotion and you then find yourself grabbing a snack or a meal. Do you need food right now or are you feeling bored and decide to eat or already stressed and decide to have a snack? The difference between actual hunger and emotional hunger is useful in order not to overeat and make better decisions. It might be wise to maintain a Hunger and Emotional Chart where you can record the feelings that you have before you get Hungry and the feelings you feel each time you eat.
3. Make eating calm of or free of stress
The context in which you consume food is incredibly important to how you interact with food in the future. Turn the lights on, close the windows and doors to help create a positive learning environment free of noisy distractions like a television, a smart phone or a stressful conversation going on nearby. This is actually true, and preferably, people should share their meals with others with the emphasis placed on such a meal. In other words, the favourable environment paves way for an effective interaction with the meals you take.
4. Celebrate Your Food Choices
A change of attitude to food should be marked with a positive approach towards eating if the person is to have a healthy attitude towards food consumption. Do not hate foods or regard them as forbidden try to understand their place in a healthy diet. It’s important to look at the positive side of it and embrace all the nutrients these foods have to offer as well as giving thanks for the food provided. This change of viewpoint can be helpful in reducing or eliminating the feelings of guilt and/or shame that tend to be associated with food selection and can lead to better ways of eating.
Building a Healthy Relationship with Food
Altogether, it is possible to state that creating a better attitude to food and paying more attention to one’s body involves hard work as well as understanding and accepting the reality. Intentional eating is not only a concept that has to be applied to what we eat, but a lifestyle that teaches us about ourselves. Thus, by practicing mindful eating in your everyday life, you prepare the foundation for a balanced relation between you and food that you eat.
Consequently, it becomes possible to return people to the thoughtful consumption of food rather than something they are forced to do throughout their day. Ten steps to a better relationship with food include reviewing personal and cultural beliefs and practices, taking time to listen to the body’s signals, focusing on hunger, having proper lighting and music to eat a meal in, choosing positive emotions over negative ones, and taking better digestive rates and avoiding eating mindlessly. These should therefore be practiced in a way that they help to feed not only our physical aspect but also the mental as well as spiritual aspects of our being.
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