Mindful Eating!

Have you ever eaten something and being unable to remember eating it? A packet of crisps maybe? A bowl of popcorn whilst watching a movie? If so, this may be the article for you.

Paying attention to the way you eat, will enable you to notice patterns that will empower you to take control.

Mindful eating allows you to pay attention while you’re eating and take notice of your thoughts and feelings, at the same time experiencing all your five senses. It is the total opposite of eating without realising.

By paying more attention to what goes into your mouth moment by moment, we begin to make conscious choices about what we are eating and make smarter decisions about the choices we make to improve health and fitness goals. Mindful eating isn’t about being ‘good’ all the time; rather it inspires you into a place where you can make conscious decisions about what you eat.

Mindful eating encourages you to:

• Notice what you are doing, thinking and feeling while eating
• Make conscious choices without eating on autopilot, ensuring that you are aware of what is going on in your mind, empowering wise and healthy decisions
• Be without judgement. Accept where you are right in this moment with your health, fitness and body. Get rid of the guilt associated with certain food types – if you have a packet of crisps or the odd bar of chocolate refrain from berating yourself, move on!

Benefits of mindful eating:

Mindful eating can create happiness around eating. Knowing that your own experience of acceptance and self compassion comes from within, empowers self control. Being able to nurture your internal experience, without having to abuse your body or jeopardise your relationship with food, generates a sense of worth.

Other benefits include:

• being able to identify if you’re actually hungry or not…..emotional eating uses food to supress rather than deal with how you are feeling
• knowing that you are in control of your choices rather than being controlled
• altering your relationship with food as you begin to make wiser choices about what you eat
• eliminating the need for restrictive or quick fix diets
• providing liberation from fear of food
• allowing you to recognise food as fuel ( personally I think about the benefit to my cellular health which does impact my choices i.e. will my cells function optimally if i eat X,Y or Z)
• a reduction in binge eating as you simply cannot if you are eating mindfully

Signs that you are not eating mindfully:

• you have a lack of awareness about your eating behaviour
• not remembering what or when you last ate
• finishing eating something without noticing
• being fearful of food
• eating when you are not hungry

Anyone can learn to eat mindfully. Putting yourself in the present enables you to switch off eating on autopilot. As a beginner, just paying attention to the taste of your food is a great starting point, how many different flavours and textures can you notice in your mouth?

Why not give it a go?

Much love, Bree xxx