The concept of awareness, or mindfulness, has become firmly established in our lives in absolutely different areas. And even those who completely denied a thoughtful approach to their lives and to their worldview in general, gradually began to think about these issues. We often say to many things: “It’s just fashionable! I don’t want to be like everyone else!” In the case of awareness, fashion is a very attractive and reasonable option.
The transition to a new type of thinking, or the practice of awareness, is not always easy: the brain “clings” to familiar and convenient patterns of behavior. At the beginning of the journey, you may often experience an imaginary feeling of hunger and catch yourself eating too much. If you understand the importance of conscious eating, at least initially for yourself, for your health, then it will be much easier to change. Conscious eating and diet will help not only make the body healthy, but even lose weight, if necessary.
Mindful eating checklist:
1. I constantly listen to myself and know what my body wants
2. I know how to be here and now: when I eat, I enjoy the food and am not distracted by other things
3. I eat a variety of foods, experiment, try new foods and dishes, analyze: did you like it or not and why, how the nuances of taste are revealed
That is, in principle, mindful eating is a regular answer to several questions that should accompany each meal: what, when, how much, how and why.
Having felt the positive changes in the body from conscious healthy eating, you will no longer want to go back to your old lifestyle. Moreover, this will be a practice of mindfulness in both consumption and preserving the environment. As a result, both you and the world will become better.
The main thing is not to rush to switch to a healthy diet, do not give up old habits once and for all (although some may do so). Our weaknesses are stronger than good intentions, we break down. As a result, realizing that we ate something harmful, not included in the conscious eating plan, we begin to blame ourselves, a feeling of dissatisfaction with ourselves awakens, and a good undertaking ends in nothing.
Of course, this approach primarily applies to the diet: after all, conscious eating is an opportunity to build a balanced relationship with food, slow down the aging process, feel great, lose weight if necessary and maintain an optimal weight.
Changes in nutrition should bring joy and pleasure. Try a new approach gradually, and if you suddenly break the regime, eat something wrong, do not reproach yourself and calmly return to the true path.
Step 1: Learn to listen to and understand your body
It’s all in your head, as psychologists like to say. We are full of stereotypes: eating helps relieve stress, you need to eat strictly three times a day, New Year’s without Olivier salad and herring under a fur coat is not a holiday, if you go to the movies – take a bucket of popcorn, you must eat everything on the plate, and so on. Therefore, we often eat not because we are really hungry, but because it is customary in a particular situation. This approach certainly cannot be called healthy.
Change your diet and listen to your feelings. There is one rule in conscious eating. An elementary action helps to understand whether you are hungry or not: drink a glass of water. Very often we just want to drink, not eat. Over time, you will learn to distinguish physiological signals and the body’s needs, and this is the main step towards conscious eating.
And yes, if you have an unbearable desire for a cake and you ate it, do not reproach or torture yourself. The practice of mindfulness allows for such points in nutrition: a healthy body will still want sweets, and this is normal. But if you “want them unbearably” every day, or even several times a day, most likely, it is not a matter of need. Think about why, it is probably a whim, a replacement for emotional hunger or a desire to “eat away” negative feelings. Perhaps there is a lack of some important microelements – then you need to see a doctor.
People who are in harmony with their body and practice mindful eating, quickly and easily refuse unhealthy food. They begin to analyze each meal, feel its true taste, and it is filled with chemical components, and realize that it is not as attractive as it seemed before. It is your own understanding that leads to the rejection of unhealthy food and to the beginning of a diet, and not the words of doctors about the harmfulness of fast food. Again, if you remember the principles of the brain, it always gives an indulgence in the form of the statement: “This will not happen to me.” And we come to our senses, trying to come to conscious eating only when health problems begin.
Intuitive conscious eating improves the quality of life, takes it to another level, prevents eating disorders.
Step 2: Enjoy the food and the moment
The rhythms of our lives have accelerated so much that eating on the run or while browsing social networks on a smartphone has become commonplace. Stop! Work will wait for you 15 minutes, and a new post from a celebrity blogger on Instagram will not disappear while you are having breakfast or dinner. Concentrating on eating is an important rule of mindful eating. This will allow you to feel the true taste of the dish, the nuances, the play of accents. Inhale the aroma, taste the texture, compare with other versions of this dish that you have eaten before. Sensations, feelings, emotions allow you to slow down and enjoy, and not just vitamins and calories needed for energy. This will help you understand which dishes should be excluded from your diet, and which ones should be added. You will feel that you have become much more conscious about eating.
By the way, the feeling of satiety will come to you faster: if you are not busy with parallel things, do not swallow food “automatically”, then you will not miss the moment when you should stop.
The tea ceremony in Eastern countries is a meditative process. Its participants leisurely study and discuss the appearance of tea leaves and their aroma. Then they drink for a long time and calmly, noticing the changes from brewing to brewing. Eastern sages are sure that the tea ceremony is good for the soul and that its participants “touch souls.”
Step 3: Eat the foods you like
Now you are happy that you can eat fried potatoes without restrictions. No, you are not. Mindful eating implies a balanced diet. However, if you do not like, for example, Brussels sprouts or cilantro, choose the types of cabbage or greens that you like. The main thing is that the food is suitable for healthy eating. Combine benefit and pleasure.
Favorite foods can change, try to diversify each meal. For example, olives in childhood caused a feeling of disgust in many, but in adulthood, having come to mindful eating, people suddenly discover that they have tasted them. You may not like boiled broccoli, but you will appreciate it in the form of baked mashed potatoes . Or try to include spinach in your diet. In a dish prepared in Asian style , its taste is revealed from a completely unexpected side.
Step 4: Treat cooking as an art form
People who practice mindful eating have an original approach to their diet. Use different and unusual combinations of products, experiment with spices and cooking methods. Try to diversify your diet with new recipes. Track your feelings and sensations when you try a new dish. To make cooking less of a chore and less time-consuming, use frozen vegetables. They are already washed and beautifully cut – you just need to heat them up or add them to the dish as an ingredient. They retain almost all the vitamins, which is important out of season.
Vegetables in stores were grown too far away, often treated with chemicals to preserve their appearance, and took a long time to get to us from other countries. They are unlikely to be suitable for healthy eating. You shouldn’t expect that they contain anything healthy other than their appearance.
Serve food beautifully on a plate, use beautiful dishes, tablecloths, and napkins. All this seems like trifles, but the art of living in beauty and harmony is also about the external. A conscious approach to nutrition includes aesthetically served dishes, because this causes additional positive emotions.
Step 5: Stop starving yourself
Stop believing diets that promise to help you lose weight in a couple of weeks. Following advice like “only drink water” and eat “one apple a day,” you will blame yourself for any extra food intake, in your opinion. This is definitely not about mindful eating, because such a diet will not bring any benefit to the body. Not only will you not lose weight, but you will also seriously damage your health.
Any nutritionist will agree that in order to lose weight, you need to divide your diet into several small meals. The food should be healthy, and in order not to suffer from hunger when you are out and about, carry small snacks with you in the form of fruits, nuts or salad.
Nutritionist Leanne Ward claims that a good metabolism is necessary for losing weight, and long fasts, on the contrary, slow it down. She claims that in order to lose weight, you need to eat protein at every meal, avoid a calorie deficit, exercise and sleep at least 8 hours. Don’t give up your favorite foods, the main thing is to watch your portion sizes.
Step 6: Serve one serving
At a lavish celebration, it is very difficult to restrain yourself and follow a conscious approach to nutrition. A large number of dishes can disrupt the diet, and you risk eating too much. Here it will be useful to follow the rule: serve no more than one portion of each treat. Cultivate your willpower and try to refrain from adding more. In addition, mixing a large amount of completely different food gives the stomach hard work, which is harmful to health. You can try a little of each dish and put portions of only those that you like.
Step 7: Detoxify your body
Conscious eating will not bear fruit if your body is under the control of toxins. They have a strong influence on hormones, so listening to your body becomes useless.
Many studies have found that one of the main toxins is sugar. You probably know that if you often eat sweets, they cause strong addiction. The same can be said about fast food such as soda, chips, hamburgers, etc.
Also, products with a high content of poor quality milk protein can “fog” the true needs of your body, causing addiction. It is found in the milk of cows that were fed food to which hormones and antibiotics were added.