How to switch to mindful eating: 6 simple but powerful tips

What is mindful eating

Conscious eating is about gainingYou Asked: Should I Try 'Mindful Eating?' control over your eating habits. If you listen to your body and really feel hungry, you won't have to eat on schedule, for company, or to relieve stress.

When you eatJoseph B. Nelson. Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat / Diabetes Spectr consciously, you better feel the texture and taste of the food. It may take longer to eat, but the enjoyment of each delicious bite will increase. And very soon, you will begin to notice how food affects your mood and sense of self.

Globally, mindful eating is green eating. When you buy only those foods that you definitely want and can eat, and not those that are offered at a discount or can fill the void in the refrigerator. Thanks to this approach, spoiled food and packaging from it will not fall into landfills.

How to come to mindful eating

You can hardly say to yourself: "That's it, since Monday I am switching to conscious eating!" - and change your life at the snap of your fingers. But if you go to this gradually, step by step, then it is quite possible to revise your eating habits.

1. Listen to yourself

All our feelings and emotions - fear, anxiety, even falling in love or happiness - are expressedLauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari K. Hietanen. Bodily maps of emotions / PNAS through bodily sensations. But usually we do not pay attention to them, as we are immersed in deeds and thoughts.

To understand your true feelings, try sitting in a quiet place, closing your eyes and concentrating on your body. After a few minutes, you will be able to tell for sure if you are feeling hungry and, if so, how strong it is.

It is not uncommon for people to confuse hunger with other sensations, such as thirst or fear. Listening to yourself more often will make it a habit - and you will be able to more quickly and accurately determine how you are feeling.

2. Take a break before eating.

Often we pick food out of habit, or copy the preferences of people who eat near us - or even those we follow.Social media users' copy 'friends' eating habits in social networks. This is an unconscious behavior that eliminates the need to make choices.

If you want to switch to mindful eating, try a few minutes before each meal. look at the available foods or meals to understand what exactly you want to eat or drink here and now. Also think about how much food you need.

But do not divide products into "bad" and "good" and do not condemnMindful eating: does it work even when you eat junk food? your choice, even if it is chips with soda or something else that is not very healthy and healthy. Over time, there will be less and less junk food on your menu.

3. Don't buy too many products in stock

Special offer cheese, inexpensive sausages or tempting-looking bananas at the entrance to the supermarket - something that many are happy to buy, but do not eat completely.

Every year in the world thrown away about 931 million tons of products. 61% of them end up in landfills from our trash bins, 26% from restaurants and cafes, 13% from supermarkets and markets. Experts from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) countedthat the emitted products provide 8-10% of the total amount of greenhouse gases. Thus, every extra cheese, sausage or banana is a direct threat to both the environment and your budget.

4. Try eating more slowly

Try to feel the temperature, texture, taste of every bite that goes into your mouth. Concentrate on your feelings: which food is more enjoyable, which product is more enjoyable.

Researches showEric Robinson, Paul Aveyard, Amanda Daley, Kate Jolly, Amanda Lewis, Deborah Lycett, Suzanne Higgs. Eating attentively: a systematic review and meta ‑ analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating / The American Journal of Clinical Nutritionthat people who eat slowly and consciously consume fewer foods, especially during late meals. This means that nothing superfluous will enter the body.

5. Eat your fill, but don't overeat

Listen to yourself periodically while you eat. Stop when you realize that you are no longer hungry.

Even if there is something left in the plate, it is not necessary to finish it. Perhaps as a child, your parents told you that you can only get up from the table when the dishes are completely clean. But in fact, there is nothing terrible or shameful in not finishing up.

6. Don't force-eat

It's half past three, lunch time - but I don't feel like it at all. Or vice versa, you woke up at five in the morning, and your body is still asleep, so the mere sight of fresh food causes mild nausea.

It also happens in a different way: you ate a plate of borscht, and you also planned cutlets. They are delicious, fresh, but you don't want them now. Another example: you just had a snack, but now your colleague is calling you to the cafeteria. You do not mind going to socialize, but you refuse, because you will have to eat there again. Finally, you might be really hungry and there might even be food in the fridge. But not at all what you want.

Should you force yourself to eat in these situations? Mindful eating adepts would say no. Better to wait until you get really hungry. And if you don't like the cooked food, go to a cafe or order delivery. Delicious and desirable dishes will satisfy and bring joy, in contrast to the annoying pasta of the day before yesterday.

PJSC "MTS-Bank". License of the Bank of Russia - No. 2268 dated December 17, 2014.