Mindful Eating

Ever find yourself snacking on a bag of chips and suddenly end up at the bottom of the bag? But how did that happen exactly?

T.V. snacking is an easy way to load up on unwanted calories quickly. Practicing mindful eating is one way many people avoid the endless snacking and stay slim. Ever wonder why ‘Readers Digest’ has digest in it? What we see, read, hear, and eat all nourishes us. When we watch T.V. and eat at the same time, our powers of digestion are divided. We must now digest what we are seeing on the television and what our mouth is taking in. Not only do we overeat, but we also weaken our power of digestion.

Slow down. Relax. Focus.

Try this: Take something small, a grape, fig, dried cranberry, etc. Take a deep, long breath, envisioning it going into your kidneys as you pick your food up. Look at it. Smell it. Smile at it. Place it in your mouth and savor it. Feel the texture of it. Bite into it and notice the flavors, the juice, the wrinkles, the multiple levels of taste. Let it fully nourish you. Enjoy all of the flavor before you swallow.

• Start to savor the look, texture, taste, and smell of every bite. It works and has a huge impact on curbing binge eating.
• Another way to help is to think mini meal. One way of achieving this is to use 7” plates instead of 11” plates. Buy small.
• If you choose to snack, don’t hide the evidence. You are likely to eat less if you don’t hide what you’ve done.
• Hydrate! Your body’s signals for thirst may mimic those for hunger, especially if you aren’t used to listening to the thirst signals. If you feel hungry, try 2 large glasses of water. Give it 5 – 10 minutes. You may find yourself doing something and forgetting that you ever felt hungry in the first place.
• If you feel like you are starving, try to eat a little fat before you sit down for a meal. If you eat about 6 walnuts or a small handful of almonds 20 minutes before you eat, your body feels full. The good fats in a small portion of nuts produces CCK, cholecystokinin that communicates to the brain that you’ve had enough to eat. It also keeps you feeling full by slowing the emptying of your stomach. This way you eat for pleasure and not from a famished, "scarf all your food at once" place.