The Key To Weight Loss May Be All In Your Head

This isn’t really a new idea. Mindfulness can be the answer to your weight loss frustrations.

This means listening to your body and your natural hunger and fullness signals.

Paying attention to what and how you are eating, and staying present in the moment can go a long way to helping you reduce and ENJOY yourself.

A study published in the journal Appetite found that obese women who underwent a mindfulness based intervention reported a greater reduction in food addictions, binge eating and weight when compared to the control group.

Decisions

We make up to 200 food decisions each day. No wonder we feel overwhelmed sometimes by what we should be eating. Worst part, up to 80% of the eating we do has nothing to do with hunger. We eat for the sake of eating.

How to eat mindfully

Start slowly. Begin by eating at least one meal a day in a slower, more conscious way. Here are some steps to help you out:

Snack with purpose

Eating directly from the package is mindless. Place your snacks, even small ones, on a plate before you eat. This helps you acknowledge how much you are actually eating.

Drop distractions

Eat without multitasking. This means leaving your desk at the office to eat or turning off the television and sitting at the table.

Eating when distracted makes it difficult to track what you’ve already consumed. You know what that means? It means you usually end up eating more.

Focus on each mouthful

Slow down, chew thoroughly and taste your food. Think about the flavour. Listen to the sound it makes while you chew. This will allow you to enjoy your food on a deeper level. And slowing down in this way will allow your brain to have time to receive fullness signals.

Honour your food

Be grateful for your food. Appreciate each ingredient and the effort it took to prepare your meal. Look at your plate and give thanks.

Rate your hunger

Real hunger and perceived hunger are not the same thing. The latter is usually due to boredom, for example. If you’ve eaten within the last 2 hours, odds are good that you are not actually hungry. Think of how hungry you are on a scale of 1-10. 1 is eat a horse hungry, 5 is comfortable and 10 is belt buckling full. The trick is trying to stay in the middle. The extreme ends of the scale are not good. Aim for satiated.

How do you practice mindful eating? Share your tips with us!

 

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