Lose weight with these easy, high-impact mindful eating tips
Lose weight for good by integrating these easy, actionable mindful eating tools into your routine today.
Mindful eating isn’t about dieting, measuring your caloric intake, restricting foods, or worrying about what number is on the scale.
What mindful eating is really about is:
Developing a peaceful relationship with food
Listening to what your body needs and craves
Practicing balance
Understanding what serves your health and what doesn’t
Committing to the right choices for your body and mind.
Mindful eating can help you achieve most, if not all, health goals, but is especially important for long-term weight loss and management.
Unfortunately, most people find mindful eating extremely difficult - especially when juggling a busy lifestyle that prioritizes other things and can lead to stress.
This makes matters worse, as eating in stressful environments can inhibit digestion and absorption of food, both of which are equally important in achieving (and maintaining) an ideal weight range. If you’re not absorbing enough nutrients, you’ll stay hungry and crave more.
All the more reason to take initiative now and begin to consciously practice mindful eating.
One way to become a mindful eater is to recognize this simple fact: mindful eating is a skill.
You need to take an interest in developing this skill and remain consistent over a long period of time - ideally the rest of your life.
In this article I’ll going to help you do just that - become a more mindful eater so that your weight loss goals are met and maintained.
All it takes is a focus on the following habits:
Chew well. Not only does chewing thoroughly force you to slow down when eating, but it also improves your digestion. Digestion begins in your mouth as the enzymes that breakdown your food are released through your salivary glands. This allows your body to absorb and assimilate more nutrients and improve digestion (aka stay full, reduce bloat, and eliminate regularly). Chewing more is as simple as counting to 30 with each bite, or if you prefer a more laid back approach - just put down your fork and let yourself enjoy the meal.
Pay close attention when you’re feeling down or tired. As a health coach, I’ve seen first hand the correlation between stress, fatigue, and sadness with poor dietary choices. When we’re stressed, tired or feeling down, we have less energy and motivation, which in turn makes it hard to find focus. You can’t avoid feeling like this from time-to-time, but you can commit to habits that will make it a rare occurrence. Much of the time, all we need is to step back and ask: Is what, where, and how I’m eating going to make me feel better or worse? Will it move me closer to my goal of losing weight or farther?
Shop for, prepare and cook your own meals. Making healthy choices to help you lose weight begins long before you even bite into your meal. Whenever you shop for yourself, you have the opportunity to be mindful about your food consumption. It’s much harder to think about things like vegetable intake when you’re eating out all the time, so aim for less take out and more planning/organization around your meals. This is the path to satiating your appetite while losing weight consistently.
Turn off distractions. Phones, computers, TV, etc. hijack your focus and take all of your attention away from your plate. When you aren’t present, you don’t really notice when you are full, let alone remember how much you ate afterward. Distractions like this are the surest path to eating more than you actually intend to, and can make it impossible (and confusing!) to lose weight.
Always keep your goal top of mind. Connecting to your purpose - why you want to lose weight - and your goal of losing weight frequently is a great mindfulness practice. There are so many ways to revisit goals throughout the day and week. You might consider writing down your goals each morning, utilizing a health coach, having an accountability partner, or anything else that appeals to you.
Sit Down. Ever stand at the fridge or countertop and snack on something for 10 minutes while looking for something to eat? Almost all of us do it, and it always leads to mindless snacking. We pay zero attention to how much we’re eating or how full we’re getting, which is a recipe for disaster when it comes to weight loss. Whether it’s meal or a snack, make a point of sitting down to eat at your kitchen table. It’s much easier to enjoy food this way and quite honestly, avoid over eating.
In addition to these things, it’s important to be aware of what triggers you to mindlessly eat or skip meals (something that often leads to weight gain, not loss). We all have them. Maybe it’s a stash of candy in your desk, eating while you work, or too much anxiety.
Whatever your thing is, make a plan to work on it. Because when unwanted eating behaviors are addressed, your chance of long-term weight loss increases substantially.
If you liked this article, be sure to sign up for my newsletter to receive this type of content and other health and wellness tidbits delivered to your inbox every week!
And if you need extra help in reaching your weight loss goals, click here to schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation to jump start your efforts.
