Mindful Eating: Developing a healthier relationship with your food by consciously paying attention to when you eat, what you eat, how much you eat, and when you have had enough.

Episode 17: Mindful eating: developing a healthier relationship with your food by consciously paying attention to when you eat, what you eat, how much you eat, and when you have had enough.

In this episode we discuss mindful eating and how we can use this technique to develop a healthier relationship with our food and drink and reduce the incidence of excess caloric intake. In our previous episode we discussed mindfulness and its utility in reducing stress, depression, anger, anxiety, and self-doubt. Mindfulness teaches us to show kindness to ourselves and be present and in the moment. Mindfulness has its roots in meditation and yoga.

Why is there a need for mindful eating? There is a plethora of unhealthy food choices in particular choices that are high in sugar, fat, and calories. Misleading marketing and labeling about foods being low in fat or reduced calories does not tell the complete story and plays upon our general lack of understanding about healthy eating and maintaining a healthy weight. We eat the foods that taste the best and are often led to believe that they may be a healthy choice while the whole time lacking understanding of our true energy needs, which foods are actually good choices, and the amount of food we should be enjoying. This inattentive or mindless eating contributes to caloric excess and obesity.

The byproducts of mindless eating are weight gain and weight regain that are in part due to binge eating, stress eating, eating in response to environmental cues such as television commercials about food, and eating in response to food cravings. The tenets of mindful eating work to prevent or lessen all of the above and reduce the likelihood of weight gain. Tenets include eating only when hungry, paying attention to the quantity and quality of food consumed, eating slowly and chewing thoroughly, and stopping eating when satisfied.

Mindful eating helps you gain control over eating habits, reduce binge eating, and promote weight loss. It implores you to discern if you are hungry before eating, pay attention to what you eat, how much you each, and how much you are satisfied. The true intent of mindful eating is not to reduce weight although it is often the case, especially if you’re overweight or obese. The net effect of eating mindfully is a reduction in the calories you consume on a daily basis.

Eating mindfully requires us to experience our food more intensely and being present and unencumbered when we eat. It requires us to take small bites, chew our food thoroughly, eat slowly, and stop eating when satisfied. Without behavior change like mindful eating healthy eating is useless and cannot be sustained. 

The professionally beautiful give us insight to the commitment we need to make in our own health. We’ll identify a celebrity who fits the bill.

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