By Victoria Q

What is mindful eating?

Mindful eating means putting our full attention on the whole process of enjoying a meal. It means turning off the TV, ignoring any distractions, sitting down at dining table and putting 100% of our focus on the meal itself. The point is to be fully focused on sight (presentation), smell (aroma), sounds (of surroundings) and sense (movement of utensils) during the process of eating.

The Benefits:

1. Healthier Mindset Around Food

When people are under extreme calorie restriction, they have a bad relationship with foods by labelling all foods into “good” and “bad” foods. Good foods are the food low in calorie and carbs that can help them shed some pounds. So, they tried to avoid all kind of carbs and only eat vegetables and live on salad. That’s so untruth about carbs. Carbs are such amazing food that gives you the energy that you use in daily activities. People who practice mindful eating will pay attention to how the body reacts to the food they consumed thus they won’t leave out any food group.

2. Better Experience With Food

When all of our attention is focused on the sensations of eating, flavours become much more delicious and savoury. Taking moments to sit down and savour all the wonderful flavours and textures is a great bonus of mindful eating. Eat your meal slowly and reflecting on the creator’s hard work that went into making a delicious meal.

3. Reduce Overeating

We eat for so many reasons, and oftentimes they have nothing to do with hunger.  For instance, we may eat when feeling emotions such as boredom, sadness or stress. Also, we can even be triggered by the smell or advertisement of food. Mindful eating can prevent us from overeating by listening to our body cues and know when to stop eating when we’re already full.

4. Weight Loss

When we start to pay attention to our food, we will be more conscious of what we are actually eating. By eating slowly and less, we begin to cultivate a stronger metabolism which helps us to shed those unwanted pounds. When we get more in connection with our body, we can be able to differentiate between craving and hunger.

5. Be More Grateful

Taking time to be mindful can help you express gratitude for the food you are eating – where it came from, laboured to produce the food, the time it took to prepare and cook it and the flavours and textures it provides to satisfy your senses. When you practice mindful eating, you’ll feel grateful and realized how lucky you are to get to eat such a savoury and tasty meal. If you eat quickly while multitasking, your mind is too busy with your current activities that you don’t realize how fortunate you are.