Why Mindful Eating beats any diet
Intuitive or mindful eating is something I use a lot in my coaching to restore a healthy relationship around food and your body. Often we have a rather complicated relationship around food and body image.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Is your mind often preoccupied with thoughts about food? Do you often spend time thinking about what you should and should not eat, counting calories, making food schedules and preparing the food? Do you have an image of what your ideal body should look like and are you trying to achieve that by working out and eating in a certain way? Do you feel as if you cannot eat anything and if you do eat something unhealthy, do you feel guilty? Or, are you always on a diet and often find yourself getting huge munchies?
If you answered yes to one of the questions, mindful eating might be a wonderful and sustainable solution to a healthier mindset around this.
Mindfulness and a lot of self-love can help you to accept yourself who you are and to let go of this eternal battle. When I was younger I was always busy with losing weight and on some sort of diet. I constantly gained and lost weight and it felt like a never ending struggle.
Because I learned how to eat mindfully I have total peace around food now. I am on a stable weight, I am never on a diet and I eat whatever I feel like. This precious energy food used to take up in my head I can now use to enjoy myself.
These are five steps to mindful eating that can help you let go of this struggle.
Tune in to your body
We have only learned how to eat with our minds. Especially with all those trends that keep changing every all the time, we partake in the latest fashion of what is ‘good’ and what is not allowed. We make schedules that predetermine what we can eat, and most of all, what we should avoid. But the fact is, each body is unique. The food that agrees with your body might disagree with another. On top of that, our bodies are changing all the time!
Instead of eating with your head, start to listen to your body! Simply give your body what it needs! Your body knows better what it needs than any diet in the whole wide world. If you are going to eat, ask yourself what your body needs, what is it asking for? Are you a little hungry or rather famished? Craving something light or rather something warm and filling? Make it a habit to tune in to your body, listen to what it is telling you and then giving it exactly what it needs.
Be mindful while eating
When you eat, do so mindfully. With that I mean be really conscious when you are eating. Usually we tend to stuff our face on automatic pilot without actually experiencing or tasting anything. We usually eat when we are busy doing something else, talking or watching television.
When you think about it, we don’t enjoy something we all love and do every single day! About time we change this.
Start to look at your food for a moment before you eat it and take a moment to be grateful for it. Eat consciously, taste sincerely and chew slowly. Then, notice how you feel after eating. Does it give you energy or maybe a tummy ache or rather leave you feeling sluggish? Take notes on what kind of food your body appreciates and what is not received well.
When you eat mindfully it also prevents you from overeating because you will know on time when you had enough. You will stop exactly when you feel full, you will digest your food better and will be able to enjoy your food more! You might even find out that certain things you thought of as tasteful are actually not tasty at all! Now you will move from ‘want but shouldn’t’ or ‘I’ll have it but I feel guilty’, towards eating because it feels good or not eating something simply because it doesn’t feel good.
Why are you eating?
Are you a real emo eater and do you often find yourself binge eating? Mindfulness to the rescue! It is all about becoming aware and turning off the autopilot mode. Be aware in the moment when you crave a snack. why are you craving this exactly? Take a moment, check in with yourself! Are you trying to fill an emptiness inside? Are you feeling lonely? Having stress? Is there something going on which you don’t want to look into, and rather try to avoid by eating instead? Then you are using your food as a sedative! Make a list of things that you could do instead. Such as making a stroll or cuddling with your cat, meditating, calling a friend or putting your thoughts on paper. Give yourself food when you feel hungry, don’t try to use it to suppress things.
Eat from a place of love
Mindful eating is also about eating from a place of self- love, not self-loathing! There is nothing wrong with eating healthily unless you do so because you think you are not good enough as you are right now. If you eat healthy because you are on a particular diet and want to fit in a perfect picture, you will not keep up with it and it will definitely not make you happy. On top of that, it isn’t great for your mental wellbeing and in turn that has an effect on your body!
It is about letting go of this ‘ideal picture’ and accepting your body as it is. Only then will you be able to develop a healthy relationship with your body. Instead of punishing your body, try to give it love! Instead of denying yourself something, or run to the gym 7 days a week, give it what it needs! Give it enough food, not too much. Move, but give your body the rest it deserves it. Listen to what your body asks for and give it precisely that! Your body will automatically reach its ideal weight. If you are too heavy, you will lose weight and if you are forcing your body to be something it is not you will gain some. And that is ok! It is more important to love your body and to keep it healthy (https://ringandfitness.com/meds/modafinil-provigil/) and accept it, than spending your whole life trying to force your body to be something it isn’t. Your body needs a healthy nutrition and your body deserves the best! Give your body love and it will return the favour!
Let it go
Let go of all control! Even though it might be scary, this is the path towards freedom. Because heaving control is an illusion. The more control you try to gain, the less you will have! If you are always restricting yourself, not allowing yourself any food, you will automatically end up binge eating. If you want to gain more and more control, it could even result in an eating disorder where you completely lose all control!
We are often afraid that everything will go wrong when we do so. That we will end up eating three pizzas and an entire bucket of ice cream. When you practice mindful eating and listen to your body, this is exactly what would not happen. Your body doesn’t want to live on pizza and ice cream, it wants nutrients and vitamins. You will see that when you let go of the control you will get back into the flow. That you will not constantly spend time jojo-ing and that you will reach your natural weight. The battle in your mind is gone and you will develop more self-love because you are kind to yourself and your body.
Start mindful eating at least once a day and experience for yourself what it can do for you.
For more valuable mindfulness tools that you can implement in your daily life sign up for the free mini mindfulness course in English or in Dutch here