We do everything on a tight schedule in this fast-paced world. Be it spending time with your loved ones, consuming media or even eating, there’s always a lingering urgency. But on the downside, we miss out on many small details around us while living our fast-paced lives, and the repercussions of these actions can be more significant than we think.
Eating your meals faster can have significant effects on your body in the long run. And in the short term, you may not even enjoy your food to its full potential. This can lead to feeling unsatisfied with your meals and eventually mindless munching on snacks. So, what’s the solution? Mindful eating! Let’s understand this ancient practice in detail and find out how to practice it in your life in this blog!
What is mindful eating?
To understand mindful eating, it is essential to understand the concept of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being wholly present in the moment while acknowledging your own emotions, bodily reactions and sensations. Mindfulness can be integrated into any mundane thing in life, thus avoiding mindless consumption. Mindful eating is thus the practice of eating while engaging your senses so you know exactly what you are eating and how much you consume.
While mindful eating encourages you to prepare your meals with fresh and nutritious ingredients like whole grains, vegetables, seed oils and nuts, you can integrate the practice into any meal, even junk food. In fact, consuming junk food while being mindful about it can actually lead to less consumption!
Diet culture vs. mindful eating
With its roots in Zen Buddhism practices, mindful eating is very different from the modern diet culture that requires restricting yourself with the amount and type of food you consume. Mindful eating focuses more on building a better relationship with the food while honouring your body and its cues. You can, in fact, build a healthy relationship with food by being mindful of the texture, temperature, ingredients and source of the food you are eating, which makes mindful eating techniques effective.
Why is eating mindfully beneficial?
So, how does eating mindfully help our body? Here are some of the general benefits of eating mindfully:
1. Better digestion of food
Mindful eating includes chewing your food slower and appropriately so you feel its texture and flavours to the fullest. This mindful process of chewing can help break down the food to a necessary extent and thus lead to better digestion of your food. Your body then absorbs nutrients better while avoiding illnesses like gastrointestinal disorders, indigestion, and much more!
2. Body affirmative weight management
Negative body weight management techniques that centre guilt or fear can harm humans, destroying their relationship with food and their mental health. On the other hand, mindful eating can be a great and more positive tool for weight management as the focus is more on understanding your body and its needs. Eating mindfully can help you avoid overeating without making you feel ashamed, thus simultaneously keeping your physical and mental health optimal.
3. Food becomes more enjoyable
When you eat slowly and more consciously, food becomes more enjoyable. As all of your senses are engaged in the experience, the process of eating becomes more than just a mundane chore. This overall sensory experience can help you feel more satisfied and full after every meal.
4. Better relationship with food
Struggling with eating and food habits is a way more common phenomenon than we like to believe. Many of us out there feel ashamed or guilty after eating, which can lead to a highly complex relationship with food. However, with mindful eating practices, you feel less judged about eating while feeling grateful for the food on your plate.
5. Mind-body connection
Mindful eating can help you develop a better body-mind connection to understand your hunger and satiety cues better. This leads to eating when one is genuinely hungry and stopping when the hunger has been satisfied, avoiding under-eating and overeating altogether.
Ways to practice mindful eating
Now that you know how mindful eating works and its benefits, you must wonder, “how do I practice it myself?” Well, here are some simple techniques that can be integrated into your daily life and take you on a journey of enhanced flavours, food satisfaction and lower student insurance premium!
1. Eat without distractions
One of the easiest ways for mindful eating is to eat without distractions so you have the time, space and focus to connect with your food better. So, switch off the TV, cellphone, and any other electronic devices that may distract you while eating and enjoy your meal fully present in the moment.
2. Slow chewing habits
Chew slower and appropriately. Make sure you take time to slowly taste the flavours, take the aroma in and feel the texture as you chew into your food. This can turn your eating process into a whole new experience.
3. Engaging your senses
Another technique of mindful eating is to engage all your senses while eating. Many cultures around the world prefer eating food with their hands. Such techniques are a significant part of mindful eating and can help you understand your food better. Engaging all your senses in your regular eating process can also help you control your portion and eat appropriate amounts of food.
4. Put down the cutlery
If you eat with cutlery, slow the process down by keeping your cutlery down once in a while. Rest your forks and knives in your place after every 2-3 bites of food. Doing so will give you enough time to experience the food slowly and mindfully.
5. Breathing before eating
Breathing exercises are a great way to centre yourself and your energy. Integrating these practices into your daily eating routine can make wonders happen. Take a deep breath before you start out with a meal to centre yourself and get conscious about the fact that you are now going to have a meal. This will help you stay more present during the consumption.
6. Appreciating the source + gratitude
Appreciating the food on your plate and practising gratitude for it are critical parts of mindful eating. Eating mindfully encourages you to acknowledge the source of your food and honour its journey to your plate. Doing so automatically makes you grateful for the efforts and labour that have been put into growing ingredients,, like the vegetables and grains that make up your meal. This feeling of gratitude can take you a long way ahead and help you repair your relationship with food.
7. Portion control and intuitive eating
Learn to listen to your body. Be in tune with your energy. Understand when you are starving and eat your meals during that window. You can also integrate intuitive eating into your daily meal times and eat what your body tells you to eat that day. But make sure to listen to your body for satiety cues so you know when to stop. Repetition of this technique can help you figure out the perfect amount of food you need for every meal and make portion control more manageable and intuition-led.
8. Planning and prepping your meals
Plan and prep your meals ahead of time rather than waiting to cook until you’re absolutely starving. When you cook hungry, it is hard to do portion control or even eat slowly, causing you to overeat subconsciously. Integrate your meal plans with mindful grocery shopping trips so you buy precisely what you need, i.e. fresh, nutritious ingredients.
9. Explore guided mindful eating
Many well-being services and mindful eating resources are available online and in apps. Explore these tools for your mindful eating practices and help yourself eat the right thing in the right amount.
10. Be kind and patient with yourself
Mindful eating is an art that takes practice to adapt to. So, while starting out with the process, be patient with yourself if you don’t see instant results. Be kind to yourself for your food choices and your body's needs. Keep the non-judgemental attitude towards yourself that you would have for other people trying to learn something new.
In the chaos of a fast world, taking the time to honour your food and appreciating it by consuming it mindfully is an act of rebellion in itself. Mindful eating doesn’t just help you eat better and manage your weight it can also repair one’s relationship with food while leading you to be the healthiest version of yourself. So, take it easy, breathe and start appreciating the small things!