Obviously, the food you take into your body has something to do with your health and well-being, and it’s not at all easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle, let alone a healthy diet. Listening to what your body is telling you to do is something some people can forget, and this can lead to, if not severe, health issues. Being phys cally active and having proper nutrition absorption are just the basics.
Being mindful of how and what you eat can help you create a more healthy lifestyle. Mindful eating can be something you can hold onto to provide yourself with a way of food and nutrition intake. Implementing mindfulness while eating and choosing what to eat is a highly valuable performance of the psychological capacity for acquiring awareness, improved cognitive function, and mental health.
Awareness of Hunger and Fullness
Studies taught us that it takes time for our digestive system to process how much food we eat to let our brain know if we’re full. This is why the habit of eating too fast can be dangerous. If you eat too quickly, the brain has no time to register your food intake. Therefore, it is late to let you know that you’re already full. The tendency is you keep on eating and end up overeating.
With mindfulness, you learn how much food you need to intake, and doing this at proper speed is a way of practicing mindful eating. This is always better versus stress eating or eating whatever’s on your plate just because it’s already in front of you. Once your brain lets you know you’re comfortably full, you feel the enjoyment of the food you eat and appreciate its benefits.
Managing Comorbidities
Eating mindfully helps with many medical conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. As said in the previous item, mindful eating allows you to eat slowly and get the feeling of hunger and fullness. Therefore, mindful eating stops you from eating once you’re full. This then also tells us that mindful eating can assist you in losing weight.
You’re aware of what you eat and what nutrients you absorb with mindful eating. You reduce your chances of overeating, then regulate your body weight, as well as your sugar, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. You wouldn’t even have to count every calorie you’re taking in. Additionally, it also increases the function of your digestive system.
Of course, while you’re mindfully eating, it doesn’t mean that your comorbidities are gone just like that. This practice only helps you in maintaining them. Still, consult your attending physician and get an endoscopy or other lab tests to help you figure out what nutrition you need to absorb.
Caring for Your Mental Health
The opposite of mindful eating is mindless or distracted eating. Examples include eating while driving, working, and watching television. Distracted eating can mean not being aware and present while you eat. This is associated with anxiety, leading to stress or emotional eating. Therefore, it can also lead to overeating and weight gain.
When you’re entirely aware of your food intake, you decrease your chances of eating unhealthy food or processed snacks, such as high-sodium and sugary goods. Eating these kinds of food can only make you happy and energetic for a minute and leave you hanging in the long run. Later on, you would feel hungry, stressed, sleepy, and unable to focus, as well as impair your mood by the end of the day.
How to Practice Mindful Eating
You don’t have to do it hardcore right away to start practicing mindful eating. You can begin by looking at your pantry and reflecting if the food in your store is healthy. Take away the most unhealthy food you keep and create a food shopping list containing fresh and more nutritious food.
Ask yourself what your body needs the most and start including it on your grocery list. Another important tip is never to shop while you’re hungry. Hunger can manipulate you into buying food you don’t need, which can throw you out of your process.
Creating a meal plan can help you take time on what food you need and want to eat. This can prevent you from the stress of thinking about what to eat during the day. Not only can this make you more aware, but it saves you money as well, prompting you to spend it only on things you really need.
Don’t stop researching and reading about health and nutrition because this helps you learn more and more every day about your healthy food intake. This can also assist you in learning more about your body and figuring out what else you need to improve on.
Soon enough, you will be able to stop your bad eating habits and have a way better food taste and choice.
