Mindful Eating

Mindful Eating

I have been thinking a lot about eating mindfully lately and paying attention to how I am eating. Eating slower often means more satisfaction with the food we are eating. We enjoy it more and it fills us up in many ways.

When we eat quickly we don’t really taste what we are eating and we don’t give our body enough time to send the chemical signals that it needs to send to tell us that we have had enough. When we eat quickly, many of us end up feeling over full.

Many of us eat more quickly when we are very hungry and when we are experiencing stress or other uncomfortable feelings. Feelings of scarcity can make us eat faster as well as can eating with others who are fast or intense eaters.

Sometimes it is hard to slow down on our own. A few simple things we can try to help build our mindful eating practice include:

·      Putting the fork or spoon down between bites or eating with our non-dominant hand;

·      Taking a moment before eating to notice the colors, shapes, textures, and smells of the food on the plate before our first bite;

·      Taking a deep breath or two before starting to eat to calm our nervous system down. It makes the whole meal more enjoyable and easier to digest.

This week I am making an effort to sit quietly at the table when I eat so that I can focus more fully on my eating. If you have experience with mindful eating or are interested in trying it out, let’s talk. I would love to share the practice with you.

Thank you to Laura Reoch at https://september-days.com/ for joining me in the kitchen and taking the wonderful photo.