Mindful eating is not about restricting your food or scheduling your meals, but instead helps you to focus on your food itself. Every time you eat while mindfully eating, you are going to enjoy the experience without distractions, so that your meal and how it makes you feel becomes top priority. Here are four super easy steps to start mindful eating.
1. Start With Just One Meal a Day
It is best to start slow with mindful eating, with just one meal a day. Choose one meal during the day where you will turn off the TV and your phone, sit quietly, and really enjoy your meal.
During your meal on the first day, take your time and notice all of the smells, flavors, textures and everything else about your food. Take one bite at a time and really chew it before swallowing; don’t make yourself feel like you must eat fast or certain foods because this is not about restriction.
Think about the different meals you eat each day and when it might be a little easier to mindfully eat just one meal a day. For some people, they are always alone when eating breakfast, so that would be optimal.
For others, you might eat your lunch in your office with the door closed, so that is something you could take advantage of. You can also start slower with just an afternoon snack or when you have your dessert in the evening.
2. Turn Off All Distractions
The key component to mindful eating is not eating while distracted. This means not eating at your desk and working, or watching Netflix on your laptop for dinner. Even if you need to eat at your desk, you don’t have to keep working during lunch or watch something on your computer. Shut everything off, clear a space for your meal, and enjoy it.
Mindful eating is about really focusing on your meal, the textures and tastes, and what your body is experiencing. You can learn a lot about your own eating habits and preferences, but not if your mind is elsewhere during your meal.
3. Enjoy the Experience
Truly enjoy this experience of eating, appreciating every color, flavor, and texture of your meal. Make it a part of your self-care routine, where you are just enjoying a delicious, healthy meal.
There are many benefits to mindful eating, including naturally eating less, understanding your own hunger and fullness cues, and not snacking mindlessly without even really thinking about what you’re doing.
Lastly, remember that this takes time to get used to, so don’t worry if your mind wanders a bit the first few times. Just keep practicing and staying in that mindful state as much as you can.
4. Slowly Extend Mindful Eating
After you’ve had success with one meal, start adding an additional meal a day to your mindful eating practice. Maybe try breakfast and dinner for two days in a row, or maybe even just adding another snack to your day.
It doesn’t have to be every single day at first, gradually adding it into your routine is more manageable and sustainable in the long run. You’ll eventually get to a point where you’re mindful eating all your meals, and that’s when you know you’ve mastered this technique.
Mindful eating can seem like a daunting task to take on, but it is actually pretty simple and straightforward. Find the times when you can start this practice of sitting down and enjoying your meal without all of the noise of work, TV, and phone alerts. Once you succeed with one meal a day, then add another, until eventually mindful eating becomes a habit in all of your meals.
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