Eating Mindfully refers to eating in a calm, slow, deliberate way. What exactly is eating mindfully? Believe it or not, you have practiced eating mindfully plenty of times in the past. For example, have you ever been looking forward to a big slice of chocolate cake only to find out that there was only a small sliver left? You probably didn’t devour it in one quick bite. More likely, you ate it in small pieces and tried to enjoy every crumb. That’s eating mindfully.
The bottom line is that when you are eating mindfully, you will find yourself eating less and enjoying it more. Here are some things you can do to practice more mindful eating:
Make sure that you have no distractions during your meals other than perhaps good conversation with friends and family.
When it’s time to eat, turn off the TV, put down the book, and step away from the computer.
Make a conscious effort to chew every bite more thoroughly. For example instead of chewing a bite 10 times, try chewing it 35 times. Thoroughly chewing your food increases your body’s ability to digest effectively and it also allows you to feel satiated sooner. When you eat too fast, the feeling of being full doesn’t kick in until after you’ve eaten way more than you probably should have. When you slow down the meal, you will feel fuller sooner.
And to maximize your mealtime enjoyment, make your environment as peaceful and attractive as possible. Clear the table of clutter, use tableware that looks and feels good. Make sure your food is presented in an attractive and pleasing way.
Perhaps for the rest of the week, you could try to eat at least one meal a day mindfully from start to finish. It can be breakfast, lunch or dinner, whichever one works best for you but it has to be at least one time per day. With your other meals make sure you chew the first three bites in a slow mindful fashion. If you can do more, that’s great but at least get the first three bites.
I think you will like the results.
