Mindful eating encourages eating slowly, intuitively and without any distractions
Maintaining a present-moment consciousness of the beverages and foods you consume while eating is known as mindful eating. It entails paying attention to your feelings toward the meal and to the cues your body gives you regarding flavour, satisfaction, and fullness. To practise mindful eating, you must learn to examine your feelings, thoughts, and physiological sensations without judging them. Along with eating, it can also include the actions of purchasing, preparing, and serving food.
Many of us frequently hurry through meals due to our hectic daily schedules. We frequently eat while driving to work, sitting at a desk close to a computer, or lounging on the couch in front of the television. We consume food blindly, irrespective of if we are really still hungry. The truth is that we frequently eat for motives besides just hunger to soothe emotional demands, to reduce stress, or to deal with unpleasant emotions like melancholy, worry, loneliness, or boredom. The antithesis of this unhealthy form of eating is mindful eating.
There are no rigid guidelines for the number of calories you can consume or which items you must include or exclude from your diet. Instead, it involves focusing all of your senses and being in the moment while you shop for, prepare, serve, and consume your cuisine.
By paying attention to your food intake, you can improve your digestion, eat less and feel fuller for longer, and make more informed food decisions in the future. It can also assist you in breaking bad eating and eating-related habits.
Being conscious of your food can help you:
- By concentrating on how each food type affects you after consuming it, you may choose what to eat in a better way.
- Eat less food and feel satisfied more quickly.
- Increase your awareness of the origin, production, and path your food has taken to reach your plate.
- As you learn to take your time and thoroughly enjoy your meals and snacks, you will enjoy your food more.
- Eat a more nutritious, balanced diet.
- To reduce tension and anxiety, slow down and take a breather from your daily routine.
- Examine and alter your connection with food, for example by teaching you to recognise when you eat for reasons apart from hunger.
- Slow down when you're eating to aid in digestion.
Losing or maintaining weight in winter can be tough. The lack of movement and sweating are some of the reasons. In fact, studies show that we tend to overeat during winter due to our DNA wiring. Hence, it's essential to follow a diet that will help us avoid overeating in winter.
Use mindful eating to avoid winter weight gain, here's how:
1. Eat when needed
The majority of us believe that dieting can help people lose weight. Meals shouldn't be skipped. Most people have the tendency of skipping breakfast because they are pressed for time, but they are unaware that doing so causes acidity, stomach reflux, and the storage of additional fat in the cells that results in obesity.
2. Eat to curb hunger
Keeping your eating under control is crucial. Some individuals overeat (binge), some overeat when they are upset, and some have a tendency to overeat at night. Recognize your non-hunger eating triggers and attempt some strategies to avoid them.
3. Eat systematically
Observe the normal hours every day. Regular eating helps you maintain a healthy weight. Maintain a two-hour gap between meals to give your stomach adequate time to digest the food you just ate. In order to eat less, also helps to prevent the intense feeling of hunger.
4. Chew slowly
Chewing is the method of separating the food into smaller, more easily digested pieces from larger ones. Additionally, it facilitates your body's ability to absorb enough energy and nutrition from food. Eat a few nibbles and chew them until they dissolve.
Keep these points in mind to efficiently use mindful eating this winter and to avoid weight gain and overeating.
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.