Every season brings a different variety of foods to our dinner tables. Especially when we talk about India, the list is quite long. While we are enjoying our seasonal delicacies, our weight loss mission sometimes gets in jeopardy. Summer season is in full swing and delicious mangoes, ice creams, kulfi, faluda, chuski, chilled thick lassi, mishti doi, sugarcane juice thandai and a variety of sharbats are our only solace. It is totally unfair if we do not enjoy these yummy delights in summer as they are so refreshing and energizing in this scorching heat.
So, what should we do? Give up our favorite foods for the sake of our weight loss mission?
What if we told you there is a way out? And that is ‘mindful eating.’ Heard of this term before?
Let me explain. Mindfulness is a concept that emphasizes giving your full focus and attention to whatever you are doing or feeling at the moment. Whether it’s eating, walking, or just breathing, just be totally with it. It helps you to be more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, which can bring a sense of calm and clarity to your mind.
So, it is the practice of being fully present and aware of the moment without judgment. When applied to eating, mindfulness can significantly enhance our relationship with food and promote healthier eating habits. It means being totally present and focused during the eating process, making deliberate food choices, and being aware of your body’s hunger and fullness cues.
The foundation of mindful eating is building a thoughtful and well-balanced approach to your relationship with food. While it’s not necessarily a weight loss “diet” in the traditional sense, it can certainly support weight loss efforts by promoting healthier eating habits and a better approach to eating.
Let’s discuss some important aspects of mindful eating :
- Awareness of Hunger and Fullness: Mindful eating encourages you to listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. By paying attention to when you’re truly hungry and when you’re satisfied. This way you’re less likely to overeat or consume food out of habit or emotion. It promotes a balanced mindset.
- Slower Eating: Eating slowly allows your body to recognize when it’s full, reducing the likelihood of overeating. Mindful eating involves savoring each bite, chewing thoroughly, and taking breaks between mouthfuls to fully experience the taste and texture of the food. Eating slowly with proper chewing also helps in better digestion of the food.
- Practice gratitude: Pause for a moment to express gratitude for the food on your plate. Recognize the efforts of all the people and resources that helped in bringing this food to you. Appreciate the person who cooked for you. Cultivating gratitude can enhance the experience of your meal. When you eat with a calm mind with a sense of gratitude, food feels like ‘prasad’, and you tend to eat only what is required with joy in your heart.
- Reduced Emotional Eating: Mindful eating helps you become more aware of your emotions and how they influence your eating habits. Mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing and meditation, can help regulate emotions by calming the nervous system and reducing stress. As a result, instead of turning to food as a coping mechanism for stress, boredom, or sadness, you learn healthier ways to manage emotions.
- Increased Satisfaction: By truly savoring each bite and paying attention to the sensory experience of eating, you may find greater satisfaction in smaller portions of food. This can lead to consuming fewer calories overall without feeling deprived.
- Improved Food Choices: Mindful eating encourages you to be more conscious of your food choices and how they affect your body and well-being. You’re more likely to choose nutritious, whole foods that nourish your body rather than processed or unhealthy options just for the sake of taste.
- Reduced Mindless Snacking: Mindful eating helps break the habit of mindless snacking, where you eat without being fully aware of what or how much you’re consuming. Instead, you become more intentional about when and why you eat, reducing unnecessary calorie intake.
- Less Stress Around Food: By fostering a nonjudgmental and compassionate attitude toward food and eating, mindful eating can reduce anxiety and guilt associated with food choices. This can lead to a more balanced and sustainable approach to weight management.
How to go about it?
- Create a calm atmosphere for eating without distraction. This means no mobile or TV. When you sit down to eat, get up only when you finish eating.
- Bring your food and pay attention to the portion size.
- Pay Gratitude before you start eating.
- Engage Your Senses. Even before you take your first bite, take a moment to observe the food with all your senses. Notice the colors, textures, smells, and even sounds if applicable.
- Eat slowly, savoring each bite and chewing properly. Do not talk while eating.
- Be non-judgemental about the food. Do not label foods as ‘good’ or’ bad’.
- Observe yourself and pay attention to fullness indication.
- Reflect on your experience after you’ve finished eating. Notice how you feel.
Mindfulness gradually modifies your eating habits to healthier ones. You start realizing that food is nourishing your body. With this thought in mind, while eating, you can never cause harm to your body. Your choices will automatically align with your goals.
So, even if you are enjoying ice cream, mangoes, or your favorite summer drinks, you will not overdo it. A small portion will satisfy you and there will not be any greed for more. You will start picking your foods and drinks thoughtfully. You will start enjoying more natural tastes than artificially enhanced ones. Over some time, your eating habits improve, and you start eating balanced, healthy meals effortlessly.
Overall, mindful eating is a long-term, sustainable approach to food that is more effective for long-term weight management and health. So, whether it’s summer or winter, you don’t have to worry about weight. Mindful eating is a skill that takes practice, so be patient with yourself as you incorporate these techniques into your daily routine.