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Monday, February 17, 2014

Mindful Eating. . . INTRO

Mindful Eating. . .
The concept has roots in Buddhist teachings. Just as there are forms of meditation that involve sitting, breathing, standing and 
walking, many Buddhist teachers encourage their students to meditate with food, expanding consciousness by paying close attention to the sensation and purpose of each morsel. 
Mindful eating is not a diet, or about giving up anything at all. It’s about experiencing food more intensely especially the pleasure of it. You can eat a cheeseburger mindfully, if you wish. You might enjoy it a lot more. Or you might decide, halfway through, that your body has had enough. Or that it really needs some salad.
“The question is not what are the foods to eat, in my mind.”
“Most people have a general sense of what the healthy foods are, but they’re not eating them.
What’s on your mind when you’re eating: that’s mindful eating to me.”
Also a key principle of mindful eating is simply to eat, as opposed to eating and talking, eating and watching TV, or eating and watching TV and gossiping on the phone while Tweeting and updating one’s Facebook status.
“People are used to eating so fast. This is a practice of stopping, and we don’t realize how much we’re not stopping.”
For many people, eating fast means eating more. Mindful eating is meant to nudge us beyond what we’re craving so that we wake up to why we’re craving it and what factors might be stoking the habit of belly-stuffing.
“As we practice this regularly, we become aware that we don’t need to eat as much.”
Now about our craving being like a crying baby who is trying to draw our attention”. “When the baby cries, the mother cradles the baby to try to calm the baby right away. By acknowledging and embracing our cravings through a few breaths, we can stop our autopilot of reaching out to the pint of ice cream or the bag of chips.”
“How about the first five minutes we eat, we just eat in silence and really enjoy our food?” “It happens step by step.”
The art of mindful eating and the benefits?
Reduced over eating. Less of feeling bloated and over stuffed.
Increased enjoyment of food & Improved digestion.
Being satisfied with less. Just feeling satisfied after one or two squares of chocolate instead of the temptation to scoff the whole bar.
So are you ready to change the way you interact with food?
Then start . ...
Choose one meal or snack each day and commit to focusing on mindful eating at that time.
Set aside time for eating without other entertainment.
Only eat at the table also develop the habit of only eating when you are sitting down and able to give the food your full attention.
Taking the time to notice the beauty of the food we are about to eat.
Think about the flavor, texture and even the sound of the food in your mouth. Focus on how much you like, or dislike these sensations.
Also make sure you chew your food enough so easy to swallow.
Joys of eating is sharing a meal with loved ones. Then focus the conversation onto the meal while you are actually eating. Share what you are experiencing in terms of flavors and textures, likes and dislikes.
Eating smaller amounts will make one satisfied without having to over eat.

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