Mindfulness is all about being aware of the present moment.
This can help you to focus on things such as regulating your emotions, decreasing stress, and improving your relationship with food.
Mindful eating focuses on maintaining an in-the-moment awareness about the food and beverages that you are putting into your body, and taking the time to understand how each food makes you feel.
Let’s discover what top leaders are saying about how mindfulness can improve your relationship with food and how you can implement these ideas and practices in your own daily life.
Take Your Time When Enjoying Food
William Schumacher, Founder and CEO Uprising Food
For many people, eating food can be a rushed experience.
Whether you’re having a quick lunch during your break at work, or are grabbing dinner with friends, sometimes we eat just because we feel like we have to check it off our list.
Practicing mindfulness can help you to slow down and focus on the food in front of you, and put your mind in a space where you are eating for eating’s sake.
By slowing down and becoming more aware of the tastes, smells, and the food you’re eating, this will transform your mind and body to a better, and more motivated space.
Choose Your Food Wisely
Hector Gutierrez, CEO JOI
Mindful eating is all about encouraging the awareness of your food choices, as well as understanding the driving forces behind those choices.
Taking the time to understand your motivation behind eating certain foods can help you to avoid overeating, and can help you to make healthier food choices in the future.
Choosing your food wisely will ultimately help you to become aware of your body’s needs.
Better Digestion and A Better Diet
Danielle Calabrese, COO De La Calle
Taking the time to pay attention to your moment-to-moment experience of eating can help you to make healthier choices about the foods you eat by focusing on how each food makes your body feel.
You can do this by taking a few breaths, and employing all of your senses to tune into your hunger.
Be curious and make observations about yourself, and the food you’re eating.
Taking the time to eat slowly will also assist with your digestion and will give your body more time to appreciate your meals.
To eat slower, you can try things like putting your utensils down between bites, chewing more, drinking water, taking deep breaths, and even using a timer.
Keeping an Open Mind and Staying Positive
Lance Herrington, Founder, CEO, and Head of Design UNICO NUTRITION
Mindfulness is an internal process where the mind is open, aware and accepting of eating habits.
While negative body image can impact people of all ages, it’s important to repeat positive affirmations and develop a healthy relationship with food.
When our mind is open to the idea of food, aware of how our body feels, and accepting of the food on our plate, it allows for a healthier mind-body connection and better eating practices.
Slow Down Your Eating
Raul Porto, Owner and President Porto’s Bakery
Slowing down your eating can make a significant difference and will help empower you in your relationship with food.
The next time you’re eating a meal, try timing yourself and see how long it takes.
Then, the next time, try to take longer, and give yourself more time to experience the delicious flavors and to really savor the time you spend eating.
Try to think about the different textures and how the food feels in your mouth. You can also try to identify the ingredients, spices, and flavors that you taste.
Be sure to chew your food slowly and thoroughly, and let your body slowly digest every bite.
This will help you to become more aware and conscious of your body, and the food you are taking in.
Avoid Mindless Eating
Seb Evans, Co-Founder Banquist
Mindless eating is the opposite of mindful eating and should be avoided at all costs.
Mindless eating is when your body eats on autopilot or while multitasking, and oftentimes consists of eating junk food or food that is unhealthy for your body.
This type of eating may also be to fill an emotional void.
You should also be sure to avoid overeating, or eating until all of the food is gone. Instead, mindful eating encourages you to listen to your body’s signals, so that you will eat until you are full.
Practicing mindful eating will help to eliminate all of these problems, and will instead allow you to focus all of your attention on your food.
Implementing healthy foods and healthy snacks into your diet is also key to practicing mindfulness while eating, and will help to revamp your relationship with food.
Practicing Thankfulness
Jacques-Edouard Sabatier, Co-Founder and CEO JOW
When eating food, a great way to practice mindfulness is by expressing feelings of gratitude and thankfulness for your food.
Think of Thanksgiving, or a holiday where you are gathered around the table with family and friends, with a large feast in front of you.
Starting off your meal by being thankful, whether this is through a prayer, or a quiet meditation by yourself, will help you to be grateful for the food in front of you and will make a difference in how that food will satisfy you.
This will help to shape the role that food has in your life.
Focus on What You’re Eating
Bill Glaser, CEO Outstanding Foods
Mindfulness, the practice of focusing on the present moment, can definitely help your relationship with food.
Being focused on what you’re eating will cause you to enjoy your food more and savor every bite.
This will make your meals more enjoyable and can also help you eat healthier food because you’re not just aimlessly picking up just anything to munch on when you’re hungry.
Listen to Your Body
Isabel Foxen Duke, Creator Stop Fighting Food
Emotional eating is an attempt to deal with a tough problem, feeling, or situation we don’t otherwise know how to deal with, and often don’t even know that we have without some kind of symptom to remind us.
When we strip away the judgement of our emotional eating, and stop calling it a disease, a defect, a problem in and of itself; we can finally see it for what it is:
An alert that something in our life needs our attention.
Something completely unrelated to food or our weight. Be grateful for the reminder.
Practicing Mindful Eating and Understanding Hardships
Thich Nhat Hanh, Founder The Plum Village
Being mindful does not mean that we just sit for hours on our meditation cushion in a retreat or monastery.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness that can be fully integrated into our daily living.
When practiced to its fullest, mindful eating turns a simple meal into a spiritual experience, giving us a deep appreciation of all that went into the meal’s creation as well as a deep understanding of the relationship between the food on our table, our own health, and our planet’s health.
Your journey to a healthier weight is not a journey that you start and then give up.
It is a journey that you are living every day for the rest of your life.
Dealing with our overweight – or with any of our life’s difficulties, for that matter – is not a battle to be fought. Instead, we must learn how to make friends with our hardships and challenges.
They are there to help us; they are natural opportunities for deeper understanding and transformation, bringing us more joy and peace as we learn to work with them.
All in all, mindfulness will help you slow down and appreciate the food that you put into your body.
Remember to follow these tips and tricks to help you improve your relationship with food, and your body will thank you for it!.