Mindfulness is a buzz word right now. But it is a powerful ally if you can learn to harness it. When it comes to weight loss (or weight management) harnessing the power of mindfulness can make all the difference. Eating mindfully is actually one of the most common lifestyle changes that successful weight loss individuals will claim as key to their success. Eating mindfully means that you are sitting down to eat - and only that! Not watching TV, texting , working or any number of things that we like to do while eating in order to convince ourselves that we are being "productive." We are simply sitting down to eat. This partners well with eating slowly (another keystone eating behavior for weight management), where chewing your food mindfully allows you to enjoy each bite, breathe and relax as you do so. How is this helpful? Well, by increasing your awareness of what you are eating, you are more likely to fully enjoy your food, make better food choices and - and this is a biggie here - more likely to sense when you are getting full than if you are eating mindlessly. We've all done it right? Eaten without being really aware and then feeling that deep shock when we realize just how much we have eaten and how full we feel?!
If you are like me, during times of stress and transition (and who hasn't experienced both of these over the past months?) eating mindfully may prove to feel even more difficult than ever.
To have a little fun and to get a little practice with this, check out this video called "The Raisin Experiment". It walks you through a mindful eating experiment - just you and a couple of raisins. If slow, mindful eating is a skill you'd like to acquire, then get 2-3 raisins, find a quiet place to sit and click on the link below to try it out!
Let me know if you do and what you thought!