I recently became acquainted with the term “Mindful Eating”. In a nutshell, the idea is to be aware of what you’re eating and why. I used to think I was aware of what I was eating but now I realize that there are many times that I eat, not because of a hunger signal coming from my stomach, but because of some other stimulus.
Eating without being mindful of it can be surprising to some people. When you want to lose weight, the formula is simple. Less food in, more calories out and voila: weight loss. If you’ve been on a diet you know it’s a little more complicated than that. Eating sometimes seems to have a mind of its own and happens without a lot of thought – eating without being mindful about it.
Mindful eating means thinking about every thing that you eat and why you’re really eating it. For example, if turning on the TV always leads to mindless munching, that’s something that would be good to realize so you can head it off. One thing that I also became aware of is that when it’s lunchtime or dinner time, I eat. Often times, I’m not even hungry but I eat anyway, because it’s time to eat. You would have a hard time calling that ‘mindful’.
Another big reason why people overeat is just simple boredom. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I often feel the urge to eat something when the day seems to be dragging on and, so far, I really haven’t had much fun yet. Eating seems like a good feeling fallback that’s always available when I need to add some positive feelings and enjoyment to my day.
Many times it’s not just your own internal pressure that causes mindless eating. Have you ever eaten something you didn’t want because you knew that it would make someone else happy? I know that when my wife cooks something new or different I always seem to have seconds even if I don’t want them just to show her how much I appreciate her effort. Eating to please someone else can get to be something that happens a lot if we’re not careful.
Weight loss is often a lot more complicated than telling yourself that you’re going to eat less. Identifying the hidden triggers that lead to overeating is the key in the battle to get your weight under control and keeping it that way.
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