Mindful Mealtimes: Five Mindfulness Eating Tips
Mindful eating brings big benefits. It can help you retain a healthy weight, appreciate your food, and aid digestion. So how can you be more conscious about eating? These five steps will help you make the most of meals.
1. Make Eating a Significant Event
People often rush their meals. Some eat on the go, while others pick at their food between tasks. When you eat mindfully, consuming food becomes a significant part of your daily schedule. Instead of grabbing snacks or eating fast food in the car, sit at a table when you eat and ensure you have plenty of time.
2. Chew Longer
Some people eat fast because they don't chew their food enough. The problem with swallowing meals before chomping them into tiny pieces includes:
- Poor digestion
- Potential weight gain (since you don't recognize how much you consume)
- A lack of enjoyment
Be mindful of how long it takes you to chew food. Aim to chew mouthfuls until they are entirely broken up and easy to swallow. As a result, there's less chance you'll choke, you'll digest meals better and enjoy foods more too.
3. Consider Your Food's Origins
Where do meal ingredients come from, apart from the kitchen? Considering your meal's origins is a terrific mindful practice. Its benefits are:
- Appreciating your food
- Shopping wisely
- Boosting gratitude for people who grow your food
When you reflect on how ingredients often travel by airplane over a vast distance, you might start to buy meat and produce locally which will enable you to support local farmers, select good quality food, and feel grateful when someone lovingly and skillfully cooks your meals.
4. Adopt Distraction-free Mealtimes
Mindful mealtimes can include eating in distraction-free environments. Whether you make phone calls while you eat, watch the TV, or listen to music, you miss the opportunity to focus on eating.
Distractions decrease your awareness of everything from meal ingredients to tasting food. Develop a habit of focusing on eating rather than doing other things at mealtimes, and you'll make the most of food.
5. Savor Your Food
Do you taste the food you eat properly? To savor meals, let each mouthful sit in your mouth for a few seconds so it has time to connect with your tongue's taste buds. Focus on your food and savor it as you eat, and you'll get far more out of mealtimes than usual. You might also find you like eating different foods, so try to consume new flavors and expand the list of foods you enjoy.
Mindful eating is a fabulous way to get the most out of mealtimes. You must eat to live, and you might as well boost your gratitude, increase the odds of digesting meals well, and take experiencing eating to a new, enjoyable level.