Mindful eating promotes physical health by improving your eating experience. This is not a meal plan or a weight loss tool. Instead, it molds your eating behavior by activating your physical and emotional senses to ensure you enjoy your food without being judgmental. Here are 5 mindful eating tips that will help you develop a healthy relationship with food.

1. Don’t Feel Guilty

Feeling guilty about eating or putting restrictions on certain foods may be harmful to your health. It is also one of the greatest barriers in the way of developing a healthy relationship with food. Feeling guilty about your eating choices keeps you retrained from certain foods. 

Food guilt may cause you to miss many nutrients that are important for your health. Eat everything without exception. Don’t skip a meal even if you don’t like the taste or texture. Practice small portions of all kinds of food groups. This not only keeps you healthy but also helps with weight management. 

2. Cut The Distractions

It is important to keep your brain at ease while eating. Otherwise, it gets distracted causing you to lose focus on your food. Distractions may have you end up overeating, starving yourself, forgetting the taste, and even not realizing what you ate. 

Some common distractions are scrolling down on your phone’s screen, watching TV, talking on the phone, and reading a book. Turn off the TV. Put away your cell phone. Keep all kinds of distractions away while eating. 

3. Differentiate Between Hunger and Emotional Response

When you’re about to eat, ask yourself some questions like, Am I hungry? Is this real hunger or emotional hunger? Do I feel full after eating? Answering these questions will help you determine whether your hunger is physical hunger or just an emotional response. 

If you feel hunger pangs and you feel stuffed after eating, that’s physical hunger. But if you only want to eat to feel better and never feel full, that is emotional hunger. This is a response to an emotional trigger. By distinguishing between the two, you can take control by addressing underlying feelings.

4. Pay Attention

Be emotionally and physically present in the moment you eat. Feel the experience of food. Eat slowly and chew it well. Experience the taste and texture. Enjoy the diversity of different foods without being judgemental. Paying attention to the process will help you experience real hunger and keep you from overeating. 

5. Don’t Count Calories

Keeping count of calories causes you to overlook the nutritional value of food. It becomes a distraction causing stress and food guilt that may overwhelm you. You will end up restraining yourself from food and as a result, this may cause eating disorders in the future.

Conclusion

The benefits of mindful eating aren’t related to weight loss, slimming, or the perfect body structure but to a healthy lifestyle. Following strict diets and meal plans may give you the body you dream of but they don’t guarantee health. The objective of mindful eating is to ensure a healthy body while enjoying the eating process.