Mindful Eating!
As Halloween is around the corner, I hear the concerns from clients, moms and even children of the extreme behaviors around Halloween treats. Some admit they have no control over Halloween candy and want to eat everything in sight. And others refuse to even let one of their favorite treats pass their lips let alone enter their homes.
Finding a balance between enjoying a TREAT without overindulging and feeling guilt and shame after consuming treats is a journey of mindfulness. Practicing mindful eating can help you to achieve a balance in your nutritional daily practices. Balanced nutrition includes healthy whole foods at regular intervals “MOST OF THE TIME.” While still enjoying treats “SOME OF THE TIME.” Extreme dieting and binging are not sustainable to one’s physical, mental and emotional health. Mindful eating has been shown to help change behaviors around food leading to a blend of pleasure and nutrition discovering optimal health, energy and body composition.
The Center for Mindful Eating guidelines indicates that ‘mindful eating is allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food selection and preparation by respecting your own inner wisdom. By using all your senses in choosing to eat food that is both satisfying to you and nourishing to your body, acknowledging your responses to food (likes dislikes or neutral) without judgment and becoming aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decisions to begin and end eating can change your relationship to food.’
How to Practice Mindful Eating
- Guide your choice to begin and end eating based on physical hunger and satiety cues
- Express Gratitude and/or Grace for the food you will enjoy
- Eat with others at same time and places i.e. Family meals
- Fuel your body with nutrition prior to enjoying treats
- Enjoy eating without distractions or multitasking
- Consider where your food comes from
HealthStyles Consulting provides Corporate Employee Lunch and Learn sessions on Mindful Eating as well as one on one nutritional consultation with our Certified Nutritionists. To book a session today contact: info@healthstylesconsulting.com.