Eating smart is all in your mind

Mindful eating not only allows you to enjoy food more but also lose weight.

Picture yourself at your most recent big festival meal. Did you pile your plate with food? Did you take some — or a lot — of everything, whether or not each food was a particular favourite? And, when that first plate of food was gone, did you automatically seek seconds? If that sounds familiar, you ate more than you actually needed. And you probably didn’t enjoy it as much as you thought you would, especially when the meal was over and you were left feeling uncomfortably full.

How you eat matters
Now picture this: At your next festive gathering, you serve yourself from bowls and platters in the kitchen, taking just the amount you want of only those foods you love best. Before digging in, you sit for a moment take in all the sights, scents and sounds of the holiday table. Then you lift your fork and taste, pausing to notice exactly how your food smells, its temperature, how it feels in your mouth, savouring its flavours. As you chew, you set down your fork. Only when you’ve fully enjoyed and eventually swallowed that first bite do you take another. By the end of this meal you are not just full but truly satisfied.

Useful tricks
Proponents of a practice known as “mindful eating” are convinced that the second approach not only allows you to enjoy your food more but also can help you manage your weight.

US-based psychologist Susan Albers, author of Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship With Food, defines the practice as “a calm, focused, nonjudgemental awareness of what you eat. It focuses more on the way you eat rather than what you eat.” It takes three steps, she says. First, train yourself to really taste food, using all of your senses. Next, become aware of the habits and routines that govern your eating. Finally, tune in to your hunger and fullness, learning to distinguish between psychological and emotional hunger and true physical hunger.

“Initially, practice the skill when you’re feeling relaxed rather than in the midst of a strong craving,” says Albers.

LA Times-Washington Post