Mindful Eating and Our Healthy Relationship with Food.

Mindful eating places awareness on the menu, whenever and wherever we eat. As well as making us watchful about what we eat, it aims to transform our relationship with food by focusing on the how and why of eating, encouraging a more holistic point of view.

Many people who practice mindfulness meditation, and an increasing number of health professionals, are coming to believe that mindful eating can make a difference in helping individuals with healthy changes in their eating behaviours.

Ultimately, this means we have a better chance of understanding what foods nourish us and what foods help us stay healthy while also encouraging a deeper appreciation of every meal, every mouthful, and every ingredient.

Here are some tips:

Mindful of choices: stick to the perimeter.

Grocery stores generally have similar layouts: Produce is on one side, baked goods are on the other side and meats and dairy are in the back. Processed foods go in the middle, thanks to their longer shelf lives (read: preservatives). Perimeter shopping limits purchases to mostly produce, lean meats and dairy. This approach can help you avoid the temptation of attractive food packaging and focus on filling your basket with nutritious foods.

Mindful of protein: the building block of any plate

The best way to shop, and plan your meals is to start with protein, see what is on sale at the grocery store, eggs, poultry, tofu, aim to feed 4 portions of approx. 70-110 grams per day.

Then add your vegetable sides, steamed, roasted, raw, even frozen! Frozen veggies are great way to get veggies cheaper, no need to full heat, they are usually already cooked, just run them under hot water.

Then add your complex carbs, rice, potatoes, yams, these can be added to each individual specific needs.

Lastly the healthy fats, homemade avocado dressing, roasted veggies in coconut oil, seeds, nuts, people underestimate how easily they are to add, but are needed for a well rounded healthy plate.

Mindful of ingredients: learn the language of labels.

The acronym JERF (Just Eat Real Food) just makes sense. If you can't pronounce an ingredient or don't know what it was, why put it in your cart? This can help you avoid buying many processed grocery items that contained food colourings, preservatives, or complicated ingredient replacements that lowers the nutritional value.

Being mindful of the composition of the food items, recommended portion sizes and additives is key to cleaning up any menu. It is not about being perfect — but a conscious way of choosing what you put your body. Next time your pick up an item, look to see how many items are listed in ingredients, there shouldn't be that many, and you see you know what they mean! Without judgment, or shame, just get curious!

Mindful of mindset: honour where you are today

Make sure everyone agrees about the foods that should and shouldn’t be in your home. That lets everyone support and hold each other accountable. Try to keep the food in your kitchen at home relatively healthy. That isn’t always easy with teenagers in the house, but this is not about cutting out junk food out completely, just being mindful of how much you each daily and weekly.

Mindful of source: packaging and quality

Be mindful of the amount of packaging. When you can, try to go direct to the source, aka our local farmers. This helps our local farmers farm-to-table, and helps cut down on the packaging, which limits our household waist.

This also helps us connect to the source of the food, our relationship with what we are eating and having a more of a soil-to-soul approach.

Conclusion:

Mindful eating is an approach to food that focuses on individuals’ sensual awareness of the food and their experience of the food. It has little to do with calories, carbohydrates, fat, or protein. The purpose of mindful eating is not to lose weight, the intention is to help individuals savor the moment and the food and encourage their full presence for the eating experience.

Hopefully these tips helped you on your path to mindful eating!

Read more about mindful eating HERE