Day 1: 270
Day 27: 248
I’ve been diving deep into the rabit hole of intuitive eating. There are books, podcasts and so many blogs about this very topic, so I thought I’d do some research.
I didn’t so much like the idea of “Intuitive Eating” as much as I loved the idea of Mindful Eating.
Intuitive is more about eating what feels right for you and if we all ate what “felt right”, I’d be a million pounds!
While Mindful Eating is really paying attention to why you are eating and addressing your feelings and habits with the end goal of freedom.
Regardless, the goal is to get rid of that “diet mentality” and dropping those ideas about good and bad foods. Learning to love our bodies despite the size and being more comfortable in our skin. Taking care of our body because we love it and want to fuel it, not because we want to get to a certain size. The goal is true body positivity.
And body positivity doesn’t mean you embrace being overweight or unhealthy, but loving your body as it is right now. Because if you don’t love you now, you won’t love you when you reach that goal weight or size.
Mindful eating focuses on the experience with food and awareness.
Naturally when we practice Mindful Eating, we eat less, enjoy food more, lose weight, eat healthier foods, and nourish our bodies.
I decided to try some Mindful Eating exercises to see if it was up to the hype.
For 3 whole days, I decided to apply some of the exercises I learned and see if it affected me in any way.
- Look at the meal as an “experience” without judgement, no matter how much you end up eating.
- Note how hungry you are before, in the middle and after your meal.
- Note your emotions prior to eating (bored, sad, excited, angry, anxious). Does it affect how you ate?
- Note if it tastes as good as you thought it would.
- Note how the first bite tastes compared to the 5th or 6th bite tastes. Is there a difference?
- What would you change about this meal for next time?
- Note how the meal made you physically feel and emotionally feel afterwards.
Now, some of you may think that checklist is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. But after a few days of really paying attention to my body and emotions while eating, something began to change. I think I will always use some of these mindful eating exercises in the back of my mind when I eat because it helps to keep me in check and make sure I’m eating for the right reasons.
I began to stop looking at food as a prized commodity, and I started to really appreciate it! I began to only eat food that I completely enjoyed, and didn’t just eat to eat. If it wasn’t absolutely amazing on my tastebuds, what was the point of eating it? If it wasn’t fulfilling a purpose to fuel my body properly, what was the point of eating it?
I challenge you to try some Mindful Eating exercises if your relationship with food is a struggle, because it may help you to jump the hurdle from abusing food to utilizing food for the right reasons.
Only 3 more days to lose 8lbs to reach the goal of 30lbs down in 30 days. Can I do it?!
Til tomorrow,
xo S