How to Eat Mindfully by Listening to Your Body

1. Sleeping when you are sleepy and eating when you are hungry seem to be the animal instincts carried in everyone’s genes. So, this question seems a bit childish and ridiculous.

But if you look deeper, everyone knows that they need to eat when their body is hungry, but they may not know how to eat healthily.

There are always too many excuses for eating. For example, the high-sounding greedy person excuses himself by saying that he has nothing to live up to, but in fact he is unable to control his mouth and is greedy; for example, the appetite developed in his childhood environment, he likes fried food, staple food, and dislikes fruits and vegetables and dietary diversity; and because of To lose weight and go on a diet, they adopt a method that is almost abusing their own body, so that it develops to the extreme of anorexia; there are also professionals who, because they are too busy at noon or have short time, just eat whatever they want in the morning and noon, and then feast on the sofa and bed at night. Gain weight; not to mention, some people travel all year round, eat irregularly, etc.

2. There are also people who know the common sense of healthy eating and talk about health preservation in a clear and logical manner, but they are dwarfs in action. They often forgive themselves after breaking the precepts. Or the self-discipline is not strong and good eating habits cannot be adhered to.

How to eat nutritiously and eat healthily is really a great subject of daily health maintenance. I once saw in a TV series that the health training class at Daoguanhe Temple actually involves eating three meals a day and letting the body rest and relax. For example, a mouthful of rice needs to be chewed in the mouth 24 or 36 times before it can be swallowed; the amount of rice given is small, but the mix is ??reasonable, etc.

Does it work? If you stick to it, it might work. If you just persist in the training class and return to the secular society and remain the same, it may not be of much use.

There is a problem of psychological cognitive dissonance here. Just like the people in the TV series, they think that such diet training courses are a waste of money, and they do not regard it as a way to cultivate self-eating habits. They pursue the principles behind such diet and health care, but they do not agree with it. When you later return to the secular world, your behavior will inevitably not stick to it for a long time.

3. How to improve the awareness of eating well is an important way to solve the phenomenon of psychological disorder and improve the consciousness of action. You need to understand more and more in-depth knowledge about diet and nutrition and keep updating it; you also need to learn to listen and understand the different reactions of your body. Learning to eat and drink not only helps you manage and control your weight throughout your life, but also allows you to eat healthily and eat healthily. Bring joy to every meal.

Unlike some people who indulge themselves in overeating to fill the void when they are in a bad mood. Research shows that paying attention to how you eat every meal, fully experiencing and enjoying every meal, can not only manage and control your weight, but also reduce negative emotions and build a good relationship with the food you eat, in multiple ways than ever before. Come nourish your body and soul.

For example, before eating each meal, you should realize that "a porridge and a meal are hard-earned", "It is noon on the day of hoeing, and sweat drips from the soil. Who knows that every grain of food on the plate is hard work?" ”, you will have a sense of awe towards food, thereby improving your realm. Just like what you see on TV, Westerners always give thanks for God’s gifts before eating, and they also feel a sense of awe.

Sometimes we eat too casually. For example, in the past, it was a bad custom in rural areas in some places that women were not allowed to serve at the table; sometimes, family members would just eat by themselves without being seated together, regardless of others or the hard work of cooking.

From this perspective, every meal you eat well contains family tradition and culture.

What is mindful eating?

Eating mindfully means eating well. It means eating when you are eating. Don’t be distracted.

I once went to France and had an authentic French meal in a local restaurant. It cost more than 50 euros per person. It was also the first time I ate snails with French dry red. What impressed me most was the meal time. The dishes were served very slowly, and there were chefs and tour guides nearby who were talking to us, telling us to slow down when eating and enjoy the process of digestion of food. By the time the French meal was finished, more than three hours had passed. At that time, I really doubted whether the tour guide deliberately delayed the time. Now I think it gave me a chance to enjoy the French culture of eating slowly.

Everyone knows that the Mediterranean diet is good for physical and mental health. Nutritionists focus on diet structure, such as less oil and more fish, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Two other aspects of the Italian Mediterranean diet are easily overlooked, that is, Italians also like to eat slowly and enjoy the process of eating, which is a typical example of eating attentively. Another factor is that Italian Mediterranean people like to socialize with friends while eating. Eating mindfully and socializing are as important to a person's physical and mental health as a reasonable diet.

If you want to understand how your body reacts to different foods, you need to learn to listen to your body. Listening carefully includes understanding what happens after the food is eaten, your mentality after eating it, and you also need to pay attention to the eating environment.

Perhaps you need to pay attention to the timeline of the food you are about to eat: Where does it come from? Fresh from the market? In the refrigerator? How do you make it in the kitchen? After entering the mouth, how does it pass through your digestive tract to be decomposed and digested, and then turned into energy and nutrients to supplement the body?

Maybe you need to pay attention to the dynamic process of eating, such as what happens to your body when you eat a special meal, or when the food is prepared in a special way. ?

When you fully listen to your body’s response to food, you not only focus on taste, smell, sight, touch and sound, but you also experience subtle changes and emotions in your body. of changes and body changes triggered by food intake.

By gradually training this awareness of mindful eating, you can gradually experience how different foods affect your body and mind, and how they can nourish and refresh your life experience every day.

You may find that eating certain foods makes you tired and sluggish, while other foods make you feel refreshed and energized. Or maybe you've come to realize that when you're anxious, certain foods relieve stress; and when you're sad, you overeat.

Slowly train yourself to learn to eat mindfully, which is a simple sentence: listen to your body’s reaction with your heart, learn and practice eating mindfully, and then take action to eat every meal mindfully to meet the needs of physical and mental development. need.

If you accept the concept of eating mindfully, you will slowly realize the super benefits of eating mindfully in your daily eating practice. Here are seven strategies for practicing how to listen to your body in connection with eating well that may help you.

1. Mindfully explore your food issues that you usually turn a blind eye to.

Some well-known dietary nutrition experts, such as Shira Lenchewski, have concluded that people tend to have 5 bad food habits. Most people have some of them, but a few people have all of them. These bad food habits are:

The first involves trust issues. On the surface, you believe that the food in front of you is good for you. You want to eat it because your body needs it and it is healthy for you. , you can eat whatever food is put in front of you, and eat as much as you want; subconsciously, you actually have no awareness of controlling your diet, and no concept of how much food and energy nutrition you need; Having trust issues (you just can' t stop yourself from eating)

The second is that I am a casual person when it comes to dietary choices. I can eat whatever I want and let others make the decision. In fact, it’s because you don’t have an idea and don’t know what to eat, so just be more easy-going and follow the crowd! Being a “pleaser” (you cave in to other people’s food choices)

The third is the fear that healthy eating will be boring. I think healthy eating means not eating meat and being light, which makes me feel lifeless. Fearing the mundane (you think eating healthy would be way too boring)

The fourth is excessive control of diet and special attention to details. In order to lose weight and control their weight, some celebrities are said to eat how many grams of rice, how many grams of fruits and vegetables, etc. every day. Craving control (you beat yourself up for tiny diet “mistakes”)

The fifth thing is to stick to the diet and nutrition every day for a long time. It’s not just to stop eating when you think of losing weight for a while, or you will have a revenge after losing weight. Eat Haisai like crazy, the heat and cold will be uneven. Having a hot-and-cold pattern (you yo-yo diet and quickly go from “all in” to “all out”)

Follow these five eating habits and get them right. Have you fallen into the trap?

By self-understanding your eating habits, you can deeply explore the reasons behind these eating habits, their consequences, their impact on the body, and then develop daily behavioral strategies to make changes.

For example, if you like to control your daily diet, you can be a little more tolerant of yourself and not be so demanding on yourself; if you are an easy-going person, you can practice how to have the courage to say no to things you don’t want to eat. Food, express your thoughts, or choose a restaurant where you like to drink healthily when gathering with friends; if you think it is boring to insist on controlling your daily diet, you can buy a new cooking book and practice making some new recipes according to the script. Try some new cooking methods while cooking healthy and nutritious food.

2. Remove unhealthy addictive foods

When you are distracted, it is difficult to focus on anything.

It’s hard for you to notice other things when you’re playing with your phone with your head down; when the workplace is stressful, it’s hard for you to pay attention to your family chores; similarly, your impulsive cravings for addictive foods will prevent you from focusing your mind and body on healthy foods. .

When you indulge in addictive foods, you miss signals from your body. Brazilian football superstar Ronaldo became so addicted to Coca-Cola that he gained weight and became fat. His condition deteriorated and he became a target of criticism among Brazilian fans.

There are many types of food addiction, KFC fast food, sugar, coffee and alcohol, sometimes milk, carbohydrates and chocolate can all be addictive. Addictive foods send extremely strong signals to the body, even masking true hunger, malnutrition, and food intolerance. When Ronaldo sat at the dining table, all he heard was one sound: Coca-Cola! Coca Cola!

If you can stop eating these addictive foods, such as junk fast food, you will start to crave things you never expected. For example, after quitting junk fast food, your body will slowly crave potassium-rich foods such as cantaloupe, spinach, and avocado.

Slowly you will realize and identify the foods your body really needs, and then after knowing the body’s needs, you can then look for or make the foods your body needs. This process will create a It’s a magical experience and you eat every meal with your heart.

3. Prepare for each meal by calming the body

If you go home with stress and resentment, the sound of your body will also be distorted , I can’t cook well either.

Stress can also cause the digestive process of your body’s digestive tract to become uncontrolled, causing the body to react abnormally. In this case, it may be difficult to determine what foods your body really needs and what it doesn't, which may be why it's so important to calm down before getting home to cook.

Allow yourself to calm down before each meal. Take a few deep breaths. If you are cooking dinner, you can play some soothing music at the same time and take some deep breaths while cooking. If you really don’t have time, you need to buy some fast food takeout on the roadside, or you can take a few deep breaths before you step out of the car door.

As mentioned above in the TV series, eating mindfully and preparing meals carefully for yourself can really be used as a spiritual practice ritual. Around food of course, a brief simple meditation focused on food.

Special reminder: Don’t forget to turn off the fire when you are in a daze.

4. Pause before beginning each meal. Do not gobble it up as soon as it is served. Pause before beginning each meal

First of all, it is to show respect for the work of the cook. , it is best to sit down together before eating. The other thing is the respect for nature. Food is hard to come by and how far it has been traveled to get to the table.

Another thing is that this is a good opportunity to practice eating mindfully. You can experience your hunger when you smell the aroma of food. Research shows that people's feeling of hunger can have a good stimulating effect on the body and exercise the body's nerve signaling function.

When you sit at the dining table facing food, you can ask yourself what kind of hunger you are experiencing now:

Eye hunger, you see the meal you want to eat Already? Eye hunger: Did you see food and then want to eat?

Smell hunger: Did you smell the aroma of the food you wanted to eat? Nose hunger: Did you smell food and then want to eat?

Ear hunger: Did you hear the sound of cooking? Hear the sound of food melting in your mouth? Ear hunger: Did you hear food cooking or being eaten and then want to eat?

Oral hunger: Did your taste buds taste the taste of food? Mouth hunger: Did you taste food and then want to eat more?

The feeling of hunger in the stomach.

Does your stomach feel empty, make a growling sound, or have rumbling bowels? Stomach hunger: Did your stomach feel empty or growl and then you wanted to eat?

Stomach hunger: Did your stomach feel empty or growl and then you wanted to eat? Did you realize that today is a special day and you need to provide your body with some special food? For example, today is the beginning of summer, do you need to eat cold noodles? Mind hunger: Did you realize it was a certain time of day or think that you “should” eat more of a particular kind of food and then want to eat?

The feeling of emotional hunger, where you feel sad , loneliness or anxiety, what kind of food do you need to supplement? Emotional hunger: Did you feel sad, lonely, or anxious and then want to eat?

The feeling of body cell hunger, is there a food in your body that you are particularly craving for, and are you prepared for it? Already? Cellular hunger: Did you get an intuitive craving for a specific food and then want to eat? Green leafy vegetables. When you are truly aware of these different types of hunger feelings, you will slowly know how to satisfy them. You may find that when you try to deal with certain types of hunger you experience, you can achieve the kind of satisfaction you seek.

5. Be mindful about each bite

Don’t resist, don’t ignore, open your mind to accept the signals your body sends when you eat, and use all the energy in your body to It feels like you are focusing on every mouthful of food.

You can feel whether this mouthful of rice is cold or hot? Is it flavorful or sweet? Is it crispy or soft? You can even imagine experiencing the specific aroma from that bite like a gourmet.

Also ask yourself, are there herbs or chilies in the food? Is there any added sugar or salt? What other ingredients and ingredients are included in the food?

Then, you can explore the mood changes caused by food. Different foods can bring about different emotional changes in the human body. For example, eating bitter melon can relieve internal heat and relieve heat, and eating fruit can soothe people's mood. Over time we can learn to use specific foods to regulate and produce specific emotions.

So, you can ask before eating: What emotions can be produced by eating these foods? Feelings of happiness, peace, excitement, contentment, anxiety, anger, sadness, loneliness, shame or guilt?

If you probe deeper, you may find more magical things.

6. Pause sometime mid-meal

When you are half full, try to pause briefly. Because at this time, the food eaten previously has reached the gastrointestinal digestive tract of the body and begins to be digested.

By briefly pausing, you can experience how your body accepts these foods. Pay attention to stomach butterflies, sweating, tiredness, nasal congestion, tingling, goosebumps, or other physical symptoms. Some people will always have a runny nose when eating spicy hot pot.

Then, look at how hungry you feel in your stomach. Do you feel full? Does your body want to keep eating? Are there other physical hunger feelings you need to satisfy?

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. The main purpose is to become aware of your body’s food digestion process and gain a deeper understanding of your eating habits and eating experiences.

This is also a key part of losing weight. Sometimes, if you eat too fast and can't stop, it will be too late to regret it after you have eaten too much.

7. Develop the habit of mindful reflection after a meal Reflect mindfully at the end of your meal

Once you decide not to eat, in the middle of the meal, or the plate is empty, Or you have stuffed a lot of food into your body (you make excuses for yourself, eat more of this good meal and skip the next meal), take some time after the meal to reflect on the meal experience.

You can try to ask yourself whether the eight types of hunger feelings mentioned above (eye, nose, ear, mouth, stomach, mind, emotional, and cellular) have been satisfied, and which one? Not satisfied yet? Then mentally or on papyrus, jot down unsatisfied hunger feelings at each meal.

Then take a few extra minutes to reflect on those unsatisfied hunger feelings. Try asking what your body needs to satisfy those hunger feelings. Maybe you don’t have the answers, but if you start listening to your body regularly, you’ll probably pick up on some trends. It should be replenished in winter, suppressed in summer, prevented from dryness in autumn, regenerated in spring, etc.

As you slowly gather these ideas, you will slowly experience increased satisfaction and fulfillment with every meal.

Learning to listen to your body’s response to food requires some effort on your part, and the willingness to try, awaken, be open, and accept. It takes time and attention to practice, and you may not have time to play music while cooking every meal, notice all eight emotions, or think about every bite, but the direction is good.

Eat every meal carefully, pay attention to every mouthful of food, and pay attention to the process of food selection, processing, digestion, and reaction. You will slowly enjoy the process of eating. Perhaps, the daily practice in this world, such as eating mindfully, may continue to nourish your body, mind and soul.