6 Powerful Reasons for Controlling Weight with Mindful Eating

One of the most important eating skills – mindful eating

Eating is an absolute pleasure! There is a reason why gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins – like any activity which brings us feelings of pleasure we want to keep the good times rolling and can easily overdo it.

Weight gain is very often the result of eating solely for the pleasure of eating and not paying attention while we do so. Snacking during a favorite show, while reading, or otherwise occupying our mind quickly leads to eating until you physically cannot eat another bite.

This type of mindless eating also encourages faster eating which tends to cause us to outrun our satiety signaling from the brain. There is a lag between the intake of food and the effect of the hormonal signals our body produces to tell us we are full. Typically we should eat slowly and until we are about 80 per cent full to help enable our bodies normal hunger signaling to kick in correctly.

Use this mindful eating placemat to remember to slow down and enjoy your food

I am linking below to an article titled “Use This Mindful Eating Placemat to Remember to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Food” written by Darya Rose, neuroscience Ph.D, author, former dieter, proud foodist and the creator of SummerTomato.com. This is a very good article which points out how we need to practice mindful eating – if we don’t actively do it we are by definition being mindless.

The article gives six reasons why mindful eating is so important, and I encourage you to go through them as they really are eye-opening. One of Darya’s readers has designed a printable placemat which can be used with each meal to focus you and trigger mindful eating as you are reminded of it throughout the meal. The placemat is freely downloadable and printable from a link in the article.

Additional resource – Precision Nutrition All About Guides

I am also linking below to two additional resources for you to read on the subject of eating mindfully.

The first is an “all about” guide titled “All About Eating Slowly” by Brian St. Pierre, registered dietitian, performance nutrition expert, and coach at precisionnutrition.com. This guide discusses many benefits of eating slowly, along with eight specific tips to help you do so.

The second guide is a two-part guide titled “All About Appetite Regulation” by Ryan Andrews, competitive bodybuilder turned registered dietitian, yoga instructor, volunteer organic farmhand, and a coach at precisionnutrition.com for over 7 years. This is a very in depth comprehensive article which covers the science of appetite regulation in the first part and then discusses how environment shapes our food intake in the second part.

I highly recommend taking the time to read all three guides because they are very good examples of the Precision Nutrition philosophy and can empower you to be completely successful in overcoming any bad eating habits. I earned my Nutrition Coaching Certification from PN because they have helped coach thousands of people to successful weight loss and life change through online coaching, and these people understand and know what works.

Summary

I encourage you to experiment with the principles contained in these articles – I think you will find that you enjoy your meals more, and that you can be completely satisfied with a much smaller amount of food.

John Bauer