Eating Mindfully

If "we are what we eat", as the saying goes, then we should be mindful of how we view ourselves too.
It's not just about the food, but how we feel about the person we're mindfully or mindlessly filling.

If we like ourselves and take care about ourselves, then we are more likely to nourish ourselves well with healthier options. The opposite is also often very true . . . that if we think little of ourselves and disregard ourselves, then we're more likely to not care so much about our choices of foods that we put in our mouths and therefore feed ourselves poorly or with less nutritious meals . . . or too much.

So try this for one full day of liking yourself, looking after yourself, nurturing yourself and think about every choice you make around what you feed yourself with . . . to when and how you feed yourself. . .
Is it in a rush and hurried, because you haven't got time? . . . Are you even aware of how fast you eat?
To start practising being more mindful around yourself and what you eat, the first step is to slow right down . . . to practise chewing your food well, at least 20 times every mouthful . . . to practise putting your knife and fork down inbetween mouthfuls so you can focus on chewing what's actually in your mouth and enjoy the taste, the texture, the food (before you start preparing the next fork full!). . . all of this can help aid your digestion, as your natural saliva in the mouth helps break the food down as the first stage of digestion, even before we swallow the food. By breaking the food down correctly, it helps the stomach digest the food better, helping us to reduce bloating and over-eating and helping us to have healthier internal organs.
By chewing each mouthful slowly and correctly, it also means we can learn to listen to the body better and stop eating if it tastes awful, we don't like it or the body starts to let you know your full.
It is okay to enjoy your food, and by slowing down and savouring the flavour, you enjoy it even more, and more importantly you discover you feel satisfied with what you have eaten, to the point that you begin to feel content when you've had enough. Which means you stop looking for more.

http://www.mindbodywellbeing.co.uk