Are you stuck inside the viscous cycle of diet? Are you binge eating and feel guilty after stuffing food inside your body?

Here’s what you need to know.

The cycle needs to be broken down or it will make you trapped inside forever and you may indulge yourself into fad diets that don’t really work.

The simple answer to this is to opt for ‘MINDFUL EATING’

Mindful eating is based on mindfulness. It is about using mindfulness to reach a state of full attention to your experiences, craving and physical cues when eating. Mind-fullness based approaches appear most affective in addressing binge eating, emotionally eating and eating in response to external cues.

Mindfulness appears to work by an increased awareness of internal, rather than external cues to eat. Mindfulness and mindful eating have the potential to address problematic eating behaviours and the challenges many face with controlling their food intake. Encouraging a mindful eating approach would seem to be a positive message to be included in general weight management advice.

WHAT IT INVOVLES

• Begin with your mindful shopping list –Buy items sensefully and not out of an impulse
• Distinguishing between true hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating.
• Learning more about the signs of your stomach when it calls for hunger
• Appropriate use of your senses by observing colour, realizing smell, sizzling sounds, textures and flavours.
• Come to the table with an appetite but not when ravenously hungry
• Appreciate your food
• Start with small portion
• Take small bites
• Chew thoroughly
• Eat slowly
• Eating slowly and with complete attention to your food. Don’t let the environment distract you.
• Observe the effects of food on your health.
• Honour your hunger and respect your fullness.
• Eat to maintain your overall well- being