Develop Healthy Eating Habits With Healthy Thoughts (and lose weight naturally)
Develop Healthy Eating Habits With Healthy Thoughts (and lose weight naturally)
The way we think affects the way we eat.
When you eat for reasons other than nutrition for the body, trouble begins.
Learn to eat for the body’s health, not to satisfy emotions or cravings.
For most people, eating isn’t just about nutrition for the body.
Many eat for other reasons. They have little to do with keeping our bodies healthy or fueled up. We eat with others to connect with them. Or have particular emotions linked with certain foods. Some foods can make us happy because of pleasant memories linked with them in our minds.
Some foods remind us of people or places, not always in a good way though. We eat for comfort and to improve our bad mood or relieve stress.
You need to learn to change your thinking in relation to food. If your behaviors are hopelessly connected to food, you’ll find it hard to eat healthy or to lose weight.
We all want to live a healthier life, so we NEED new behaviors. That means you have to control your thoughts. Your habits around food reflect your life. Food is deeply connected to how you feel, and how you feel is deeply connected to food.
How can you change these thoughts and create new, healthier habits?
Let’s take a look 6 habit forming ideas that could help move you in the right direction, okay?
Develop healthy habits with healthy thoughts
Changing your relationship with food starts by taking a look at your reaction to eating, your behavior during mealtimes, and how you deal with cravings when they arise.
1 – Keep your attention on what you’re eating
Just like the Zen Master said, Eating time, just eat. Don’t do other things like check your email, watch tv, or use your phone. Just be mindful and keep your attention on eating. Eating brings you vitamins and other nutrients and keeps you healthy. Something so important for your life is worth your full attention, isn’t it?
2 – Really connect with your food and experience it
No one’s saying you should stop loving food. In fact, you should love it even more. Try putting your entire focus on each thing you put into your mouth. Engage all your senses. Savor every bit of it. Eat slowly. Enjoy it as long as you can.
Eating this way allows you to connect with your food on a deeper level. It’ll help you quickly realize when you are eating unhealthy food. Unhealthy food doesn’t satisfy your senses when it’s eaten slowly.
3 – Stop and take a moment to consider your emotions before eating
What emotion are you feeling right now? Could those emotions be causing cravings? Influencing your decisions about what to eat?
Take a few minutes to reflect on these emotions. Ask yourself this. Do I really feel food will help me change my feelings, or are there healthier ways to cope with how I feel? Answer yourself honestly.
4 – Don’t forget to take a breath now and then.
When you focus on your breath while you’re eating, you’ll probably eat slower. You’ll get to notice how the food is affecting your body. While you chew your food, pay attention to how you’re breathing. As you inhale and exhale, notice how full you feel so you can decide if you should continue eating or not.
5 – Don’t try to rush your meal
Eating fast makes you miss the signals your body is sending you. If you eat slowly it will tell you when you’ve eaten enough. Maybe you were just thirsty. Is the craving you’re feeling really hunger? Or is it just some emotional need?
Overeating can happen because you eat too fast. It stops these signals catching up so your body can make any needed adjustments.
6 – Choose an optimum environment
If you eat alone often, make sure you still stick to normal rituals and practices. Things like sitting at the table and eating off dinnerware. Eating at a specific time each day. Eating with others when possible. Don’t get into the habit of sitting on the sofa as you eat. This leads to overeating as you zone out in front of the TV.