January 17, 2017

It is not a diet!

The overall aim is to change your lifestyle permanently, not to follow a temporary new diet that will impose rules that you want to break as soon as you get stressed, tired or hungry.  If you go ‘on’ a diet, you can also go ‘off’ a diet, and if you do, you feel like a failure and almost immediately gain the lost weight, sometimes with a few kilo’s extra.  A mindful way of eating can be sustained indefinitely and become your new default way of operating.

It is easy

Becoming aware of your hunger and deciding if you’re hungry or not, and to eat only when you are hungry is a skill that can be learned.  It may take time but if you stick to it, it will become second nature.  This is so easy you can teach it to a child.

It is universal

Mindful eating can be used by any person, regardless of your gender, race, culture or religion.  It can be followed by young and old, and applied to any lifestyle, be that vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free or whatever your allergies/intolerances/preferences may be.

It is cheap

You don’t need any special foods, scales, equipment, measuring tapes etc. In fact, it might even save money in the long run.

It will last forever

Because this isn’t a fad diet, restricted by current scientific knowledge, it will never go out of fashion.  It will always be relevant and won’t be replaced by new diets or new superfoods.

It will save you time

It won’t take up all your time with planning, buying, measuring and weighing yourself and your food.  When you’ve learned to check in with your body and are fully aware of what’s going on and why and what you want to eat, you will be able to determine in a heartbeat if it is food or some other kind of nourishment that you need.

It is healthy

As you slowly learn to choose the healthy foods your body are asking for; your health will improve.  Most of our cravings for unhealthy food is the result of unexpressed emotions or bad habits.

You become your own guru

Over time you learn to eat what your body asks for and what works for you and your specific circumstances.  Contradicting experts won’t confuse you anymore and you don’t have to jump on the bandwagon every time someone comes up with a new diet.

You can still love food

Eating mindfully helps you to fully taste what you eat and savour each bite.  If you eat what you really want to eat, your body, mind, and soul enjoy the experience and you feel satisfied afterwards.  You can become a real ‘foodie’ and learn to taste your food just like the judges on MasterChef.  To use Martha Beck’s words: ‘eat what you love, love what you eat’.  If you follow this rule 100%, it may be the only rule you’ll ever need.

All food is legal

The moment you declare all food legal, the power struggle drops away.  Nobody has issues with eating too much fruit or veggies.  Why not? Because it is so-called ‘legal’.  The moment we begin with a diet, we start craving all the foods on the forbidden list, even if we never liked it that much before!  And once you’ve started eating a slab of chocolate, you think you’ve lost the plot anyway, you might as well finish the whole damn thing and start the diet again next week.  At the beginning of this journey you might end up eating more chocolate and other once ‘forbidden’ foods, but as you slowly get used to the idea that you’re allowed to eat it anytime you like, the food lose their hold on you and you’re happy to only eat it occasionally and enjoy every morsel guilt free.

You can eat as much as you like

Once you have permission to eat as much as you like, the urge to overeat goes away.  You are aware and mindful, check in regularly with your stomach, and stop when you’ve had enough.  As your connection and trust with your body grow, you eat less and less until you learn to eat just enough.  Some days and on special occasions you may eat more, but because you don’t feel guilty about it, you accept it and just eat less at the next meal.

Your mind becomes peaceful

You drop the never-ending fight in your mind with yourself about what you may or may not eat, how much and when to stop.  After you’ve eaten you feel satisfied and relaxed, no more self-loathing, self-hatred or critical thoughts to tell yourself how bad you are, how miserably you’ve failed, how you’re never going to be able to lose weight or how nobody will ever love a fat girl like you.

It’s not a magic pill

Reading the above you may think that this is just too good to be true.  But it’s not a quick fix.  It is, however, asking you to be brutally honest, courageous and committed.  When checking in with your body to determine if you are hungry or not, you have to be honest with yourself.  If you’re hungry, go ahead and eat the healthiest food that will satisfy your hunger.  But if you’re not really hungry, you have to admit it and be brave enough to confront the real reason for your hunger.  When you know where your ‘hunger’ comes from, you can explore different ways to satisfy these cravings and stop using food as a remedy for every unwelcome thought, feeling or emotion.

The best thing about mindful eating is that you gain time, money and energy to spend on things that truly nourish your body, mind and soul.

Look out for the next blog on 5 practical steps to becoming a mindful eater.