How many of us have decided to start healthy eating routines but still struggle to lose excess weight? At times, we may have even attempted fad diets, such as juicing, no carb, low carb, and fasting – basically quick-fix diets for temporary weight loss. Adding to this, we may attempt a healthy eating routine, but don’t really pay appropriate attention to our food, or our eating habits. 

Busy lifestyles, time constraints, back-to-back meetings, frequent travel and work-life imbalances tend to distract us.

What we lack is “Mindful Eating”. Not paying attention to what we eat, how it makes us feel, and not chewing our food thoroughly may result in overeating, indigestion and eating disorders.

Positive Outcomes Of Mindful Eating

Mindful eating allows us to not only remain physically healthy by losing excess weight, and maintaining a healthy weight, it also keeps us mentally healthy by helping us to develop a healthy relationship with our food. Here are some of the benefits of mindful eating:

1. You Eat Less

Chewing your food thoroughly aids digestion, and also helps you regulate your intake of food. According to a study conducted on 14 obese and 16 lean Chinese men, it has been found that chewing habits dictated the amount of food intake. Individuals who chewed their food for longer (in this case 40 chews), had less desire to eat more, and actually ingested 11.9% less food than their counterparts who only chewed their food 15 times per bite.

2. Your Body Is More Nourished

Chewing adequately breaks down food more effectively, with the help of multiple digestive enzymes released into the mouth prior to entering the stomach. Chewing, therefore, significantly helps the food to get digested and metabolized more effectively.

3. It Makes You Appreciate Your Food

Mindfully chewing your food helps you appreciate the food that you eat. When we become more aware of how nourishing food can be for both our body and mind, we are more likely to opt for unprocessed, whole and natural food that is rich in sources of healthy fat, protein, and carbohydrates along with various vitamins and minerals.

Three Ways To Boost Mindful Eating

1. Use Your Non-Dominant Hand To Eat

Opting for a non-dominant hand for feeding yourself encourages you to really focus entirely on what you are actually eating.

2. Eating With Chopsticks

Although this may sound a little tricky, challenge yourself to eat all your meals with chopsticks. Again, it will improve your concentration on your food and ensure you’re engaged in mindful eating.

3. Get Creative With Your Food

Repetitive meals that you actually don’t enjoy can take away the fun element from eating. So get out of the routine and try out something different. By creating dietary alternatives, you could actually feel happy and satisfied. The body produces its own mood-lifting endorphins, and the right choice of food makes all the difference.

Busy Executives And Fad Diets

Busy executives often resort to fad diets. Why? Late work nights, travel, and entertaining clients can make it difficult to adhere to mindful eating and healthy meal planning. A sedentary lifestyle also results in weight gain, and fad diets are easily accessible and simple. But they are not sustainable. In the long run, fad diets do not have any benefits and can eventually do more harm to your health, including slowing your metabolism and reducing your muscle mass. These diets include no carb, juicing, fasting, diets that focus on one food (cabbage soup diet), and high fat/no carb diets. Sustainable healthy diets involve mindful eating, exercise, and a little bit of forward planning.

So don’t just follow diets that might promise quick weight loss. Mindful eating can have great benefits for you:

• Helps you to eat less
• Increases self-satisfaction
• Nourishes your body

If you need extra help, ExecFuel is specially designed to help busy professionals address issues that cause stress eating, and empowers you with powerful techniques to overcome these obstacles. You also receive abundant resources, such as infographics, downloadables, and videos to keep you on the right track to a healthier mental and physical lifestyle.

Get started immediately, take back control, and give yourself the freedom you deserve.