We now live in a high paced world where we have streamlined virtually every aspect of our lives. We have Fast Internet, fast deliveries and Grab and Go meals that are made to be eaten as we do three other things simultaneously. We have lost in this productivity race, however, one of the most fundamental human experiences which is the process of nourishment.
Could you even recall what you ate, half a minute ago; how many of the last three meals? Do you remember the spices in question? The change between hunger and satisfaction? Or was it merely a mouth of chewing and you scroll through a newsfeed screen, or you weave through the traffic, or you respond to mail? Eating to the greatest majority of us, has become a secondary, automatic action. We are literally sitting at the table but miles apart.
This is the cause of the modern malaise with food, and it is chronic disconnection. We are feeling out of control, never satisfied and in a loop of bad and good days. But there is a way back. It is named Mindful Eating, and it is not a trend of the new age or a dietary regime. It is a kind of neurobiological re-set-button when it comes to your relationship with yourself.
In order to know why we need a reset button we have to first know how we became disconnected. It is not that we are lazy or undisciplined, we are simply living in a setting that is ideally created to ignore our natural biological signals.
Food was not abundant throughout 99 percent of human history. Our ancestors are opportunistic eaters, in that, should they detect an abundance of berry-bush or a high source of protein, their brains would respond with a tremendous burst of dopamine to encourage them to consume as much of it as they could.
We now have those olden day brains with us today, only now in a world of 24/7 caloric plenty, which is unlimited. Survival drive that we have has not yet understood that the grocery store will not disappear tomorrow. You add this primal motivation to modern Hyper-Palatable Foods, which are products that have been designed to the optimal balance of salt, sugar and fat and you have an overcharge to your reward system in the brain.
The smartphone is the commonest guest to the dinner table in the past ten years. Our brain is preoccupied whenever we eat and consume digital content. The studies demonstrate distracted eating does not allow the meal to be recorded properly by the brain. When the brain does not recognize that you have eaten, it will not transmit the appropriate messages of satiety hence you will be hungry again within an hour or so despite the number of calories you had eaten.
Since the word mindfulness is so ubiquitous the term can be taken out of context. As a tool in the food context, it is a particular psychological tool. Mindful Eating refers to the act of being non-judgmental, living in the here-and-now, of paying attention to your physical and emotional experiences when you eat.
The power is extrinsic in a diet. A book, a coach or an app instructs you what to eat, when and how much to eat. In mindful eating, the force is in the mind. You know better what to do with your body. No foods are tabooed, since once something is tabooed, the brain desires it even more a psychological phenomenon called reactance.
Slowing down is a means but not an end. You may take time to eat yet be miserable and judgmental. The goal is presence. It is where one is checked in rather than checked out.
You do not have to go and sit in a Zen garden and eat one raisin every twenty minutes. Mindful eating is not a place of destination but rather a practice. It is all about the determination to be at the table, even when you can only handle the first five bites of your food.
Why does this work? It isn't magic--it's biology. The two most significant ones are the nervous system and endocrine (hormone) system, which mindful eating has a direct influence on.
There are two main ways our bodies work and these are Sympathetic (Fight or Flight) and Parasympathetic (Rest and Digest). The majority of contemporary people eat in low-grade Fight or Flight, rush, stressed, or disengaged state.
When under stress, your body redirects blood supply in your digestive system and instead directs the blood to the muscles. The result is poor nutrition absorption, bloating, and indigestion. Mindful eating, especially the deep breathing and attention that comes with it, stimulates the Vagus Nerve, thus, switching to the Rest and Digest. This enables your organism to be able to digest the food you are feeding it.
[H3] The Endocrine System: The Hunger Unison.
There are two hormones that control your appetite- Ghrelin and Leptin.
Ghrelin is the Green Light; it is secreted in the stomach when the stomach is empty.
Leptin is the Slow down signal; this is synthesized by fat cells to inform the brain that you are not starving.
The mindless act of eating will overrule the leptin signal. The connecting time of the stomach and the brain is about 20 minutes. When you eat in five minutes, you have already absorbed the calories and the Full signal will never even get out of the station. The gap in communication is bridged by mindful eating.
You are prepared to press the reset button, then you do not have to modify your pantry. It is only necessary to alter the strategy. The following is the way to develop your mindfulness muscle:
Prior to opening the fridge, breathe and think of the level of hunger, rate it out of 1 to 10.
1-3: Hungry, lightheaded, antsy (Too late, you will most probably eat too much).
4-6: The physical hunger, the stomach growling (The Sweet Spot of eating).
7-10: bored, stressed or already full (Emotional hunger).
It is half the battle to figure out why you are headed to food.
Swear to have at least one meal a day with no screens. No phone, no laptop, no TV. When the silence is unpleasant then that is really an indication how much your brain has become used to overstimulation. Smile and sit with that uneasiness; it will all be peace.
It is a meal and you should treat it like a wine tasting.
Sight: What are the colors?
Smell: What are the faint smells?
Touch: Is the touch crunchy, smooth or grainy?
Sound What does it sound like when you bite into it?
Taste: are you able to taste the salt, the acid, the sweetness?
This prefrontal cortex (the logical brain) is kept online by this sensory interaction avoiding the autopilot brain.
You have the half empty plate, then cease. Put your fork down. Please, spend a minute just breathing and reevaluate your hunger scale. You are letting your hormones play up to your mouth.
This is a "pattern interrupt." When you use the left hand (when you are right-handed) to eat, you can not be place on autopilot. You must pay attention to the mechanical process of eating, which necessarily leaves you dragging and makes you more conscious.
This is the step that is most significant. Should you take a cookie, take the cookie. Eat the cookie and side of I should not be doing this. A self-judgment leads to stress which can cause cortisol which can cause more cravings. Savor what you eat, live in the moment and go.
Majority of the population believes that they should be more disciplined to fix their eating. But discipline is a limited resource that depletes at 7 p.m. when one has had a long working day. Mindful eating substitutes Discipline with Compassion.
We tend to eat as a way of soothing bad feelings. We eat because we are so by ourselves, so tired, or so overstitched. Mindful eating suggests that you wonder that. You would say, instead of, I have no willpower, that you are completely stressed out now, and your brain tells me that a donut will help.
The reset button at work is that change in Identity (I am a failure) to Observation (I am feeling an urge). When you see the desire, it will no longer have its hold on you.
Mindful eating does not mean that one has to eat salads all the time. It is a matter of paying enough attention that you notice that you feel charged on Tuesday after having a salad, but you feel coaxed on Friday after having a bowl of pasta- both are fine.
Mindfulness (by pressing the reset button) means that you no longer fight with food but rather listen to your body. Then you discover that you are just inclined to eat in a way that you feel good because it is not a diet book telling you to do so but because you are now at last attuned to the messages that your body was trying to communicate to you all those years.
Next time you are going to eat, do not have a glance at your phone. Look at your plate. Take a breath. Taste the first bite. That is the moment that can mark the beginning of your food freedom.
.jpg)