Reasons to Eat Mindfully

What’s the most common health issue that people have? Obesity. Many people want to lose weight; however, they aren’t able to accomplish the goal. Despite the existence of several crash diets (some of which can help us lose up to 20 pounds in a week), we aren’t inclined to use them to achieve our fitness goals.

There are many reasons why we avoid these diets. They are often expensive to follow or make us lose the goodness of several valuable vitamins from our food. Regardless of how we feel about losing weight, dieting is rarely the way to go for any of us.

The simpler alternative to dieting can be summed up in just one lifestyle change. All you need to do to start losing weight is chew your food 30–40 times before swallowing. In other words, ensure that your food is completely liquified before it goes into your stomach. This one change can be the game-changer for you in your weight-loss journey. However, something this easy may seem too good to be true.

Fortunately, there is a simple and logical explanation for this phenomenon. Completely chewing your food makes you feel far fuller than just gulping it down. If you don’t believe this, try it out. In one meal, mindfully eat your food, making sure to liquefy every piece in your mouth. Later, eat the same type of meal but eat mindlessly this time. You will find that mindful eating will make you feel satiated much earlier than eating mindlessly.

Energy Boost

There are even more benefits of chewing food than just losing weight. Chewing food gives you several boosts in energy and nutrients, both of which are vital to our everyday lives.

Also, around 90% of all sicknesses are stomach-induced, so slow eating helps us control many of these issues. Most of these sicknesses come from overeating or eating the wrong things. We can avoid as many of these sicknesses as possible by eating mindfully. And finally, eating slowly also helps us enjoy the food that our loved ones or we have prepared.

However, developing this habit may still seem challenging, and here are a few ways to do it.

Spread The Word

While this technique may not seem like it helps you, it most certainly does. The Buddha taught others about having a Sangha or a group of like-minded practitioners. You can create your Sangha by teaching others the benefits of eating slowly (by showing them this post, perhaps? 😉). It will ensure that there will be people to help you recover even on your worst days. In this case, they will help you eat slowly even when you’re hungry or tired.

Smaller Bites

This is a clever way to convince your mind that you have eaten enough. Taking smaller morsels of food to your mouth will still register as eating many bites of food. However, liquifying all of these bites will lead to a feeling of satiation for your body and mind.

Our mind tends to think that we haven’t had enough to eat, forcing us to eat as much as possible. It’s a primitive instinct from our hunter-gatherer days that still hasn’t vanished. The way to conquer this is to take small bites and eat them slowly.

In conclusion, chewing your food and mindful eating will allow you to lose weight quickly. Along with this, you will gain many benefits which will help you in the long run. Eventually, you can make more tweaks to your lifestyle, such as exercising and eating healthy.

All of these combined will allow you to attain the physique of your dreams (Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’m coming for you…or not!). At the very least, you’ll feel healthier, happier, and more self-confident!

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