As a Registered Dietitian, I was taught to provide evidence based, scientifically proven nutrition advice to patients during my clinical nutrition training since college. But there aren't many scientific studies showing effectiveness of Mindful Eating (however, there are some researchers finding positive health results from mindfulness based practices). So why do I believe in Mindful Eating so much?
1. Regulating emotional eating.
70% of our food decisions are influenced by our emotions. If I look back, when I used to eat emotionally probably 100% of my food decisions are controlled by my emotions. Rarely I would ask my body if I was hungry or not. Out of frustrations and anger, I would automatically reach for the Hershey Bars, Ben & Jerry's, etc.
2. Mindful Eating is forgiving.
Unlike following a strict diet, mindful eating won't restrict you from calories or your favorite foods. It won't punish you from eating over the calories or junk foods, thus removing excess stress which caused by following commercial diets. What mindful eating teaches you is to respect your body and put your health before anything else. If you're not feeling good and healthy, there will be other problems both internally and externally. You may start to develop illnesses and not be as productive at work.
3. Honoring the body's wisdom.
The commercial diets out there, from calorie counting to Paleo diets; they disregard what our body is telling us. Mindful Eating is the opposite, it forces you to listen and respect your body. If you listen to your body carefully and putting less stress on your body, you won't be craving for junk, but rather you will start to crave for healing foods such as vegetables and fruits.
I will be sharing tips and advice to how to get started with Mindful Eating. Also, I am in process of building a Free 7 Day Mindful Eating Challenge to get you started with mindful eating! Please subscribe to my ZEN Newsletter to get the updates.
If you're ready to learn more please visit here, or you can shoot me an e-mail or call me at (201) 616-7249.