Regain a healthy relationship with food and discover a new way to eat to lose weight without anxiety. The “mindfulness” diet is key.

How can mindfulness or conscious eating help us to lose weight?

Mindfulness is a foundation for a more conscious and attentive life and, that life includes our diets.

Today, excessive stimuli, hurrying, etc. facilitate a momentum that drags us into dysfunctional feeding patterns, in which we swallow food without even being conscious about it and for reasons unrelated to actual hunger.

These ideas are related to intake styles, which consist of eating for reasons other than the physical sensations of hunger.

Intake styles are not a problem in and of themselves when dieting, the real issue is the great neglect and disconnection from the body’s natural signals.

Mindful eating

To help us eat a healthy diet and lose those extra pounds, mindfulness specialists recommend mindful-eating.

This practice consists of a model of conscious feeding, completely ignoring food restrictions, based on paying attention to one’s own internal signals to balance satisfaction.

What is satisfaction? This is understood as pleasure and well-being, self-care, attention to one’s own physical, psychological and emotional needs, and health.

Basically, it consists of a series of attitudes, strategies and techniques that allow us to learn to eat more attentively, responsibly and healthily.

Not skipping meals, a key to losing weight

There is a false belief that skipping certain meals such as breakfast or dinner can help us lose weight.

This practice cannot be further from the truth, as in addition to being dangerous to your health, it has the result of a rebound effect that will make you gain weight faster.

Among its effects is the rise of the glycemic index that occurs in the body after three hours without ingesting any type of food, which leads to a greater feeling of hunger and the need for more food to satisfy us.

In addition, avoiding food intake does not in any way lead to the loss of fat stores,  because your body goes on alert, and fat reserves cause your metabolism to slow down, creating a “rebound effect.”

Of course, consult with your physician or a certified nutritionist before starting any weight loss plan, but keep in mind the benefits of eating consciously!