Beginning in mid-December 2011, I began to revision weight loss
— instead of viewing it as some kind of external imperative, or some huge battle, I am perceiving the whole experience & process as Remodeling the Temple of My Spirit. VERYvery different paradigm. In the first report, I wrote about how I’m journaling the experience — regarding it as an adventure or a journey, & about assiduously recording EVERYthing I eat & drink. One thing I’ve noticed: Though I sometimes really HATE seeing what I ate or drank, I less often hate seeing my body. Hating the behavior, not the one doing the behaving — yay me!!
I’ve gleaned a few other insights:
- I’m not outrageously hopeful about losing weight quickly, but I am content to let it go the way it’s going to go.
- I am learning to
focus on what I will gain — better self image, smaller jeans, ha!, rather than on what I will lose – excess pounds - I am not LOSING weight —-> I am LESSENING my weight (& trimming, slimming, etc)
- I have more resistance, an easier resistance to taking that next helping
- I am setting some goals — small: more sun salutations each day; large — giving up all alcohol for a year & a day
I am ready to begin working on Mindful Eating
The Center for Mindful Eating tells us: “Our relationship to food is a central one that reflects our attitudes toward our environment and ourselves.” Thus, how we eat, the way we think about how we eat, & — perhaps most vividly — the way we DON’T think about how we eat, influences everything. It leaves an imprint upon every facet of ourselves, upon the world we create around us, & upon the ways we respond to our external environment. It matters, & for some of us, it has created problems in our lives. Or, at least in our heads ……….. which, in turn, creates problems in our lives ……… which, in turn ………….
Here are the Principles of Mindful Eating:
Principles of Mindfulness: • Mindfulness is deliberately payin
g attention, non-judgmentally. • Mindfulness encompasses both internal processes and external environments. • Mindfulness is being aware of what is present for you mentally, emotionally and physically in each moment. • With practice, mindfulness cultivates the possibility of freeing yourself of reactive, habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. • Mindfulness promotes balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance of what is.
Mindful Eating is: • Allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food preparation and consumption by respecting your own inner wisdom. • Choosing to eat food that is both pleasing to you and nourishing to your body by using all your senses to explore, savor and taste. • Acknowledging responses to food (likes, neutral or dislikes) without judgment. • Learning to be aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decision to begin eating and to stop eating.
Someone Who Eats Mindfully: • Acknowledges that there is no right or wrong way to eat but varying degrees of awareness surrounding the experience of food. • Accepts that his/her eating experiences are unique. • Is an individual who by choice, directs his/her awareness to all aspects of food and eating on
a moment-by-moment basis. • Is an individual who looks at the immediate choices and direct experiences associated with food and eating: not to the distant health outcome of that choice. • Is aware of and reflects on the effects caused by unmindful eating. • Experiences insight about how he/she can act to achieve specific health goals as he/she becomes more attuned to the direct experience of eating and feelings of health. • Becomes aware of the interconnection of earth, living beings, and cultural practices and the impact of his/her food choices has on those systems.
I can tell right away that there are some aspects of mindful eating that will be especially challengin
g; &, I suspect others will reveal themselves, as well. I so easily trample over the satiety cues which give the signal that I am physically full. When I do, I go on automatic feed! Acknowledging there’s no right or wrong way to eat bumps right up against all the intellectual ideas of food & eating that I’ve entertained over the years: vegetarian/vegan; adhering to any pre- or proscriptions about specific foods; holistic, organic, artisanal, medicinal ………… many ideas to set aside in order to just experience food & eating on a moment-by-moment basis.
Ay yi yi! “Awareness of the moment is when change can begin.” So says The Center for 
Mindful Eating. I’ll buy it!
Related articles
- Temple Remodel: Report #1 (mindmindful.wordpress.com)
- Revisioning weight loss (mindmindful.wordpress.com)
- Mindful Eating and Weight Loss (livemindfully.blogspot.com)
- MINDFUL eating… let’s give our food the attention it deserves (simplypurelyhealthy.wordpress.com)
- How Meditation Might Help You Control Your Weight (forbes.com)
- Mindful Eating Class Begins Jan 11 (livemindfully.blogspot.com)
- Measuring for Mindful Weight Loss (nourishingresults.com)
This is an intersting post.
I would like to add to it if I may. Studies have been done on the conscious aspect of dieting. Did you know that people who look at food as something that will make them fat tend to be overwieght, while people who look at food as simply food, tend to be thin. Now, is this because they have always been thin. Or have they always been thin because they have always thought of food as simply food?
For the majority of your life, when you look at food, do you see food, or something that will inevitably make you fat?
We are simply a combination of our expectations. If you expect to gain weight every time you eat something, guess what… you will.
That is why people have so little success dieting. Not because there is something wrong with the diet. But because the person doing the dieting does not really believe it will work.
I sent you a reply from my phone, but don’t know if it “went”…………. I am interested in this idea of the conscious aspect of dieting, how our expectations of the food make the outcome. And I’d like to know more about the studies ………………
Do you want to guest blog on this??? And, how do we DO that?
if you have facebook, look for me on there. We can send each other links and documents that way.
Makes sense:) I requested to be friended — (my name is Shala Blackburn)