Do you consider yourself a happy person? What if I tell you that you can add more joy and pleasure into your life just by practicing mindful eating?

How long does it take you to eat your breakfast or lunch? When was the last time you enjoyed your food while chewing properly? Our eating habits are our choices, and they can tell a lot about the person. To choose joy of eating, pleasure from food at least three times a day is a choice. To make our choice a healthy habit will take time and practice.

In order to have more joy and pleasure and less anger, frustration and anxiety in our lives we need to practice attentive eating at least once a day. It will help us reduce stress, speed up our metabolism and absorb more nutrients which is very beneficial for natural weight loss/weight management and overall health.

I would like to share with you the extract from the book The Yoga of Eating by Charles Eisenstein.

Tips to Practice Attentive Eating and Stress Relief Techniques for Natural Weight Loss

• Slow down your eating. Even you are absorbed in good times and conversations, reserve a tiny part of your awareness to see that each bite is fully chewed and swallowed before the next one enters your mouth.
• Before all meals. Observe a moment of silence or say a prayer of grace. This is actually a very powerful practice, and it takes less than a minute.
• Every day take one meal, perhaps breakfast, in silence , without the distraction of a newspaper or television. Devote that meal to just eating. Or if this too difficult, devote just five minutes of one meal.
• At every meal, let the first bite you take from every dish be with perfect attentiveness.
• During lulls in the conversation, or when someone is dominating the conversation you are not interested in, take the chance to patiently experience the pleasure of each mouthful.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Counselor and Coach