How to eat mindfully – Kevala yoga way
Everybody has to eat every day. There is breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meals are often tasks we undertake with every little thought and effort. Sometimes if our schedule is too busy, we lose awareness and it is possible to forget that we are even eating in the first place. This is bad because you could eat up overeating or skip meals without even realising it. 
If this sounds like your approach to eating, then why not give eating mindfully a fair go? Eating mindfully can not only improve your relationship with food but can help balance and refresh the mind, body and spirit. This spiritual process of eating can also increase your chances of successful weight loss long term.
At Kevala Yoga, weight loss is not just a goal in order to live a healthier lifestyle, it is a way of living and a mindful way of eating is simply the best way to tackle unwanted kilos. You can eat mindfully by following these five steps;
- It is all about taste. Focusing on the taste of food alone can trick your mind to think you are fuller than you realise because by focusing on taste, you are taking your time and eating less. Try to guess what the extra flavouring is and focus on the texture of the food.
- Build your awareness of food. Become aware of what you eat specifically and how much you eat. Keeping a food diary is a great start to build your awareness with food. Yoga is all about awareness as well because you are learning about what your body can and cannot do while you improve your health.
- Try to eat your meals without distractions. Have you ever noticed that when you eat dinner in the front of the tv, you find yourself wondering where did your meal go and you are still feeling hungry? Without distractions you can be more mindful about how much you eat in a much calmer way. Mindfulness is being objective and you learn how to do this through the vastness of meditation.
- Don’t turn to food when you are feeling down. Emotional eating can lessen your chances at weight loss, so instead of curbing your stress with chocolate give a few yoga poses a fair go. Curb your stress the natural way, through the power of your body.
- Improve your relationship with food and do not see it as the enemy. If you hate your fresh fruit and vegetables because they are not as sugary as chocolate, then focus on what food can do for you. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. So do you want to be as lively and healthy as an energising banana or soft and sluggish like chocolate moose? Just like with yoga, you can restart your commitment to eat mindfully by reminding yourself why you are doing this.
To practise mindful eating is to feel at peace with food and it is ultimately a conscious decision. The results are a new way of living, weight loss and an improved understanding about yoga – it is not just a pose.
Kevala Yoga can give you these results with no worries. Classes are run at Upper Coomera, Oxenford and Helensvale on Gold Coast.
Tags: body and mind, DETOX, gold coast yoga, health, healthy eating, stress, weight loss, wellbeing
