Mindful Eating
3 Reasons We Need Mindful Eating
There are many reasons to choose mindful eating as a strategy to improve your health. In a nutshell there are three reasons why I choose to eat mindfully and why it’s important to share the strategy with you.
1. To Clarify the Chaos & Confusion of Eating
Do you wonder why you just can’t seem to put the bag of cookies you are eating down until you’ve eaten every last of them? Or when you try to eat healthfully on your own there is an over-whelming amount of information, from the sensational to the scientifically proven. “Eat more eggs” one day, “Don’t eat eggs,” the next. It is easy to see why so many people want to throw their hands up and say, “I give up!”
Take it from a recovered sugar-holic: The GOOD NEWS is you don’t have to give up. With a tad bit of knowledge about food and your relationship with it, you will be empowered. Further, when you learn Mindful Eating strategies through the You-nique Well-being you can then truly improve your health and live vibrantly!
My name is Trudi, and I’m a sugar-holic. I know it seems contradictory, but I was simultaneously a fitness nut and a sugar-holic for 20 years. As a cross-country runner in high school and college, I topped out at 50+ miles a week for training, yet all I ever ate was sugar-laden, white flour junk glued together with hydrogenated vegetable oil (a.k.a. trans fats). A sad side note is that I elected to take a nutrition course during my undergraduate studies in Physical Education. The result?
Not a single word about the detrimental effects of sugar, in any of its 56 forms, to our health! (You can read about why here.) So with my Nutrition 101 expertise from a state university (supported by the processed food industry) and my 50+ miles a week to burn it off, I had no incentive to consume less of the sweet stuff.
After years of gut problems galore and frightening hypoglycemic attacks, I learned the hard way. Want to build a strong base for good health?Out of the thousands of tools available to us, Real Food is the nail, Mindful Eating is the hammer. Our informational toolbox is over-flowing with options: use these two to make an amazingly strong base. Add the fluffy stuff later.
2. For the Health of It
Fast forward to 2001 I read a book that changed my life—and my health. I became a re-covered sugar-holic. I navigated unchartered waters in the world of real food consumption. Through that journey I learned a lot about food, food politics, nutrition, and about myself. It took me many years to find the treasure, and I want to share the loot with you. It’s my obligation!
One of the most important lessons I learned is the famous cliché: We are what we eat.
I learned that in the depths of my soul.
The bottom line is that food as medicine is Real Food, not the Standard American Diet (SAD) which is highly processed and packaged food products that are high in calories, low in micro-nutrients, high in modified food components, low in natural components (despite the term “natural” on food labels). When I ate the SAD way for 20 years, I was physically and emotionally miserable. When I switched to Real Food, I felt great!
Admittedly, it wasn’t just a matter of knowing what to eat and what not to eat. That was the easy part.
3. Empowerment
I learned that the process of changing the way I ate and sticking to it as a long term lifestyle, involved a crucial element, a key. The key was mindfulness. It couldn’t have become a long term lifestyle of looking better and feeling great without being aware, moment by moment. I can’t say I was taking it “one day at a time.” It has been more like the thousand mile journey that is taken one step at a time:
Mindful Eating, one moment at a time, one bite at a time!
When we own it, we can achieve it! That initial success that slipped away from you in your previous efforts to manage your diet, weight or fitness can be YOURS in the long run.
And here’s a little secret: The bonus is that you can transfer the strategies of MINDFUL EATING to other aspects of your life and well-being.
I invite you to read more about Why Mindful Eating and learn about upcoming MINDFUL EATING Workshops or if you ready to accept an invitation to join A Mindful Mouthful Workshop here.