Mindful Eating in 9 Steps!

Struggling to lose weight? Here are 9 things to consider next time you're at the dinner table.

There’s more to savouring a meal than simply avoiding screens and eyeballing your food as it goes from fork or spoon to mouth.

At Austria’s F.X. Mayr Health Centre, where he is medical director, Dr Stephan Domenig encourages a silent dining room and spends a great deal of time teaching people how to re-think their relationship with food.

Mindfulness is a critical part of that process. In his book, The Alkaline Cure (Penguin Books, $24.99), he outlines the following tips for truly mindful eating that will help you better enjoy and digest every mouthful.

9 diet tips for mindful eating:

1. Allow at least 30 minutes at the table for each meal.
2. Make sure you are comfortably seated. Take a couple of deep breaths to settle yourself.
3. Notice any feelings of impatience and urges to just get on and eat the food. Stop thinking of things you need to do. Dedicate this time to enjoying your food.
4. Look at the food on your plate. Appreciate its visual qualities. Smell your food and breathe in the mouth-watering aromas.
5. Think about how much food you put on your fork – the less the better.
6. When you put the food into your mouth, appreciate the different flavours and textures.
7. Chew well, around 30 times is the minimum. Ensure the food in your mouth it fully masticated before you swallow.
8. Put your fork down between bites.
9. Resist any urge to rush to dessert, the next bite of food, or to get up and do something else.

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