conscious eating + comfort zones
Let’s Talk About Conscious Eating
Conscious eating, also known as mindful eating, is an alternative to dieting. I like to think of dieting as taking medicine - Maybe we need to lose weight or gain weight quickly, so we make a drastic change until we get healthy. On the other hand, I think of conscious eating as exercise - A preventative way to stay healthy for life.
Conscious eating is being fully attentive to your food, your hunger cues, and your emotions. It helps us stay in tune with our body and make intuitive food choices.
Here are 5 ways to practice it:
Slow Down - The faster you eat, the less your body can tell your brain that you’re full, which makes it easier for you to overeat. Fun fact: Although chewing food thoroughly takes longer, it helps you digest faster!
Know Hunger - Next time you reach for a snack, think about why you’re going for it. Sometimes, we go to food for comfort or out of boredom… Emotional eating habits start in childhood, and they can be hard to break. It’s always good to name and understand our feelings - food doesn’t have to be a band-aid!
Build an Environment - Mindful eating starts at the grocery store. Make a grocery list of healthy items, eat before you go shopping, and stock your kitchen with delicious foods that also make you feel good— It’s harder to eat junk food when you don’t have any in the house!
Practice Gratitude - There had to be soil and water and sunlight and people to take care of the plants and animals and truck drivers and grocery store employees and loved ones who worked to fill your plate. When we say “thank you,” we recognize how interconnected our world is. We make better decisions about our food, because we know it affects others.
Be Present - I find myself eating in front of my inbox or a TV show all the time. I am so focused on the screen, that I barely pay attention to my meal. Eating while distracted makes it so hard to listen to hunger cues, to slow down, and to practice gratitude. Being alone with your food is maybe the biggest change you can make!
“My comfort zone is like a little bubble around me, and I’ve pushed it and made it bigger until these objectives that seemed crazy now fall in the realm of possibility.” - Alex Honnold
Alex Honnold is a super famous rock climber, and the first person to climb El Capitan in Yosemite without any safety gear or ropes. Safe to say, Alex Honnold is brave.
It’s hard to imagine him as even having a comfort zone, but Alex still feels fear- He just learned to get over it. Fear is a protective instinct that keeps us from situations that could hurt us… and it also operates in the same part of the brain as excitement. The things that scare us are also the things that interest us - we just have to know which is which.
Expanding our comfort zone teaches us what is truly dangerous and what just lives in our imagination. The more we do and the more we fail, the more we learn what we are actually capable of. This week, try something that scares you! It might just be your next big passion project.
[Hey, I’m lydia - I created hungry hippie wellness to help people reach their fitness goals. I call myself a “holistic fitness coach” because I focus on mindset and attitude alongside all the typical stuff like diet and exercise. If you’re looking to lose weight or gain muscle, I’d love to work with ya!
This is my newsletter, the monday message, and it goes out (you guessed it!) every monday. It’s a space for me to share knowledge and encouragement with my community. Also, it’s a great example of my coaching philosophy… If you want all this good stuff directly in your inbox, hit the link to sign up below! Welcome to the hungry hippie family. i am so happy you’re here]
