We live in a fast-paced world. Convenience is king and when it comes to eating, fast tends to win over more times than healthy. Whether than means grabbing a snack at your desk, in the car or while watching your favorite show on television, you may not be fully aware of what or how much you are eating. However, Lovelace Bariatrics Director Dr. Duc Vuong says doing that over and over again forms a bad habit that can affect our waistlines and overall health. He offers these three tips for becoming a mindful, and therefore, more healthy eater.
Replace junk food with good snacks
In order to remove the temptation of mindlessly eating salty or sweet snacks, Dr. Duc Vuong, Lovelace Bariatrics Director, says the first thing is to remove them altogether. “Get rid of all the junk,” he says. “You’re never going to be successful if you leave junk lying around, whether it is on your desk, at your home or in your car. Replace junk food with healthy things like fruits and vegetables. Carrot sticks and kale chips are great.” The next time you’re thinking of a snack, you are less likely to grab something unhealthy if it isn’t within reach.
Ask the question: “Why am I mindlessly eating?”
The opposite of mindful eating is mindless eating – eating without fully considering why you are doing so in the first place. Are you hungry? Are you bored? Are you tired? Dr. Vuong says the reason we do so comes down to one answer. “Some people might say, ‘I’m under stress,’ or it is an emotional problem like, ‘My mother’s sick in the hospital,’” he says. “If you keep asking yourself those questions, you will come to only one right answer and that is mindless eating is just a habit.”
Our environments - at work, at home or with friends - condition us to mindlessly eat, Dr. Vuong says. When something triggers us to reach for a snack, more times than not we are reaching for something sweet or salty in response to that trigger. “We think of habits as muscles we exercise,” adds Dr. Vuong. “If you’re snacking on junk, you’re exercising a bad habit. If you replace that junk with fruits or vegetables, now you’ve turned a bad habit into a good habit.”
Ask the question: “Why am I being mindless?”
Is there a reason you are aware of that you are not being selective about when, what and how much you eat? What else is happening when you are exercising this bad habit? Dr. Vuong says one way to become a mindful eater is to change what you are telling yourself. “You need to start telling yourself, ‘I’m a mindful eater,’” he says. Here’s how to change that self-talk:
-Slow down.
-Chew food at least 20 times.
-Notice the taste of the food.
-Consider the nutrients affecting that taste.
-Consider the place the food came from and the farmer who grew the food.
-Think about what it took to get that food on your plate.
While you are enjoying a healthy snack and asking yourself these questions, Dr. Vuong says you will be more aware of not only what you are eating, but it will give you a larger perspective on your choice, ability and desire to eat that piece of fruit or vegetable in consideration of the people who worked to grow, harvest and transport that food.
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