What Is Mindful Eating

 Ever heard of mindful eating? Actually you hear it all the time. Be aware of your food and enjoy it. Pay attention to every single bite and not just eat for the sake of eating and filling up your hungry growling stomach. In other words, your food deserves your full attention just like a student paying full attention when the teacher is teaching.

Mindful eating can actually help you lose weight. You are totally in control of the amount of food you take. Compared to emotional eating when you eat every time you feel sad, lonely, depressed or stressed, you are subconsciously eating without actually realizing what and how much food you are putting into your mouth. Let us explore some of the common bad eating habits.

In mindful eating, you chew your food slowly and deliberately, marveling at its tastiness. Stop when you are almost full; never stuff yourself until you feel bloated with food. Learn to listen to your hunger cues. On the other hand, emotional eaters seek comfort in food and thus tend to overeat. For the emotional eaters, try at least to snack on healthy food such as fruits or even sugar free chewing gums. A better idea would be to get involved in some healthy activities every time you have negative feelings. Jump on your home treadmill and run until you sweat or go outdoors for a walk if possible. Call up a friend or even saying a prayer helps too. You can even try taking out your best cookware set, whip up a small portion of your favorite food and eat from your best dinnerware. By the time the food is cooked and ready, you would most probably be less emotional, and might not even want to eat it. Save your home cooked meal for dinner instead.

A friend of mine always cleans her house whenever she feels depressed. Out come her trusty Electrolux canister vacuum and before long, her house is spick and span. Looking with pride at her clean house always put her back in a good mood.

Skipping meals and eating at irregular times is another bad eating habit to avoid. Eating at irregular times is bad for metabolism and can lead to muscle loss over the long term. Besides, it is bad for your energy levels and this can cause a flaw in your attention span. Added to these, you might overeat at your next meal as you would be hungry. Try having small meals such as sandwiches, yogurt, mixed nuts or fruits if you really have to skip meals because of work commitments or for other reasons. At least, this helps to maintain your blood sugar level and metabolic rate, and thus a far more effective fat burning to keep you in shape.

It is also not good to eat in front of the television or while working at your computer. Remember, mindful eating ensures that you will stop eating when almost full. You must pay attention to what you are eating. No multitasking here! It also helps to eat from a smaller plate as it gives the illusion of a full plate of food.

Try to cook food that satisfies the sense of sight and smell. You will be more likely to savor your food and eat slowly, enjoying every mouthful. That's why restaurant food is always nicely presented to increase our appetite.

Eat smart the mindful way, enjoy your food, maintain your weight and good health at the same time. Life is so wonderful indeed!

Staying Motivated With Your Fitness Plans

More people are aware of the benefits of exercising regularly and making a great effort to stay in shape and be healthy. Unfortunately, workouts tend to become boring after a while and making that great effort might be more challenging than you think. It is really not so easy to stay committed and stick to your fitness plans, especially if you are busy with work and loved ones.

Working out alone even if you are listening to music or watching your favorite TV show, can become tedious once in a while.

So how do you make yourself stick to your exercise regime and not easily give up?


Working out at the same place on a daily basis can lead to boredom. Seeing the same people and being in the same surroundings is boring after a while. Try joining a gym with multiple outlets in several locations. When you feel bored working out in one location, then you just change to another one for the next few days.

Running is a very good and efficient way to stay fit. Going for a run first thing in the morning makes you feel energized throughout the day. Running on a different route every other day has a few advantages compared to running the same route every day. You get a change in scenery as well as different levels of difficulty due to different terrains. Most important, you do not feel bored with the same old routine and surroundings.

Taking a running buddy along occasionally is a great way to challenge and push you to run further as well as being able to socialize. Having a running buddy once in a while takes the boredom out of running on your own.
It is a good idea to try out various types of exercise regimens. Besides preventing you from feeling bored with the same old routine, you do not want your body to become too comfortable with the same type of workout.

Running outdoors one week, running on a home treadmill the next, followed by training at the gym the following week, adds to your interesting workout plans.

If you prefer the outdoors and like the idea of the wind blowing in your face, then cycling is a good option. If perhaps you are the type who does not like to work out alone, then exercises which enable you to socialize such as dancing, swimming, tennis, badminton and even Chinese kung fu are good options.

The gym is another place where you can have a wide choice of different workouts plans to keep you motivated. There are so many choices of exercise equipments as well as fitness classes such as yoga to choose from. Group classes can be fun and enjoyable if you prefer exercising in a group.

Attending a gym can be costly. The high monthly fees might make you give up real fast especially if you are not exactly attending regularly. Fitness community centers are more economical.

Having a workout plan enables you to get the most out of your workouts. Take for example running. If you like running as a way to get in shape, then try to keep a record of the amount of time spent running, speed of running as well as the difficulty levels of the terrains or if you are running on a treadmill, then the incline that you use. All these contribute to keeping track of your stamina and physical fitness level you are in and what you should do to reach the level you wish to achieve.

Certain models of treadmills such as the Horizon Adventure 5 treadmill are Viafit Technology compatible meaning that you get to track your workouts and even share the data with friends and other Viafit members. You can also send your data to your favorite fitness apps. That is certainly a fun, challenging and interesting way to run and keep fit.

Keeping a record helps you to see more clearly the steps you need to take to improve your performance, beat your personal best, stay motivated as well as challenge yourself and succeed in your fitness goals.

So if you really make an effort to keep fit, there are a number of ways to stay motivated. It need not have to be so difficult or so boring after all. Where there is a will, there is a way. How true indeed!