Mindfulness and Eating

Mindfulness, Presence, Awareness. Catchy words these stays, all meaning the practice of staying in the moment. It is getting increasingly more attention for its ability to boost physical and mental health. Mindful eating has been shown in research to help people stop binge eating, lose weight and reduce anxious food and body thinking.

Jan Chozen Bays, MD explains that "Mindful eating involves paying attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body. We pay attention to the colors, smells, textures,flavors, temperatures and even the sounds of our food. We pay attention to the experience of the body. Where in the body do we feel hunger? Where do we feel satisfaction? What does half-full feel like, or three-quarters full?

1. Avoid distractions like phones, tv and the like. Pay attention to your thinking while you eat. 
2. Become one with your meal in the following ways:
3. Breathe a few healthy breaths and focus before your meal.
4. Sit down at the table. Not standing, not in bed, not driving.
5. Create a positive atmosphere with a nicely set table.
6. Turn off your tv or computer, book, newspaper and quit using your phone. Pay full attention to your meal and your body's signals while you eat.
7. Place a forkful of food in your mouth, put the fork down. This is a lot harder than you think. resist the urge to slurp down your meal, especially when you are hungry. Leave the fork on the table until you are ready for your next bite.Chew slowly and enjoy the texture, flavor, aroma. Be conscious of your different sensations. Eating slowly can lead to eating less during meals.
8. Take a 2-minute break in the middle of the meal. Don't beat yourself up if you did overeat. Pay attention to the physical and emotional distress and strategize how you can prevent overeating at the next meal, Sourced from Cathry Keller Fitbiecom

Fat Hormone # 3 Ghrelin

Ghrelin is a hormone secreted by the stomach, and like leptin, it acts on the hypothalamus, but ghrelin increases appetite rather than decreases like leptin

The levels of grehlin are regulated through the day and are closely correlated with meal time. Levels of ghrelin are highest just before a meal.

Sudies have shopwn that one of the main reasons people tend to put lost weight back on after a diet is that ghrelin levels increase dramatically after dieting. This causes uncontrollable humger and eventual over-eating.

A hormone called, Peptide YYS-36 is produced by the stomach cells and has the effect of reducing ghrelin secretion.

Lean people tend to produce more of this hormone than obese people. This adds credence to the fact that obesity is more of  a metabolic disorder than was first thought.

It may be possible to increase the body's production of Peptide YY3-36 by eating more frequent small meals.

This enables the stomach to have small amounts of food in it through the day which stimulates secretion of Peptide YY3-36 and reduces ghrelin secretion to reduce humger.

In Summary:

Eat small planned meals throught the day, 5 is a good number. Eat in moderation. Use a small bowl or plate, quit with one serving. Choose healthier food in its natural state; not processed with all the enzymes killed. Meta 21 can help you in your weight loss journey by introducing the important enzymes back into your body helping to break down the food and helping you assimilate what you need and getting rid of what you do not need.