{"id":97614,"date":"2014-04-22T08:14:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T13:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=97614"},"modified":"2014-04-22T09:28:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T14:28:02","slug":"to-lose-weight-be-present-vs-distracted-during-mealtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/to-lose-weight-be-present-vs-distracted-during-mealtime\/","title":{"rendered":"To Lose Weight, &#8220;Be Present&#8221; (vs. Distracted) During Mealtime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebestlife.com\">Best Life<\/a> lead nutritionist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Want to feel more satisfied after meals? You can, if you put your mind to it.<\/p>\n<p>Eating mindfully, which can mean everything from simply noticing what you\u2019re putting in your mouth to practicing stress reduction techniques to help end stress eating, can really help. When you become a more mindful eater, you savor, enjoy, and remember fondly each bite and sip of your meal. The end result: You\u2019ll feel more satisfied and less likely to rummage around for more food.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/to-lose-weight-be-present-vs-distracted-during-mealtime\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-97615\" alt=\"mindful eating\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mindful-eating-e1398109110837.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a recent University of Southern California <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24636206\" target=\"_blank\">review of 21 mindful eating studies<\/a><\/strong>, 18 of them helped improve in eating habits, cut calorie intake, and reduced bingeing.<\/p>\n<p>There are entire books on the subject, so I won\u2019t attempt to cover every aspect. Instead, here are my top five strategies; they work for me\u2014and have helped people who\u2019ve come to me for nutritional counseling.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Identify <i>why<\/i> you\u2019re eating or drinking.<\/b> Is it because you\u2019re actually hungry? (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebestlife.com\/article-archive\/get-to-know-the-hunger-scale\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rating your hunger<\/a><\/strong> for a week can be an eye-opener.) Or are you eating because you\u2019re bored, stressed, or have another emotional trigger? Is it just habit (as in \u201cI always have a 3 p.m. snack.)? Name the reason without judgment or guilt; these negative emotions can stress you out, driving you to overeat even more.<!--more--><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Get your hand out of the bag.<\/b> If you eat from a big bag of pretzels, candy or other treat, or drink your chocolate milk or soda from a large container, you can\u2019t tell how much you\u2019ve consumed. Being mindful means minding portions. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebestlife.com\/infographic-your-portion-cheat-sheet\/\" target=\"_blank\">Portion out what\u2019s appropriate<\/a><\/strong> and put the container out of sight!<\/li>\n<li><b>Focus on your food.<\/b> If possible, step away from your desk (at the very least look away from your computer monitor), turn off the TV, get off the phone, put down your magazine, place the baby in the playpen and turn all your attention to your food.<\/li>\n<li><b>Savor and enjoy.<\/b> Note the taste, smell, texture and other attributes of your food or beverage.\u00a0 Like a food critic or wine connoisseur, think of adjectives to describe it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Take your time.<\/b> Chew thoroughly, put your fork or spoon down between bites, stretch out the meal or snack. In addition to more fully experiencing it, this has another helpful side effect: You\u2019ll start feeling full before you eat too many calories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What mindful eating strategies do you use?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nAlso Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"eat mindfully for weight loss\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/mindfully-eat-your-way-to-weight-loss-this-fall\/\">Mindfully Eat Your Way to Weight Loss this Fall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"5 ways to stop mindless eating\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/5-strategies-for-beating-mindless-eating\/\">5 Strategies for Beating Mindless Eating<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"How to stop snacking\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/a-surprising-tip-to-combat-snacking\/\">A Surprising Tip to Combat Snacking<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., Best Life lead nutritionist Want to feel more satisfied after meals? You can, if you put your mind to it. Eating mindfully, which can mean everything from simply noticing what you\u2019re putting in your mouth &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/to-lose-weight-be-present-vs-distracted-during-mealtime\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3687,1367,3695,93,58],"tags":[5503,9138,2108,7978,1309],"class_list":["post-97614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adult-health","category-childrens-health","category-diet-and-nutrition","category-mens-health","category-womens-health","tag-best-life-diet","tag-healthy-snacking","tag-mindful-eating","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindless-eating"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97614"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97617,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97614\/revisions\/97617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}