It's said that as babies, we are programmed to eat consciously at birth. Conscious Eating is where you eat only when and what you want, you stop eating when you no longer want to eat (or feel full) and you don't eat what you don't like.

There was a time when I used to eat what I wanted, when I wanted and would stuff my face with junk food. I was morbidly obese and unhealthy and hardly did any exercise.

I would eat to relieve stress, eat because I was bored, wanted to make myself feel better or sometimes just because it was there.

When I finally took the step to changing my life and started the journey to losing weight, I realized how bad things had got regarding my eating habits. I learned to pay attention to food. I paid attention to what I was eating, how it made me feel and to recognize when I was full so I wasn't over-eating.

So, I'll be sharing some tips for what I did to make sure I was eating consciously.

Recognize Whether You're Hungry Before You Eat
You might not actually be hungry! There is a difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Chances are, you could be hungry due to stress, bordem, or perhaps just eating because its there(party buffets).

Try drinking a glass of water and waiting a few minutes. It may be that you were thirsty rather than hungry.
Try to take your mind off food by doing something else that isn't food related.
Try going on a walk to relieve some of the stress.

Don't wait until you're Ravenous.
One of the keys to make sure that you are eating consciously, is to keep your body adequately fed so that you avoid being overly hungry. If you feel 'starving' chances are that you are bound to overeat to compensate for that feeling.

You don't need to eat everything on your plate.
I think it's safe to say that we're all adults now. If you don't eat everything that is on your plate, you won't be told off, nobody is going to send you to bed without having supper!

Not so fast!
Chew your food thoroughly, take your time to savour the food. It's also a good tip to put your knife and fork down whilst chewing. This will help to break the habit of putting more food in your mouth before you have finished your last mouthful. These tips should help you eat slower and in turn help you recognize if you are feeling full rather than quickly finishing a meal and overeating.
No distractions
If you eat whilst you're watching TV, on Facebook or even walking or on the move, you won't be giving food your full attention and therefore you won't really notice if your body is telling you that its full and doesn't need anymore food.

Conscious eating is a simple idea, but actually doing it is not so simple. Do not expect to be able to do all of the above in one go. It takes time and training to fully focus on eating consciously.

Once you've got the hang of it, it proves to be extremely helpful for avoiding over-eating and also helps in weight loss as it did for me!

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Question: Do you already use some of these tips? Any other tips you would recommend?

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