Mindful Eating Isn't Thinking

You know, mindful eating isn’t thinking about eating. Generally, if you’re thinking about eating, your going to want to eat ~ whether you need to or not.

Being mindful is totally different because what comes into play is beyond cerebral activity.

It reflects an awareness of your feelings and emotions, essential guideposts in forming behavior patterns that work in your best interests.

Not so with thinking.

Thinking often just ensures that you’ll always do what you always did, so you’ll always get what you always got.

That’s why exercise needs to be a part of this conversation, because putting your muscles to work is what helps bridle the activity of what’s affectionately referred to as “the monkey mind.”

Without exercise ~ just thinking ~ our minds are engaged like a revved up car engine with the emergency brake on.

But thinking makes us who we are ~ we would reason. To not think would cut off the ego’s essential source of validation. Which, of course, is precisely why you shouldn’t think.

You more or less get out of the way of your higher self ~ that intuitive voice ~ your “true North” that knows exactly what you really need.

If you can’t envision what activity you’d engage in, then just start walking. Briskly. Step out there after dinner when it’s dark and cold ~ or better yet, before dinner right after you get home from work.

Then check yourself out. Just that departure from the “same ol’, same ol’” will have recalibrated your system enough to cause you to pause before you make the same old food choices. That’s all it will take, because for a time, however brief, you’ll consider making a better choice.

If it works that way once, it can work that way again.