Most of us might be able to name what we ate for lunch yesterday, but can you remember last Thursday’s pre-dinner snack? Relax if the answer is no. It is perfectly normal to forget specific details like the amount of chips consumed or how many cups of water you drank. But this is thoughtless eating. Even if you are healthy, practicing mindful eating is still important long term because it fosters a greater awareness of what you are putting into your body and helps you optimize your diet for the best results.
1. Start a Food Journal
This is a safe, no judgement space for you to track down your daily food and drink intake. The more specific you can be with the brand, food group and quantity, the better you can monitor your nutrition. A good place to start would be to record what you eat each meal and expand into snacks and beverages. You can even come up with a checklist of food groups (carbohydrates, protein, vegetables and fruit) to make sure you are not missing out on any each day. But not to fret, even if you are not that thorough, this will give you an idea of any unhealthy portion sizes, an imbalance in food groups or too much snacking outside of meals. You can then start by holding yourself accountable for your eating habits and make whatever changes necessary to feel more energized.
2. Use Apps to Log Your Daily Nutrition
Apps like MealLogger provide an overview of the number of food groups consumed thus far with accompanying pictures. There are many free options to choose from and all you have to do is test out a few of them until you find one that suits your needs. Note that while calorie counting apps are useful in ensuring you stay within the recommended daily intake, being too consumed with these numbers are also detrimental to your mental wellbeing. Instead, focus on portion control using a consistent estimate. For example, one fistful or cup is an easy standard of measurement.
3. Chew More Times instead of Swallowing your Food
In today’s fast paced society, we think that speed is everything. However, eating too fast tends to lead to overeating because the fullness signal takes a while to travel to the brain from the stomach. Chewing more times until the food is mashed instead of gulping it down with water allows it to mix with saliva and allows sufficient digestive enzymes to be produced before it travels down your throat into your stomach into your small intestine and large intestine. This will prevent conditions like heartburn, acid reflux, bloating and indigestion. Doing this will also help to subdue the feeling of hunger as the mechanical action tricks the brain into thinking you are consuming more food than you actually are, without any of the unhealthy side effects. Ultimately, what you want is to develop a healthy relationship with food so try not to eat till you are stuffed, just until you are sufficiently satiated.
4. Cook at Home More Often
The perennial we all face daily is: what to eat? Yet another decision to make after a long day of work or school. The truth is, having meal plans and menus in advance removes the temptation to just order in or eat out because you cannot decide what to cook. Create a folder of all your favourite healthier choice recipes or designate days with different cuisines. The extra perk is you get to know exactly what goes into your meals (and knowledge is power indeed).
5. Replace Current Snacks with Healthier Options
Most of us can’t resist the urge to snack, especially when we are working intensely in between meals. Store snacks in closed cupboards so you can keep temptation out of sight and out of mind. Alternatively, if you’ve hit your snack quota of the day, fill up on water or tea instead.
Always remember that progress cannot be achieved overnight, making small but incremental changes over time is the best way to build good nutrition habits. Awareness is the first step and maintaining a positive attitude towards your nutrition is key. Instead of self policing, think of it as self encouraging better nourishment.