EatingDisorders/Mindful Eating and Breakfast
Dear Readers!
On Sunday, 16th March 2014, I attended One Day Short course on Mindful Approaches to Nutritional Change (Practitioner training) in Richmond Surrey. This fabulous course was delivered by very brilliant Katie Sheen. The one day course explored the importance of Mindful Eating to support nutritional change. Katie Sheen shared something very fascinating on how to beat binge eating AND eating disorders with one small exercise. You have to commit to this exercise for two weeks to see the difference it makes to your well being.
Eating a Good Healthy Breakfast for Two Weeks
Katie Sheen’s Suggestion: We cannot sustain ourselves without eating. Start your day off right with a high protein breakfast to fill you up, and get your body fired up. Breakfast Rules!!
The act of eating is a sacred act and does us and our bodies great benefit to be treated as such. Islam places lots of emphasis on eating mindfully. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:
“Nothing is worse than a person who fills his stomach. It should be enough for the son of Adam to have a few bites to satisfy his hunger. If he wishes more, it should be: One-third for his food, one-third for his liquids, and one-third for his breath.” Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah.
This course further amplified my belief in eating mindfully for soul mind and body. In Eating Disorder we lose a joy of eating and our relationship with food becomes distorted. When we apply mindful-awareness to the eating, the experience of eating looks and feels very different from what we may be accustomed to. Mindfulness allows us to honour the food we eat, and thus honour ourselves; changing the way we relate to food and the relationship we have with food. Being Mindful matters and is a key to healthy living.
Are you Ready for Breakfast Challenge?
For two weeks have a healthy Breakfast, Eat it like a King and see the difference it makes to your overall day.
- Write down the difference it makes to your overall Day, i.e. to your energy levels, mental levels etc.
- If you go for binge by 10:00am, write down after what time hunger kicks in after you’ve had your breakfast.
- Record the number of times you binge and purge in those two weeks.
- After two weeks, what is your physical response to food, how do you feel about food?
Give this exercise two weeks, what have you got to lose?
Eating breakfast every day can be overwhelming, start by trying it three times week and take notice of the difference it makes in your day and how you feel.
Benefits of Two Week Challenge:
What Binging? If you snack throughout the day on sweets, drinks, foods that are devoid of nutritional values, then you’ll see that desire lessening.
More Energy– You will have more energy.
Clear Mind– You will have a sharp, active mind.
By end of two weeks, you will regain the confidence in one’s intuitive desires related to hunger and food choice. Remember You are nourishing yourself and connecting with your beautiful self.
What Breakfast works for you?
Learn to be aware of your thought patterns around food choices.
My Example: I always hated breakfast. By 11:00am I just wanted to go back to bed and sleep. Throughout the day, I would snack on sweets and drinks. At the eating disorder unit, we had to start our day with a good breakfast. At home I experimented with several breakfasts and wrote down how I felt about all of them. Later on I was able to make informed choices about my breakfast. Now I know what breakfasts work best for me and I never compromise on my choices.
I experimented with following:
Breakfast 1- Bowl of Frosties with semi-skimmed milk and cappuccino.
Breakfast 2- Cup of coffee with Oatmeal
Breakfast 3- Spinach Egg omelet with goat cheese, two slices of wholewheat toasts and a cup of Mint tea.
Recipe: http://www.rd.com/food/recipes-cooking/healthy-spinach-and-goat-cheese-omelet-recipe/
Advantage of Breakfast 3- Starting your day with a good protein based breakfast helps keep your blood sugar levels in check. It also prevents you from going for a binge earlier in the day. You shouldn’t skip breakfast, ever.
Mindful Breakfast- If we begin to pay attention to how specific kinds of breakfast impact our body, we can start to make better choices about what breakfasts to eat.
Mindful Breakfast tips:
- Chew slowly. Not only is this better for your digestive system, you’ll also enjoy it more.
- Try not to talk during meals. Focus on the food.
Protein Breakfast challenge for Healthy Body and Mind
Try a protein based Breakfast. This is your first chance of the day to make it a good one-take advantage of it!
According to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition people who enjoy breakfasts high in protein are less likely to consume foods high in fat or sugar later in the evening. On day seven of the experiment, the participants were asked to fill out appetite and satiety questionnaires and also had blood samples drawn. The researchers also examined their brain activity with fMRI brain scans.The researchers found that the participants who had eaten breakfast felt fuller later on than those who had skipped breakfast. The consumption of breakfast also resulted in a reduction in brain activity responsible for the control of food cravings. Eating a high-protein breakfast also impacted snacking on high-fat or high-sugar foods in the evening, compared with skipping breakfast or eating cereal. “Eating a protein-rich breakfast impacts the drive to eat later in the day, when people are more likely to consume high-fat or high-sugar snacks,” study researcher Heather Leidy, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri, said in a statement. “These data suggest that eating a protein-rich breakfast is one potential strategy to prevent overeating and improve diet quality by replacing unhealthy snacks with high quality breakfast foods.”
Source: https://guardian.co.tt/lifestyle/2013-03-29/high-protein-breakfasts-prevent-snacking
Do you feel like mindless eating has become a habitual pattern in your life? Would you like to learn how to become a mindful eater and reap the many benefits that mindful eating can provide? Try Soul Nutrition. www.soulnutrition.org
The benefits of committing to the mindful path are many, but as we know, the real work that we need to do to grow as human beings, is never easy. With focused effort, you too, can reap the many benefits of learning to eat more mindfully.
Start with Breakfast and Move on!
