Mindful Eating

As we embark on to a journey to a brand new year, what if I told you that you can make significant positive changes to your health by instilling these 11 habits, and it will revolutionize the way you eat?  Would you believe me?

It is likely that one would be skeptical.  I have been practicing these habits for many years and I tried it out with some of my known close circle of people at the beginning of 2018 and am so grateful to share that they had amazingly, positive results.   Hence, sharing with all of you, my blog family.  So here are my 11 simple tricks and tips – positive ways to eat healthy and be healthy – the Eat More Art way!  I challenge you to try it out this new year, and assure you that you won’t regret.  Game ON!

It will revolutionize the way you cook/serve/eat, and will have an amazingly positive impact over your body. And mind you, it does not require you to stop what you eat regularly, unless of course you want to go on a certain diet. These tips are for over and above any diet that you may be following or what your Doctors may have recommended. Please don’t confuse this with a diet plan.

Eat More Art is all about mindful cooking, plating and eating.  

As new year approaches, people generally tend to make new year resolutions of losing weight, eating healthy etc.  But at times, these resolutions require one to make drastic lifestyle and dietary changes, and these tend not to last for a long time as one forces oneself to eat healthy, eat what they don’t like, starve oneself etc.  None of that works, and none of that is healthy in the long run, unless it is sustainable and makes you happy.  Consistency is the key.  Feeling good about what you eat is also important. Starving or depriving yourself, and thinking about it 24/7 isn’t healthy.

Lot of the times I get asked this question as to how do you make all this food that you blog about, eat anything and everything vegetarian that you like, and still maintain your health and weight.  First and foremost I am grateful for the genes that i have inherited from my Parents.  Secondly, it is about the thoughts and beliefs I have around food.  The same food can be eaten with positive vibes or negative ones – and the impact that that either one has on your body is what makes all the difference. I have instilled these habits that I have listed here for many years, and it sure has worked very well for me.  Rather, I don’t know any other way of eating food. It is quite evident in the name of my blog, ‘Eat More Art’ – read on the post and you will know what I mean, or jump right on to the 11 habits, tips, and tricks listed below.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you are just eating veggies and salads.  Eating healthy also means whatever you are eating, eat it in a positive manner, giving it good energy and positive vibes,  and not feeling like ‘this pizza slice is gonna make me fat‘, or ‘I am eating too much‘ (while still continuing to eat). You are consuming that pizza or cake already, might as well let that food have a positive impact on your body. So yes, eating pizza can also be counted as eating mindfully, if you eat it with good energy, in moderation, and be happy about what you are eating.  Eating a large bowl of salad while putting negative energy into it is surely doesn’t count as eating healthy. Give food the love, and it will love you right back!! 

I see so many people who while eating put such bad/unhealthy thoughts to what they are eating and eat in the fear that they will gain weight. It breaks my heart when I see that.  Because I know they will gain the weight they don’t want, if that is the energy they are putting to work, they will feel miserable eating that food because those are the feelings they chose.

So here goes.. I am sharing my not-so-secrets, and practical tips on eating healthy without changing your diet.

11 Mindful Eating tips :

I am sharing this list of tips that are interesting, you would love following these, and it will have a lasting impact. It is a sustainable way to eat, eat healthy, and bring positive changes to your body.  I will not ask you here to cut down this and that, I will not ask you to go on a strict diet and eliminate everything. It is more about eating mindfully, eat everything but in moderation, give good energy to whatever you are eating and few other tips.

1. Eat Mindfully: Keep phones, tablets, laptops away while eating, know what you are eating, relish each bite.
2. The Mind Body Soul mantra: Say this little prayer or mantra before you eat – it works like a charm. Make an intention that this food will nourish my mind body and soul.  If you were to follow just one tip from this list, make it this one!
3. Eat with love: Whatever you are eating – be it a slice of pizza or a nutritious salad – eat it with love, and not with a feeling that oh this is going to put on extra weight.  When you give good energy/feelings to the food, it works for you and your body.  Check out this experiment that I had done a few years ago.  
4. Eat Salad First: If your meal comprises of salad as one of the components, eat that first.  That helps in multiple ways. Apart from it’s nutritional value, it will help you effortlessly reduce the intake of other food items that may or may not be as healthy.  
5. Moderation: Don’t drastically cut down on things that you like.  It is ok to eat everything, as long as it is in moderation and is paired with other healthy foods throughout the day.
6. Soup & Salad for a meal:  It is easy to jump on to a diet and try to avoid everything that you like.  But this won’t last longer.  In few days you might get tired. Instead how about having at least one meal of the day as just soup & salad, the other meals can be your regular meals of whatever you normally eat.  That way you are not depriving yourself from foods that you love, but are smartly balancing it out.  Salads & soups can be healthy, tasty, fun too!  It is much easier than you might think. Let your creativity out with making different soups and salads say for a month – challenge yourself. You will love it.  You can find many creative soup and salad recipes on my blog.
7. Give thanks: For a few seconds, think of the farmers, the transporters, the grocery stores, those who cooked the food, and how ultimately that food got on to your plate.  Express gratitude to them in your heart. It will make you feel very positive, and will help you appreciate what is on your plate.  It has been scientifically proven that positivity impacts a lot of things in your body.
8. Know what you are eating:  Even if you are eating canned food, or using processed food in your cooking, be mindful of it.  And in long run try to reduce it as much as practical and possible, and substitute the same with healthier/home-made version of the same ingredient.
9. Take it on a plate:  When snacking, don’t just open the box or a bag and start snacking from it. Again, it is ok to snack, but take it on a plate – you would know how much you are eating, you would know if you are over snacking. You would be surprised to know how effective this is. This was one tip that helped one of my family members reduce a lot of junk food intake and eventually weight.  It’s again all about mindful eating and knowing what and how much you are eating.
10. Eat early: Make it a habit to eat your dinners early by 6.30 – 7.30pm.  That gives sufficient time between dinner and sleeping time for the body to digest the food, which is healthy for your body.
11. Make Poetry on a Plate:  Yes, really!  As my blog name and tag line suggests – Eat More Art – make poetry on a plate.  I truly believe in it and it has had a lasting impact on the energy I give to the food I cook, serve, and eat.   Whether you are cooking/serving/eating by yourself, or for/with your family, or for/with a party of 100 people, the food you make, no matter how simple it might be, needs to be served beautifully and artistically. No, I am not saying you make an avocado rose every time you serve/eat food.  What I mean is, if you are serving food, serve it on a nice plate (even if you are eating by yourself), put all the garnishes, condiments whatever goes with it nicely.  That food, the way it looks, would nourish your soul, and so automatically it will creative positive vibes and ultimately a positive impact on your body when you eat that food.  Similarly, when you are cooking the food, put the good energy, positive thoughts to it.  You will be surprised how delicious the food will turn out, no matter how simple food it might be.   Ever experience how the food tastes when it’s cooked for a community or in religious places?  If you have, you know that it always tastes super delicious.  It is because of all of the above reasons stated – love and positive vibes.

Try it out for a month – you have nothing to lose (except may be weight, if that’s what you are trying to lose). If it works out, do spread the message, and leave a comment below, so others can be inspired by your journey. <3

So these were my 11 simple tricks and tips – positive ways to eat healthy and be healthy – the Eat More Art way!  I challenge you to try it out this new year, and assure you that you won’t regret.  Game ON!

Please note: I am not a dietician, nor a healthy food expert.  Moderation is the key, don’t over-do anything.  Following these tips and then adding on a ton of unhealthy food just because you are trying out these tips is not the way to go.  Be practical, decide sensibly what works for you and your body.

Heres to a healthy, happy, fun 2019! Eat More Art – Make Poetry on a Plate each day.