Paying Attention to Your Eating Habits

We all know that in order to lose weight or maintain our current weight, we need to exercise regularly and eat right. That sounds simple enough, but if you've ever tried to lose weight - even if it was just five pounds - you know how challenging this can be. One of the major reasons why losing weight can be so frustrating is because many people focus the majority of their efforts on exercising rather than what goes into their mouths. While exercise IS important, it’s not the cure all. Being aware of what you are eating and especially WHY you are eating is valuable information that can aid you in your weight loss and health related goals.

Think about it. How many times a day do you find yourself eating when you’re not hungry? How often do you eat something simply because it is sitting right in front of your face? We all do it. At some time or another, we all eat foods due to boredom, stress, loneliness or because the taste of something is so darn good, we can’t seem to stop ourselves. The first step to overcoming mindless eating is to become aware of why we are eating. Each time you go to shove a little something into your mouth, ask yourself, “am I hungry?” Pay attention to what your stomach feels like – and I don’t mean by patting it on the outside to see how flat or fluffy it is. I mean focus your thoughts on what your insides are telling you. If you’re hungry, go ahead and eat. If you’re not hungry, either save what you were going to eat for later or just walk away. Most likely, in a few minutes, you’ll completely forget about your desire to eat that little something and save yourself a few hundred calories.

Doing this simple but very effective technique will definitely help your waistline shrink overtime. You can lift weights, run marathons, swim 20 laps a day – but if you don’t change your eating habits and you continually add pointless calories into your body you won’t shed the weight you are hoping to get rid of. I once had a personal trainer tell me that “achieving or maintaining your desired weight is 90% about what goes into your mouth and 10% how hard you exercise.”

While I’m not aware of any scientific studies on those numbers, I do know that when I have paid close attention to the mindless and emotional eating I am sometimes guilty of…if I will simply stop eating for reasons other than hunger, I can easily lose those few stubborn pounds that haven’t wanted to budge with regular exercise alone.