5 Healthy Tips to Mindful Eating

Your diet is not only what you eat, its being mindful of each morsel which goes into your body, where it came from and how it will impact you. Food we eat should primarily be measured as a source of energy. Isn’t that the idea of food anyways? Once we start analyzing the impact of our diet in terms of energy and nutrition it provides to our body, we will start making healthier choices. Here are 5 easy tips to mindful eating:

1. Make Vegetables the Celebrities of Your Meal

You’ve probably heard that eating more vegetables and less meat is healthy and are inspired to try eating a vegetarian diet to improve your health. Well, give it a try. Not only is a vegetarian diet the healthiest way to incorporate an array of vegetables, whole grains and legumes into your meal, it might even help you loose some weight. You can create a complete meal plan which includes all essential nutrients for a diet and is mindful and healthy at the same time.

2. Keep Dairy as an Integral Part of Your Diet

Primary difference between being a vegetarian and vegan is animal products and dairy, ie milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs etc. While vegans do not include any dairy in their meals, vegetarians do, and it is incorporated as an important part of their diet plan. Dairy has a lot of nutritional value to add and you could be missing out on essentials like calcium, potassium, phosphorus, proteins, and vitamins A, D and B12. Be thoughtful of not hurting the animals and sourcing ethically and mindfully from natural sources.

3. Eat Each Meal with Mindfulness

Eating every meal should be an intuitive and mindful process and not hurried or on autopilot where we focus more on something else other than eating. Mindfulness helps us remove distractions and focus on eating our meal uninterrupted. In doing so, we begin to take our time over a meal and eat slowly, we savor the flavors, the aromas, and the textures. We reconnect with our senses. Mindful eating simply invites us to be present while cooking or eating and enjoy the entire experience.

4. Join a Sharing and Inclusive Community

What you take in is not just food, its an emotional and spiritual feed as well, and its everything your body interacts with. Being with a close knit community of friends and supporters, online or otherwise is a great way to connect and share your experiences with. In ancient eastern cultures, single households never cooked alone. There was a central hall where all community families got together and they prepped and ate meals with each other. Similarly if you can join a community of like minded vegetarian eaters, you will feel connected and in sync with other individuals who are on the same journey of mindful eating.

5. Discover the Magic of Buddha Bowls

Instagrammable glory aside, Buddha Bowls hold within themselves a universe of magic, as unique as your imagination. When prepping a Buddha Bowl, you can basically combine all your delectable favorite foods in a heaped bowl of healthy goodliness. A delicious, health boosting bowl, usually has a starchy component—like quinoa or brown rice—combined with roasted and raw vegetables, a plant protein (legume or tofu), healthy fats with avocado, seeds or nuts and your choice of greens. Buddha Bowls may be the easiest way to start eating mindfully as you pay attention to what goes into your bowl and savor every little bite of your food.