Over the past couple of months, we have looked at how eating mindfully not only helps you plan your meals but contributes to improving your health and wellbeing.
As you have worked through your food journal aligned with the mindful eating blog series, you may have noticed some trends to your eating habits. Such as when you feel most hunger or what you reach for when you feel stress.
These trends are useful to assist you identify what events trigger various eating habits. You start to see these trends from a different perspective and adopt strategies to consciously change those habits.
Some useful questions to reflect on in your food journal are:
- Are there any negative thoughts that you have right now?
- Can you identify the emotion connected with those thoughts?
- What was the event that triggered that emotion?
- What triggered that emotion? (stress, boredom, anger, etc)
It can be a little overwhelming when you first begin to reflect on your food habits. However, monitoring those trends is a useful way of understanding why you reach for certain foods at different times. You can then identify the negative trends, acknowledge them, understand the trigger and practise acceptance.
Acceptance will then empower you to make positive choices as you have a better understanding of your why.
Additionally, as we have learned from the past couple of months, mindful eating is done in two steps. Planning what food, you are going to eat and then being aware while you are consuming it.
Your food journal is a great tool for food planning as you think about what meals and snacks you need for the day or week. There are many benefits to food planning including:
- Less stress about deciding what meals to prepare each day
- Money savings as you only purchase what you have planned for
- Time savings as you have made a list of what you need, and you don’t include snack food (unless you plan for it)
- Writing a regular shopping list saves time and ensures that you only buy what you need when you need it.
- Less waste as you have only bought what you have planned to eat
You have planned food you like, and which is healthy and nutritious
The Living a Wholistic Life Food Journal has been designed to not only keep track of your meals, but also provides guidance on mindful eating.