This blog explores the difference between mindfully eating and dieting and its impacts on the mind and mental well-being. It is firstly, understanding what mindful eating is and how to do it compared to dieting. Secondly, inviting people to comprehend their body's needs through mindfulness instead of routinely dieting which benefits the body, mind and soul, not just the body dieting does. Thirdly, demonstrating tactics to strengthen the mind to practice mindful eating to the best of one’s abilities and accurately. In conclusion, comprehending the significance of mindful eating on mental well-being is different to dieting. However, raising awareness of the body's needs through mindfulness is demonstrated by strengthening the mind and making space to comfortably and accurately consciously eat, benefiting the mind, body and soul.   

Mindful eating is in the name, it is to consciously eat and comprehend the body’s needs and requirements at the moment instead of routinely causing a systematic repetition of daily calorie food intake. Conscious eating requires attentiveness to the body and mind to understand the necessary nutrition to intake to operate at full capacity. Cravings have a purpose like everything else does, as they suggest what the body is asking for; for example, when craving sweets, the body asks for sugar, or when desiring savoury food the body asks for carbs. Focusing on the messages sent from the body by reflecting on cravings assists in understanding what the body is asking for. Impulsively reacting to cravings without reflecting on what the body requires causes overeating or eating the wrong foods that skip the nutrition the body was initially asking for. This may cause obesity physically from overeating and insecurity mentally due to the dissatisfaction of one’s image. Causing the body and mind harm, thus trickling to a clouded soul. Clearing the soul from traumatic experiences relative to the experiencer yearning for healing aids in raising awareness of emotional eating habits adopted in early life, where one eats their feelings instead of expressing and dealing with them. Stillness is essential when practicing mindful eating because in reading the signals of the mind one must pause to accurately hear what the body is asking for. That is why some people after drinking water instead of impulsively eating realize they are thirsty, not hungry. Water is the key to comprehending the body’s message and not overeating, as after drinking water the body calms false cravings and enlightens the true essence of what is required. Furthermore, going for a walk instead of eating, recognizing one is anxious, and not hungry aids in not emotionally eating. Mindful eating differs significantly from a dieting regime, as routine subjugates the mind to auto-pilot mode and deteriorates awareness. Unlike consciously eating that raises awareness and attains a high level of consciousness throughout one’s entire waking life.  

Preferably mindful eating over dieting ensures the body becomes satisfied instead of deprived, which has a significant effect on mental wellbeing overall. Food is supposed to be nourishing and enjoyable hence why we have taste buds and an immune system. Dieting and restricting oneself routinely can shape one’s mind closer towards obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although mindful eating becomes the practice of mindfulness, that is meditation through one’s entire existence that aids in accurately reading the signals the body sends when one is hungry, thirsty, or merely disturbed. Negative emotions that disturb the body can bring about emotional eating, which is the habitual experience of pairing food intake with emotions felt that disrupt the body. People who have learned in early life to associate sadness or anxiety with eating tend to become emotional eaters, dependent on the parental guardian's approach in provisioning food for their children who may be displaying forms of anxiety or sadness to please them and relieve them with food. Therefore, some people cannot distinguish between arousal caused by hunger and arousal caused by negative emotion.

To adequately perform mindful eating one must strengthen the mind, to focus on the moment throughout waking life forming actioned meditation. Meditation is a spiritual name for reflection, deliberation, or consideration, which means to meditate is to consciously perform. Conscious acting can be throughout wakeful existence by staying focused, not only during times of stillness and breath work that is the conventional knowing of what meditation is. Taking heed of one’s observational life is another great way to strengthen the mind in noticing one’s existence from an objective point of view, aiding in detachment of toxicity and traumas or experiences. In doing so, the soul heals tremendously and operates as the character for consciousness instead of being lost and abandoned. Deserting the soul takes place when one does not recognise it within and subjugates oneself to the burdens of life’s circumstances and views reality from a subjective lens (to learn more about the soul read the blog The Entirety of the Self).  
 

Overall, mindful eating is preferred over dieting which can cause obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviours that dieting can train the mind to experience from the repetition of dieting regimes. Consciously eating is simultaneously an enjoyable and nutritious act for the body, explaining the reasoning for taste buds and physical health.

  Comparable to strict dieting arrangements, mindful eating assists the body, mind and soul, whereas dieting aids in weight loss or maintenance and neglects the mind and soul, only focusing on the physical. Through consciously eating one learns to listen to the body’s needs instead of being concerned with weight loss or maintenance and inevitably attaining weight loss or upkeep.

  It is crucial to build up strength in the mind to effectively carry out conscious eating, as focus takes powered strength to sufficiently perform. Building strength takes a considerable amount of attentive focus on the mind, body and soul, and requires one to move beyond subjective listening, hearing, and experiencing wakeful existence to convert to objective viewing and understanding. Objectivity heals the soul, attends to the body, and rejuvenates the mind because it is the conscious act of moving beyond traumas, adopting habits such as emotional eating, and impulsivity of a reactive mind. Beating obesity and insecurities caused by overeating occurs when one practices mindful eating, curing mind, body and soul unlike the body alone dieting presents. Not only does dieting focus on the body alone neglecting the mind and soul but it can also cause mental disruption in cultivating OCD in other areas of life birthed from the mind’s adaptation to compulsive obsession dieting can cause.

 

 

 

Deena M.