If you’re experiencing difficulty losing weight, meditation can be an effective complement to diet and exercise. As appreciation grows for the mind-body connection, more dieters are discovering the benefits of mindfulness.
Learn here how meditation can help you manage your weight along with some simple practices for getting started.
How Meditation Helps With Weight Loss
1. Relieve anxiety. Emotional eating can be a big obstacle for many dieters. Meditation and other techniques that relieve stress will help you feel more peaceful. Over time, you’ll find more constructive methods for managing your emotions.
2. Improve your self-esteem. Sticking to your diet is easier when you feel good about yourself. Training your mind to become less judgmental may make you thinner and happier. When you cherish yourself, you’ll often get better results with less effort.
3. Strengthen your motivation. To keep weight off, it’s important to sustain your motivation over the long haul. Building a strong mental foundation for your diet will make it easier to resist temptation even when there’s another birthday cake being passed around the office.
4. Develop a healthy relationship with food. If you’re trying to change the way you eat, you may feel like food is an enemy. Analyzing your attitudes about food will help you adopt a healthier view about the importance of nutrition.
5. Give your kids positive messages about eating. When you become a positive role model, you can pass your good habits along to your kids.
* Studies show that when parents try to control how kids eat, it can backfire and cause more resistance. Your good example may protect your kids from eating disorders and yo-yo dieting.
Meditation Practices for Dieters
1. Use meditation in addition to diet and exercise. Meditation is a great supplement to good nutrition and regular exercise. Make all three part of your regular routine.
2. Eat mindfully. Self-monitoring is one of the most effective tactics for weight loss. The mindfulness you develop during your seated meditations can carry over throughout the day to keep you from eating on the run or while watching TV. Learn to savor every bite instead.
3. Listen to your body. Some dieters grow disconnected and fail to recognize when they’re full. By paying attention to your body, you’ll become more sensitive to its cues and learn to stop eating when you’ve had enough.
4. Engage in positive self-talk. Use your meditation sessions to focus on your good qualities and on the positive efforts you’re making. You’ll enjoy life more even while you’re cutting back on calories.
5. Set goals. Meditation sessions can also be an opportunity to develop incremental goals and to evaluate your progress. Think about what you want to accomplish each day and praise yourself for your efforts.
6. Analyze setbacks. You’re bound to encounter some backsliding from time to time. If you identify the triggers that pull you off course, you can make plans for how to deal with them.
* For example, if you know that you have a tendency to gain weight during the holidays, visualize yourself celebrating by going caroling or doing crafts with your kids rather than eating.
7. Get spiritual and social support. If meditation is part of your spiritual practice, you may want to read some faith-based diet books or try starting a program at your place of worship.
* Regardless of your spiritual traditions, you can look for meditation classes in your community at libraries or yoga studios, where you can build a network of support.
Training your mind can help you develop healthier eating habits that will enable you to lose weight safely and keep it off. Eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and put the power of meditation to work for you.
