Natural and Long-Lasting Weight Loss Through Mindful Eating

In spite of massive evidence that diets and dieting don't work and--even worse--typically result in greater weight gain over time, they continue to be pursued avidly by vast numbers of people.

Most methods of weight loss--natural and otherwise--continue to leave out what is perhaps the single most important factor in achieving truly healthy and long-lasting weight loss--namely, how to eat much less without feeling deprived. Regardless of how healthy, natural, and well-balanced one's diet may be, weight gain will inevitably occur if average total caloric intake exceeds total calories burned.

Although this truism is recognized almost universally, it continues to present what is perhaps the greatest challenge to successful weight loss and long-term maintenance of such loss. To date, the most common healthy ways of overcoming this challenge have consisted in exercise programs, building increased muscle mass, and low glycemic food plans that aim to lessen hunger by stabilizing blood sugar levels. Arguably, some natural appetite suppressants could be included on this short list as well.

There is, however, another completely natural and highly effective solution to this problem that most people have never considered--or most likely even heard of. It's called Mindful Eating.

Mindful eating is one of many applications of the simple, albeit challenging, means of living in the moment that is now commonly referred to as "mindfulness." Mindfulness, a form of meditation, consists in simply paying careful, moment-to-moment attention to all internal and external experience while simultaneously accepting it and allowing it to be just as it is, without judging or trying to change it in any way whatever. It is, in other words, a means of living fully, consciously, and non-reactively in the present moment, instead of reacting negatively, or getting attached, to current experience and/or getting lost in thoughts about the past or the future.

George Shears

Credit: George Shears

Copyright: George Shears