Search

Ready to change your life?Start Now! Contact Us

Changing From Within: Learn to Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits

August 16, 2017

By Jocelyn Weiss, PhD, MPH and Meg van Staveren, MPH, RD

It’s easy on occasion to eat too much, eat too quickly, eat for comfort, or choose junk food. But for increasing numbers of people, this behavior is the norm, not the exception. Every year millions of Americans vow to lose weight and get healthy but aren’t able to overcome the largest roadblock to these changes—ingrained eating habits. Most diets don’t address the roots of unhealthy behavior, and they also can damage self-worth as those trying to lose weight repeatedly cycle through success and relapse.

Ditch the diet. It is time for a new paradigm for eating and health. Dismantle your old patterns and embrace new tools for making healthy choices that foster your deep, internal motivation for nurturing your body and achieving a healthy weight. Incorporating principles of mindfulness into your daily eating habits has been show to result in healthier eating patterns. These mindfulness principles can be incorporated in a variety of ways.

Noticing When Habits No Longer Support Your Values and Goals

Connect to your core values and vision of a healthy you. Changing habits and long-standing patterns is not easy. Having a clear picture of the health you want, and why you want it, serves as a powerful intrinsic motivator to leave behind your old patterns and embrace new ones.

Recognizing When Emotions Influence Your Food Choices

Tune into your thoughts, stressors and emotions to help recognize when you are stuck in a reactive cycle that leads you to overeat or make unhealthy food choices.

Identifying External Triggers Versus Hunger Cues

Notice whether you are eating based on actual physical hunger and nutritional needs, or if you are making unhealthy choices based on the external triggers surrounding you (such as social eating, advertisements, workplace influences and others).

Engaging in the Experience of Eating

Slow down. Take time to pay attention and enjoy the experience of your food choices by noticing flavors, textures and aromas. In doing so, your body will more easily sense when it is both full and satisfied.

Consider Registering For a Changing From Within Course

To delve deeper into ways mindfulness can transform your eating patterns and support your health and wellness goals, Duke Integrative Medicine offers Changing From Within. This 8-week course will help you learn to bring close attention to your mind, body, behaviors and patterns related to eating. You will explore the many variables that drive our habits—including stress, unhappiness, and even unconscious beliefs—and develop a road map for sustainable change.

The group support and personal mindfulness skills you will develop in this program can provide a pathway to achieve a healthy weight that can be maintained for a lifetime. Loaded with concrete meditation exercises, behavioral techniques, nutrition advice, and meal-planning charts, this course provides the tools to avoid cravings, stop emotional overeating, and figure out when you are full.

Lasting weight loss and healthy living begin in the mind. Are your ready to learn how to re-program your body, make healthy choices, lose weight, and keep it off for life? Click here to learn more about Changing From Within.

SUGGESTED POSTS

Why is now the time to become a Health Coach?

As the world continues to evolve and health becomes are an increasingly important aspect of our lives, there has never been a better time to become a health coach. With the rise of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, people are seeking guidance on how to lead ...

READ MORE

The Benefits of Eating Seasonally

Eating seasonally grown foods offers many benefits that promote our health, support local economies, and contribute to environmental sustainability. In addition, when eating with the seasons, we can enjoy various advantages by aligning our diets with natural production cycles. According to Kenlyn Young, LDN, MS, RD at ...

READ MORE

Discover the Power of Mindful Awareness: Tips for Incorporating It into Your Daily Life

Mindful awareness has become popular recently due to its benefits for the mind and body. This practice involves intentionally paying attention to the present moment without judgment, leading to greater self-awareness and overall well-being. Based on ancient Buddhist teachings, mindful awareness builds on ...

READ MORE
BACK TO POSTS

For more information about

Duke Integrative Medicine and our various services and programs, please join our mailing list.


error: Content is protected !!