Lose Weight This Weekend

If you want to lose weight this weekend, where do you start?

One answer is to eat by using all 5 senses. Mindful eating is eating with all 5 senses-even the one that historically gets us in trouble--sight.

You've heard the expression-your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

No problem.

When you learn to feel your stomach, get connected to yourself and rely on your own body's feedback, it won't matter.

I often take a big plate of food, especially at a buffet (ugh!) or a social gathering if I am hungry. But because I have taught myself to eat mindfully and can now feel when I am full, I rarely eat it all. I always feel fully satisfied because I know that I can eat again whenever I want. I don't forbid myself to eat, so there is no power struggle around eating.

This mental shift frees me to say yes or no to food without guilt. It's a shift that may be difficult for you to make because of fear, because you haven't learned to trust yourself yet. It will come.

And it all starts with mindful eating. By eating with all 5 senses-you *see* the colors and textures, *taste* the sweetness, *hear* the crunch, *smell* the coffee. When you enjoy your experience down to your bones, you are nurturing yourself-this is a good thing.

Food is not your enemy.

Don't close off your experience. Be curious and nonjudgmental. Have taste tests. Does it taste as good as it looks? Does it taste the way you expected it to? If not, let it go-don't eat it. Remember-looks can be deceiving.

If you shift your focus to deepening the experience of eating, you shift away from worrying about what the food is going to do (it's impact), away from guilt and shame and toward a richer connection to yourself.

It's not only easier to eat less, you just naturally *do* eat less. It's automatic-you create a richer, fuller experience and you start becoming satisfied with less without restricting yourself. And that, my friend, is my definition of heaven on earth. nnn