Our Get Healthy Challenge: Week 8

Welcome to Week 8 of Our Get Healthy Challenge! If you're just joining us, here is what you missed so far - so you can get all caught up. This series is running for the next six months with pro nutritionists, The GetReal Gurls. They are helping us make small changes every week that build upon each weekly task. Our challenge this week?

To practice MINDFUL EATING. What does this mean exactly? It means you focus on what you're eating when chowing down without paying attention to that TV, your ever important smart phone, the handy dandy computer, your latest book, etc. It means you pay attention to WHAT you're eating and how MUCH you are eating (imagine that...)

Why is this important? Well, research shows that when you eat with distractions, you are more likely to eat too much and not enjoy your food as much as you would if you tuned out (or better yet, turned off) all those distracting gadgets. Eating while not fully present results in MINDLESS EATING. Studies consistently show the destructive power of mindless and distracted eating. 

Think of the last time you were at the movies and chowed down on that uber-sized popcorn or candy till the bag was empty - were you really hungry? Did you even stop to consider it? Probably not, because you were happily distracted by the movie.

Consider this: if you were to only eat food sitting down at the table with no distractions would you eat the same types of food or amounts? The answer, likely, is no. First, your body would be able to acknowledge when you're satisfied sooner than you would with all the previous distractions, and secondly, you would just get plain bored of sitting there for an hour over-indulging (yes, large festive-related meals excluded).

So here's your 'Do It and Post It' for this week:

Do It: For 1 meal per day at least, avoid eating in front of any screen - computer, TV, phone and just focus. On. Your. Food.

Post It: Let us know how hard (or simple) it was to eat while not looking at any screen.
Good luck!


- A. & M. for www.getrealgurlsnutrition.com