We\u2019ve all been there. You go in for one bite of heavenly hash ice cream \u2026 which leads to 10 \u2026 and before you know it, you\u2019ve polished off the entire pint. Well, meditate on this: The key to keeping binges at bay could rest in your mind. Meditation isn\u2019t just some hippy-dippy granola thing. Neuroscientists are finding that the age-old practice has a profound effect on how we eat. Here, we\u2019ve got six ways meditating can calm that overwhelming urge to go crazy in the kitchen. <\/p>\n
Stress makes us crave high-fat, high-sugar food \u2014 and how! Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that just 25 minutes of mindfulness meditation \u2014 paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and body sensations in a non-attached way \u2014 for three days alleviates stress. Brain scans also show that with meditation, the brain\u2019s \u201cfight or flight\u201d center shrinks. \u201cMeditation gives people so many different tools to manage stress so that stress no longer leads to eating with abandon,\u201d says Ruth Wolever, Ph.D., clinical health psychologist and research director at Duke Integrative Medicine and co-author of The Mindful Diet<\/em> (Scribner, 2015).<\/p>\n See Also:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Meditate To Improve Performance<\/p>\n When emotions run amok, eating can get out of control. Yet research published in the journal Eating Behaviors<\/em> found that meditating as little as eight minutes a day for eight weeks can stop binge eating for good. \u201cPracticing meditation increases awareness, particularly to what drives our behavior,\u201d Wolever says. So instead of eating on autopilot, you\u2019re more mindful of triggers and less likely to overeat. <\/p>\n Meditation can curb cravings. Canadian researchers found that practicing mindfulness meditation weakened dessert cravings among self-proclaimed sugar addicts. \u201cMeditation boosts blood flow to the frontal cortex, the CEO of the brain, so we\u2019re able to make better food choices,\u201d says Dr. Pam Peeke, author of The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction<\/em> (Rodale Books, 2012). <\/p>\n \u201cA woman\u2019s mind is often like a mental Cuisinart; we just let it spin completely out of control,\u201d Peeke says. Meditation can unplug the mental whirl. Pair a quiet inner voice with mindful eating \u2014 when you focus on your food instead of your to-do list \u2014 and you\u2019re better able to slow down and savor each bite to avoid overeating.<\/p>\n Meditation can literally change your brain, activating areas of your noggin that control awareness and emotional regulation and deactivating hubs linked to anxiety. One study by Harvard-associated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital showed changes in the brain after just eight weeks of meditation. \u201cThese brain changes act like a wedge between you and overeating,\u201d Peeke says. <\/p>\n Did you know that how much sleep you get can determine how much you eat? In one study, people who were sleep deprived ate 500 extra calories a day. Meditation not only fires up the relaxation response but also improves quality of sleep. Sweet dreams! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve all been there. You go in for one bite of heavenly hash ice cream \u2026 which leads to 10 \u2026 and before you know it, you\u2019ve polished off the entire pint. Well, meditate on this: The key to keeping binges at bay could rest in your mind. Meditation isn\u2019t just some hippy-dippy granola thing. Neuroscientists are finding that the age-old practice has a profound effect on how we eat. Here, we\u2019ve got six ways meditating can calm that overwhelming urge to go crazy in the kitchen. 1. Silence stress eating. Stress makes us crave high-fat, high-sugar food \u2014 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,290,204,205,206,203,207],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens-health","tag-healthy-living","tag-mind-body","tag-mind-and-body","tag-motivation","tag-style-and-beauty","tag-womens-fitness-personalities","tag-womens-health","post--single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2971,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Turn off emotional eating.<\/h2>\n
3. Disconnect from cravings.<\/h2>\n
4. Stay present with your plate.<\/h2>\n
5. Boost the self-control center of your brain.<\/h2>\n
6. Meditation means better sleep (and less overeating).<\/h2>\n