How to listen to your body for optimal health

In this article we will elaborate on what it means to listen to your body. This is an important topic especially in the world of dieting and food habits. 

Practice Intuitive Eating

What this means in a nutshell is that you avoid certain aspects when it comes to food like calorie counting and crazy dieting in favour of better listening to and respecting your body’s hunger signals. This is because it is so important to get yourself out of that dieting mentality which comes from the need to count and calculate everything you eat.

Intuitive Eating

There are a few ways that you can practice intuitive eating. The first way is to eat slower. This may seem obvious but if you often inhale all your food in one breath, you may begin to notice that you begin to eat more and more. What happens when you eat slower is that you give your brain a chance to register each bite and then it will slowly let you know when you are full. You may do this by taking a breath between each breath, or putting your fork down and giving yourself a chance to savour each bite. 

This is also great because it helps you take your time with food and enjoy it more. The focus shifts from giving the importance to dieting or getting your meal out of the way quickly, to how the food makes you feel.

Become more intune with your Digestion

This is an important practice because you should pay attention to how we feel throughout the day especially after you eat certain foods. This will tell you a great deal about the state of your internal health. This will allow you to take note of certain cues your body is giving you. For example, a negative reaction to certain foods. 

A way to stay on top of this is by using a food journal. This can help you to put two and two together and to register better the effects of some foods on your body, particularly in the long-term. 

Cravings

Next up, let’s talk about cravings, and having a better understanding of them and what they might mean. It is important to mention that the fact of the matter is – sometimes you are just craving a food that you really want, and that’s ok. Everyone loves a good chocolate bar every once in a while. We should enjoy the foods that we eat.

On the other hand, it is also crucial to get a better idea of what you. body is trying to communicate to you. For example, eating a lot of refined carbohydrates or really sugary foods can create some blood sugar imbalances which can make you crave even more sugar. Sometimes you may be craving certain kinds of junk foods because we have not eaten enough that day. This can be a result of improper blood sugar balances and the lack of the satisfying feelings that our foods should give us, particularly if we have not had enough protein, fat and fiber. Both these examples can lead to a vicious cycle.

Another reason why you might get certain cravings is due to certain associations. For example, you might have a food that you eat which you associate with a certain time of day or a certain activity. There might also be an emotional reason for your cravings. So you eat a certain food when you are stressed out or sad. 

Look at your Skin

The next way to listen to your body is to take a look at your skin. This is humans’ largest organ and it can often be a reflection of our diet and health. This can manifest into a lot of redness, dryness or acne. 

There are a lot of different reasons why we might experience skin conditions like environmental sensitivity or simply the products that we are using. However, the best thing you can do is to take note of the signs that your skin is showing by means of a food journal previously mentioned. So you can use this in order to find correlations based on certain patterns that arise after a certain period of time. 

Conclusion: Let us take care of your health

We hope that you have found this topic and the points discussed insightful. The most important thing when thinking about food is viewing it from the perspective where you are seeking to take care of your health. With this in mind, let us take care of you. Read our extensive health insurance package.

For more information about keeping your body healthy, read our article.

GasanMamo Insurance Ltd is authorised under the Insurance Business Act and regulated by the MFSA