Imagine If Thanksgiving Helped Your Diet
What if starting a tradition of gratitude resulted in becoming thinner?
Well, it just might be possible.
According to Dr. Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and founder of a research lab that studies the effects of grateful living, a 2003 research study found that participants who took time weekly to reflect on things for which they were grateful reported fewer symptoms of physical illness and spent more time exercising.
Gratitude, Stress Reduction, and Weight Management
There are other weight management benefits to gratitude as well. A study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 2015 found that people who took part in a diary exercise twice a week—documenting people and things that helped them at work—significantly reduced their stress and depressive symptoms.
Stress creates cortisol, and we have all been told how cortisol contributes to weight gain.
What We Think About, We Become
It is often quoted that what we most think about is what we become. Our self-talk tends to be negative and critical, so guess what we become?
If you spend your day thinking about how fat you are, how much you hate yourself, and how deprived you feel by your current diet, you will amplify those miserable feelings. Complaining inevitably creates even more circumstances to despise.
How Negative Thinking Sabotages Self-Control
Furthermore, negative thinking reduces our ability to cope with everyday annoyances, creating a bad day. On a bad day, we often justify overeating by telling ourselves we have “earned” whatever fattening goodie we consume.
If instead you turn your thoughts toward gratitude, you gain fortitude. It becomes easier to pause before you bite. Feelings of serenity and quiet joy make it easier to brew a cup of tea rather than guzzle a high-calorie chocolate shake with a couple of cookies.
Gratitude Encourages Mindful Eating
When we are grateful for our food, we are more likely to take the time to savor it. Angry eating or conciliatory eating both tend to be fast eating, which means we consume far more food before the fullness signal kicks in—if we notice it at all.
Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude
Many people enjoy keeping a gratitude journal. The act of writing down a grateful thought is powerful, especially when you can reread it during “not so grateful” moments.
Saying Grace before eating is not only a meaningful spiritual practice—it also slows you down, encourages a deep breath, and allows you to appreciate the food, the person who provided it, and the abundance it represents.
Try this little exercise:
Close your eyes and take a cleansing breath. Imagine someone for whom you are grateful. Consider what they bring to your life. Now, imagine life without ever having known that person. Allow yourself to experience this fully. Take another deep breath and then add the person back into your life. Now notice how your thoughts change and your body relaxes.
Send all the good feelings and sensations to your right hand, hold on to them. Allow any feelings of loss you may still be experiencing from not knowing that individual to be held in your left hand and then feel your hand open and release them.
Take a deep breath and relax even further. Imagine a mist of color (a favorite color) entering the area you are in and allow yourself to breath the color in. That color now reminds you of the person you are appreciating and the gratitude you feel for them. Breathe in the good feelings, add the color and now add a favorite scent, perhaps the cologne they wear, maybe something special from childhood. Bask in the sensations, make them as real and as intense as you can. Then just relax.
Anytime you see the color from your mediation, stop to take a deep breath and recall the gratitude you feel for that person.
