Sometimes life can rush at you at 100mph. Sometimes you can feel a bit out of control with things seemingly spinning all over the place. Sometimes…especially around the holidays…everything can seem to move so fast you feel like you’ll never be able to catch up.
I’ve decided that over the next month I need to slow down. I need to slow down in a good number of things, actually. But I think I need to break things down so I can really look at what I need to work on in order for my life to continue on this amazing path. Well, last time I talked about my sex life. This time it’s something different. Today, it being the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend and all (please…I can’t be the only one still full from turkey), I thought I’d take a look at concentrating on the following…
Eat Slowly
This is more about really examining my entire diet than just about chewing my food in twice the time. I’ve tried to just alter my eating habits and it hasn’t really worked out for me. I’m not gaining any, but I’m far from losing what I want to lose.
So in January, a group of us at work are participating in a “Biggest Loser” contest (the new “polite way” to say we’re having a weight-loss competition). Why January and not now? Well…I know my limitations and realize that Christmas will be a TERRIBLE time to try and stay on a diet. Might as well get going once the holidays are over.
In the meantime, though, I am going to eat slower. No, it’s not just some wive’s tale, either.
Y’see, nerve endings called stretch receptors line our stomachs. When our stomachs are packed with turkey and all the trimmings, the receptors to our brains tell us that we’re full…hence we don’t continue to eat until we explode or turn into the “gluttony dude” from Se7en.
But here’s the thing:
“There’s a time lag between the signal and the translation of the message by the brain.” – David Katz, M.D., director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
What does this mean? It means that we keep on eating even if we’re, technically, already full.
C’mon…you know the feeling, we’ve all been there. You’ve just finished a huge meal and when you’re finally finished you feel like your pants will explode. Your stomach is sore and you feel just a tinge of guilt for eating so much. I think we’ve all had one of those meals (I’ve had more than my fair share). And just think: if we had just slowed down a bit while eating, it could have made all the difference in the world.
“Research done at the University of Rhode Island at Kingston found that, on average, people who ate slowly consumed almost 70 fewer calories per meal than those ate quickly.” – Men’s Health
It’s scientifically proven that you can actually cut down on calories by eating slowly, ESPECIALLY towards the tend of a meal.
So if I’m going to drop the 15 pounds I want to lose in January, my first step is to stop gorging myself and to just take my time. So what if my meal gets cold? I’d rather eat cold good food than hot good food with 70 more calories.
Well…at least that’s what I’m going to try and tell myself.
“
