Thursday, April 30, 2009

(12) Step.7 Eat Slowly Enjoying Each Bite

Imagine sitting down to dinner after a long day of work, kids, traffic, and stress. You have in your hands a big plate full of delicious delectable food. You take that first glorious bite and feel like you've just reached heaven...suddenly you go to take another bite, you look down at your plate and realize it's completely empty. What the?? You only vaguely recall eating any of it. What just happened?? You may feel full but you don't feel satisfied. In fact you may even feel cheated out of what you were expecting to be a feel good meal. The sense of being unsatisfied lures you back to the kitchen for another plate full of food...maybe seconds will help you feel satisfied. Of course it doesn't...it just leaves you feeling bloated and disgusted with yourself. You feel like you've "blown it" again...you're not good enough...you're not pretty/handsome enough...you feel horrible. Maybe a big bowl of ice cream will help...
Does this sound familiar? It does to me. This is how I used to eat before learning 0-5 eating. Eating slowly is key to being successful at 0-5. Be conscious of every bite you take. Sit down and enjoy it, savor it, let it satisfy you. By doing this you'll also be able to hear your body's signals as to when it is satisfied.
If you need to, turn off the tv or music. Set aside your reading or laptop. At first you may need to let your children eat and then after they're finished let them go play or watch a show while you sit quietly and eat your meal. Concentrate on only your food. After awhile you'll learn how to do this even when there are distractions around but for now you might want to eat alone just until you've learned to listen to your body and the signals it's giving you.
Once you've eaten and your body is satisfied, put your plate down and go do something else. Don't stand around the kitchen picking more small bites here and there. Don't think about how many calories you've just eaten. Don't think about your next meal. Just go and do something else. Get out your list of life projects and do something. It helps me at night to eat until I'm satisfied then immediately go brush, floss, and mouthwash my teeth. This way I'm done for the night and since I really don't want to brush all over again I'm less tempted to eat anything else.

5 comments:

  1. I think eating slowly and savoring your food is crucially important to making this process work.
    I've done it right, and I've done it wrong. Every time I've lost weight this way (after 3 pregnancies) I didn't start having success, until I really started doing this step. The other steps fall into place if I'm paying attention.
    I've finally started doing it again, and it feels so much better than the constant mindless grazing I would do before. Shoving things into my mouth as I cook/clean/care for the kids is a habit for me. Yesterday I would catch myself with a mouth full of something, before I even thought about it. Once I did think I knew that I didn't really want to eat it, I just wanted my stress to go away.
    I actually spit the food out and told myself I could eat it with my next meal, when I was hungry. I don't feel deprived, because I know I can have it later. And I feel a lot better about myself, because I've stepped out of the destructive cycle.
    I hope your other readers will try it, it really feels great!

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  2. This happens to me all the time. I'm feeding Collin, helping Adon eat, then getting up a couple of times for something I forgot to add to the table (knife, spoon, katchup, etc,) All inbetween mouthfulls of food. Then I get back to savoring and my plate is empty. Bummer!

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  3. This is the part that I am sure all Mom's struggle with. I know exactly what you are talking about. I have really tried to watch how my kids eat and am trying to copy them. They only eat when hungry and eat slow (even when I am in a hurry). I try to not ever tell them they have to clean their plates, they know when they are hungry and when they are not. Thanks again for this awesome blog. You are doing great.

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  4. This is a very hard one for me. Unfortunately I have over scheduled myself and I find myself having only 5 minutes to cook/grab something to eat before the next class or appointment or meeting.

    I constantly eat quickly because I have to eat or I'll lose it.

    I do have times where I eat for enjoyment but most of the time it's a quick necessity/duty.

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  5. My best advice if you're over scheduled is to grab the amount of food it takes to get you to a 5 and eat it, quickly if you must. For me this would be a fist size amount...it may be a bit more for you since you're so busy. You may be burning more calories and might need a bit more food. Figure out how much food it takes to get you to from 0-5 then keep your portion size to this amount. You wont be eating too much even if you have to eat in a hurry. Don't get a huge plate full of food that you know will fill you to a 7 or more and then scarf it all down just because it's there and you're in a hurry. Good luck!

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