How often does a fitness coach tell you to slow down?
Most of the members at CFA have heard me say slow down to go fast at times. I think the Navy SEALS in the US have a saying of slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
It applies in training a fair bit. Slowing down helps make sure our form is good.
But today I want to talk about slowing down to eat.
On social media at times you will see things like this one simple trick will make your life full of rainbows and joy! Or something along those lines haha.
And I am sort of getting in on that with this. This little thing can have a huge impact on your health and wellbeing if done reasonably regularly.
How many times have you sat down to eat something and thought, ‘mmm this looks and smells wonderful!’ only to blink and realise you have scoffed it down and didn’t really feel like you remember eating it? Let alone eating a huge serving of it!
It is human nature to want to have plenty of something that is incredible. Food, holidays, drinks, the fun stuff we do with other adults. Pretty normal feelings really.
And once we have finished with those experiences we might leave feeling unfulfilled. Today we are going to look at how we can get around that problem.
Is it simple? Absolutely! But it may not be easy for you.
All of us have a certain amount of time in our work and study days that we can have a break to eat. We don’t have all the time in the world for that throughout the day.
But we don’t need all the time in the world to start it off. Just a 20 min window to eat.
Now 20 mins might sound pretty short, but what I would like you to do to see how long it actually is is set a 20 min timer on your phone. Hit start just before you take your first mouthful, and then if you finish eating what you have in front of you before the alarm goes off hit the pause button on the timer and note how much time has expired. I almost guarantee that you will be surprised how much of the 20 min timer you have left. Don’t beat yourself up if it is between 15 and 18 mins left. That is pretty standard it seems.
We have been conditioned to get our breaks in, get our food into us and get back into whatever it was we were doing.
So this week I want you to put the fork down, or your wrap, sandwich, chopsticks, (actually maybe try using chopsticks instead!). Put them down between bites. And when you do notice.
Notice the texture of your food, the flavours. Not just a single flavour, but all of the five biological ones that are present, sweet, salty, umami, bitter, sour. Notice if any are missing, or ais it dominated by one in particular.
Taking this time to notice can help in us eating just the right amount. As it can take around 20 mins for our brain to recognise our stomach is full if we eat too quickly we can not just over eat but give ourselves indigestion, heartburn, and wind up feeling sluggish and a bit shit.
This slowing down and noticing can not just improve how we eat, but also how present we are in other areas of life.
This simple task can help us understand that by bringing ourselves back into the present we can make sure we aren’t missing things, like I mentioned before, eating a whole meal and not realising it until it is done.
Think of other areas of life you have suddenly realised that you didn’t really notice what had just happened.
By putting our fork down and concentrating for a second or two we can extend it to other areas.
Put the pen down. Stand up at your desk. Pull the car over in the rest area and get out and breathe the fresh air. Try and make note of the person’s eye colour you are talking with. Is it cold or warm right now where you are? Notice the sun on your face if you are outside. Notice the texture of the book in your hand.
Simple things that can help you feel incredible and well on your way to improving in lots of life areas really quickly.
So this week, if you think you need a hand to slow down, hit me up and let’s sit down and see if we can’t find a couple of places you can make that time to eat your dinner or any other meal actually, slower and with more intent!