Healthy Eating Habits, Part 2 - Slow and steady wins the race

We’re discussing healthy eating habits this week, and using me as an example of things not to do So in the spirit of learning from my own mistakes, here’s another simple habit you should try to pick up.

Bedtime stories

Until the age of 7, my father had me convinced that my stomach was divided into compartments. Each of these compartments was dedicated to a different kind of food and there was a whole crew of people down there who sorted out the food and put it into the right compartments. I have no clue where this story came from, but I believed it.

I’d separate all my foods into different piles to make it a bit easier on my stomach crew to sort things out. I didn’t drink while eating because I thought that would make their job a lot tougher. I also ate fast because I believed that would give them more time off between meals. Yah, I know, it’s all pretty silly. Did I mention I was 7?

Oddly enough, this little story ended up shaping my eating habits. To this day I still don’t mix the food on my plate and eat each component separately. However, there was one unhealthy eating habit that I’ve tried to change, and it brings us to today’s tip.

Eat slow

Yep, that’s it. That’s the whole tip. Sounds a little meaningless, but it can have a huge impact on your waistline. You see, our bodies and don’t communicate very well. In many cases, the communication is slow and hard to understand. That’s especially true of hunger and satiety signals.

When we eat, our body signals us when we’re full. Our stomach tells us “no more!” Unfortunately, our stomach’s communication methods are not the best or the fastest. So it takes a little bit before those signals reach our brain. In fact, it takes an average of 20 minutes between our stomach being full and our brain knowing about it. You can consume a lot of extra calories that you didn’t really need in those 20 minutes.

Back to personal history

Even after I outgrew the compartment story, I still loved eating fast. I ate so fast, my friends used to joke that I didn’t even chew my food. If we went out to eat, I would be done before anyone else and then of course I would order seconds. At a buffet, I was working on my third plate while most people were still clearing their first.

Problem solved

These days I slowed down a bit. I take smaller bites, I chew a bit more and I actually enjoy my food more. I’ve also realized that pausing every few bites and taking a drink of water will fill me up in a healthy way. I feel just as full as I used to when I would quickly gorge at the buffet, but I’m eating a lot less. I’m giving my stomach the time it needs to tell my brain “stop!”

So put down your fork, or that giant burrito, and take a break. Stop for a minute and give your body a chance to catch up and communicate with you. Take a drink of water, talk to whoever is with you. If you can, do that after each small bite. You’ll find yourself becoming full after a lot less food than usual.

Series Navigation

«Healthy Eating Habits, Part 1 - Many small meals are better than one big mealHealthy Eating Habits, Part 3 - Don’t clean your plate»

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