You Got to Make the Meal Last
Eating idea: Slow down. Why are you in such a hurry? If you love to eat, and you say you do, why then do you rush through it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have something you enjoy so much last a little longer? Why not linger over a good meal, really taste it? Savor it?
Too many questions? Drat, that’s another question. It’s hard to stop asking questions once I get started, just like with a bag of cookies. You try one, and oh, that seemed pretty darn good, so you gulp down a few more, and since you aren’t even bothering to chew, just chomp, chomp, swallow, then a few more seems like a good idea. Then you suddenly realize you’ve eaten them all and yet you fell somehow–empty. “I’m just a bottomless pit,” you say. No you aren’t. You’re just eating so fast you aren’t giving your body a chance to realize it’s being fed. If you watch a starving animal, it will gulp the food down as fast as it can because it’s making sure no other animal takes it away from them, but you probably don’t have to do this. Slow it way down. Even if you live a very fast pace, you can slow down your chewing.
Take a bite of food, and let it sit there for a moment. Use all your senses, taste, smell, and decide is the food sweet or salty? Sour or bitter? Pretend you are going to rate the food on a scale of 1 to 10 – you are a food critic – how would you rate it? Is there an aftertaste? How would you ever know if you just gulped it down and ran out the door?
Slow down – make it last – there’s time, really there is. If you have to rush through a meal, ask yourself why? Could you wait a bit and have it later when there’s more time? What if you must eat in the car between appointments? It is possible to take a bite or two, wrap the food up, and leave it for later. You won’t die of starvation if you wait an hour for food.
Stop eating like it’s your last meal, and start treating yourself with some respect. You deserve better – if you were a guest staying in your own house you’d treat yourself better, right? Pretend you are an honored guest and start to treat yourself as if you’re special. Slow way down. Treat yourself to a massage or a new CD. Think leisure this week.
