In an article called Time Compression and Productivity – Mindfulness of Moments I talked about how we seem to alter the flow of time based on how we feel about the moment we are experiencing.  Stuff that we are dreading seems to take forever, and stuff we like goes by too quickly – “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Go take a look at it, or listen to it when you get a chance.

Welcome back or thanks for not leaving, as the case may be.  Anyway, with that in mind I thought I’d offer a helpful tip to those of you that sometimes struggle with diet.

Diet is king

It’s way beyond the scope of this media to go into my thoughts on diet and exercise, glycemic impact and all that stuff.  Instead I’m just going to say that diet is king – it will and does trump any exercise you do or fail to do. What you eat, how much you eat and how often you eat all play a part in how you store and process food, and how it ultimately makes you feel.  Those are a lot of variables.

You may be eating too much.  You may be eating too much sugar.  You may be combining two foods that don’t process well together.   That’s a lot to think about when you just want to lose a few pounds and have more energy. Right?

 

Simple – use time

So then, let me keep things simple.  Since my over arching goal is always to distil things down into the essence of what you need to know and always hand you something tangible I will give you this valuable tidbit.

Use time.  That’s it.  Instead of portion control, counting calories, going on a special diet, denying yourself something you are craving you can use time to manage all of those – they will all cascade off of this.  In fact they are all symptoms of what you might be doing wrong.  In four words:  You’re eating too fast.

Besides all the documented issues caused by this – increased acid reflux, chest pains and other fun things – there are the real world tangible effects of the speed you eat.

As you’ve been told and almost certainly ignored, theres adelay between when you eat something and when your stomach signals that it’s “got it” and thus tells you you’re full.  So it’s easy to sneak in a bunch of bites before the stomach tells you.  Like a train conductor that doesn’t check the tickets at ever stop, and at the last stop 40 extra people squeeze on.  Now the trains moving and its too late for those people to get off.  And for you, your stomach hurts again.

If you eat slowly, truly slowly, you can address all of those things mentioned above.

If you eat slowly, you will eat less.  Because you give your stomach the time it needs to tell you how full you are, you will operate on its instructions, instead of voracious cave man kill it and eat it quick before the sabertooths return.

If you eat slower you will eat better.  Why?  Because you won’t be so motivated to “make it interesting” near the end of your meal, looking for additions, eating only the saltiest or sweetest stuff, or glopping on some sort of condiment to stay interested.  You’ll just be done.

If you eat slower you’llsave money.  No, really.  Once you’ve done this a few times you’ll see that you actually want less.  Then when you believe it, you’ll make yourself less, or order less.

You’ll be happier.  Yes, really.  When you eat slower and eat less you will enjoy the meal.  You now know that the wolvesare not just a few steps behind you, ready to take your food.  You’ll enjoy the meal and if eating with friends it will take a back seat to the company, and quality time will win over food consumption.  And as an added bonus, later you may be hungry again,