When we are so busy and time is a hot commodity, why would I suggest anything like slowing down?
What’s the point?
We’re busy, we’ve got things to do.
Why slow down at all?
Why not suggest even speeding up? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
Actually, speeding up would be the absolute worst thing you could do if you plan on getting healthy and staying healthy.
How come?
Imagine a car driving along a road. At a normal speed, it’s dangerous, but not terribly so. Add a little bit more speed to that car and you end up with a nice little physics equation.
Force equals mass times acceleration.
The faster the car goes, the higher the danger. In this scenario, increasing speed is incredibly dangerous.
And I’d like you to believe that the human body is similar to a car in this aspect.
Anything that we can do faster is ultimately going to come at the expense of our health.
Even if we run faster, we ultimately will pay the price if we push too far, too fast, too soon. It might be through injury, it might be something more serious.
But my main concern is what happens when we eat faster.
This may seem like the least of our concerns, but it actually ends up being on of the most critical pieces to our health and one that we have the most control over.
So why am I worried about how fast you’re eating?
Because you have complete control over it- that is why I’m worried.
Have you ever timed yourself during a meal?
Do you consider yourself a fast eater? Maybe a slow eater?
Maybe even somewhere in between?
Or maybe I should even ask you what you ate for dinner yesterday. Can you remember?
The point that I want to make is that we’re living in such a fast paced world that everything around us feels like it needs to move faster just to keep pace.
When we start eating faster, we lose the memory of it. We stop remembering what we ate and when. We even forget how much we ate.
This becomes a problem when you’re looking to lose weight.
If you can’t remember what you ate and when, chances are you also won’t remember how much as well.
You won’t be able to remember if you enjoyed your food or if you enjoyed the company you had while eating.
What is even worse is that if you tend to eat fast, then you most likely didn’t have a conversation during the meal.
By eating quickly, you also tend to swallow a disproportionate amount of air.
Burping on its own will not cause health problems but swallowing an excess amount of air will make the eater uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable does not equal unhealthy.
Eating quickly could also overwhelm the digestive system, making the eater uncomfortable for a much longer amount of time than it took to eat.
Now you can start seeing a small problem.
When you overwhelm the digestive system, the least of what you’ll get away with is discomfort. You might feel uncomfortably full. You might even be burping or feel bloated. Eventually it will go away.
But for some of us, especially as we get older, our bodies start processing food in a slightly different way.
Maybe we won’t be able to tolerate the same foods any more. Maybe we won’t be able to eat late any more. Maybe we’ll start having more concerning digestive issues.
Think acid reflux, ulcers, the need for probiotics, diarrhea, constipation, food sensitivities and more.
My argument is this: if we can learn to eat slower, we can “tune in” to our bodies more. We can learn what it likes and doesn’t like. We can learn how much we need and when we need it. We can even see the small changes in our digestion that might clue us in to changes in our outside world.
You’ll know how your body responds to stress. You’ll know how your body responds to health and being given a healthy diet.
You can learn all about your body this way.
And all it will take is for you to slow yourself down, slow yourself way down. Listen to your body. Really enjoy your food. Really enjoy your health.
