What are you eating?
When I was 21, at 396 pounds, I honestly didn’t know the answer to that question. I could tell you what the things I ate were called, and could talk about how they tasted, but I had no clue what they actually were. Especially when I was eating them. I had worked myself into (as far as eating was concerned), two shovels (my hands) and a vacuum hose (my mouth.) Things just got tossed in to be sucked down.
That kind of mindless consuming is obviously fraught with danger. You may be eating healthy things in healthy portions, or you may not be. With the current state of mass food production in this country I would guess the latter to be much more likely, and since Westernized methodology of producing and consuming food is spreading around the globe at a rapid pace, I am ever more certain that the latter is most likely true no matter where you are. In any event, knowing what you are eating is certainly more prudent than not.
Becoming mindful of our eating is one of the best, and most powerful, steps we can take in reclaiming our bodies.
It was for me.
One of the first tools I reached for when I began to recover was keeping a journal of everything I ate, and drank. Everything I shoved in to the tube. Every night I sat down and wrote down everything I had eaten, and drank, that day. Everything.
I did not at first work to modify what I was eating, either frequency or portion size. I just noted it, with as much dispassion as possible. The result was a radically increased awareness of what I was in fact eating. Slowly my choices improved as I came to realize that not choosing was, in fact, a choice.
That lead to reading labels. Scary, I know. When I first started I had not a clue what 90% of the words on the labels were, and I’m not terribly dim as human beings go. So, I started researching. I did not run to the library and board myself in, but I did look up a term every once in a while. That led to more awareness of what I was eating and a gradual changing of choices.
The tool of journaling was indispensable for the first five years of my reclaiming my vitality, and body. The tool of educating myself about ingredients going into the food I eat continues to be a good friend along the way.
I have also heard of, and tried, a few other methods. I offer them here as possibilities for you to consider:
- Chewing. Most of us don’t chew our food enough. Chewing is a necessary part of the digestion system, and bypassing it leads to less efficient digestion which means you get less bang for your caloric buck, which means you create a deficit of calories, which leads you to be hungry more often, which leads to excess consumption. Chew your food until it is well mulched. As an occasional practice you can chew until the food is gone without a conscious act of swallowing. (Don’t do that all the time. It takes a long time.)
- Use utensils. Any food that can be held in your hands leads to more rapid eating. If anybody looks at you funny for eating your burrito with a fork and knife, just assume a haughty expression and stick your pinky fingers out.
- Enjoy it. Food is not only fuel. If someone has gone to effort to prepare food for you and that does include you!) you should at least take a moment, or several, to enjoy it. Taste the food. Explore the textures. Consider what might be changed and what that would be like. Think about what you are eating. Savor. You deserve it.
- Pausing. This goes well with idea 2 & 3. Take your time. Slow down. Fast food does not have to mean fast eating, doubly so with slow food. Put your utensils and food down between bites as you chew, and enjoy what your mouth is doing.
- Breathe. One of the more embarrassing episodes of my early morbidly obese days happened while I was wolfing down my three sandwiches at the cafeteria table. The girl sitting across from me made a attention getting sound. When I looked up I saw the mildly shocked expression on her face. She said, “Um, your lips are turning blue.” Breathe.
Eating is an activity you will likely be engaged in more than a few more times in your life. Give it a little consideration. Believe me, it goes a long way.
Peace, and good eating!
