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Post by bbbearsmom on Mar 4, 2024 23:35:07 GMT
Day 5 – Eat Slowly and Mindfully
Beck gives two reasons why it is important to do this: when you eat slowly your mind has time to register that you are full; when you notice and enjoy every mouthful, you feel more satisfied when the food is gone.
She gives suggestions on how to slow down your eating:
Change something in your environment. Change something on the table such as putting a vase in front of your plate to remind yourself to slow down.
Set a timer to beep every one to three minutes for you to take a break. One poster had a timer on her phone she used.
Take sips of water every few bites.
Look at the clock. Keep track of how long it takes you to eat and try to make the meals longer.
Here are her suggestions for how to notice what you are eating:
Eat in a relaxed atmosphere.
Focus intently on your food. “Savor the taste of each bite, noting the flavor and texture of everything you eat.
Train yourself to eat with some distractions. At first practice eating without distractions so you can concentrate on eating slowly and mindfully then go back to having distractions but keep up eating slowly and mindfully. When you start to eat quickly and mindlessly again go back to practicing without distractions.
How are you doing on eating slowly and mindfully? Are you willing to eat without distractions to practice the skill?
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Post by bbbearsmom on Mar 4, 2024 23:40:08 GMT
I would also like to add to this to take small bites. I think that makes a difference, your food lasts longer, and it slows down your eating. I haven't been eating slowly and mindfully and will work on doing that while we are doing the review. I know it makes a difference in my satisfaction. It especially helped when I was losing weight and had less food.
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Post by cathygeha on Mar 5, 2024 8:30:04 GMT
This has always been difficult for me. I am not sure it will ever change and/or if I really want it to?
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Post by ermabom on Mar 5, 2024 12:41:12 GMT
I have slowed down since I started Beck. However, I could definitely slow down some more. I tried using an app and then the app I liked was no longer supported. I've tried others and I don't like them. I also find I like my food hot and eating as slowly as some of the apps ask you to makes the food cold. So now I have resorted to eating in stages. Lunch for example works like this: put salad in bowl, go and sit down and eat salad as slowly as I can, then get up and put soup in bowl, heat it up, go and sit down and eat soup as slowly as I can, go and cut up orange, put it in bowl and go and sit down and eat it as slowly as I can, and so on. This means that lunch takes about 30 mins but it does give me time to register what I've eaten.
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Post by susan092907 on Mar 5, 2024 13:16:31 GMT
I've been eating slowly and mindfully for a while. I think it really helps me enjoy my food more, and it also helps with me being able to evaluate my levels of hunger/satiation better. For some reason, not on purpose, I think I've been slowing down even more recently. A few weeks ago I found myself at a sit down dinner in a family member's home, and everyone was long finished while I was still eating. They were all hanging around the table keeping up the dinner conversation, which was nice, but I felt the need to apologize for being so slow.
I find it interesting that Beck recommends using distraction as a way to train yourself to eat mindfully. I remember reading lots of other advice that said don't eat with distractions. For me, I've always eaten with distractions when I'm eating alone - usually it's reading something or other on my phone or computer. It never seemed to interfere with my ability to eat mindfully and slowly, and in fact it seemed to help slow me down, so I guess I was doing what Beck recommended before I was aware of her recommendation.
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Post by ermabom on Mar 5, 2024 14:42:06 GMT
susan092907, I too eat while reading when I'm alone. It also helps to slow me down.
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Post by lani on Mar 5, 2024 14:43:29 GMT
I have also always eaten with distractions. I love food so much I feel I am able to really savor every taste no matter what else is happening, particularly since I know my portions are limited. I do try to slow down, put my utensil down between bites, take a sip of water after each bite, that sort of thing.
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lizlor
Transcendent Member
Posts: 1,161
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Post by lizlor on Mar 6, 2024 4:51:15 GMT
I’ve been trying to do this more and more. Put my fork down, pause and drink water, etc.
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Post by hpeterson1951 on Mar 12, 2024 12:25:49 GMT
I definitely need to work on this. I used to eat slow as a kid and my dad used to yell at me to hurry up.
Then I started eating lunch with the kids at school and I would really woof my food down because I had to deal with behaviors, feeding kids, etc.
Now I can eat in my classroom, but I'm on my computer or trying to get some paperwork done.
At home I'm always watching TV now since I don't want to sit at the table alone.
I need to at least take sips of water in between bites, or put my fork down. This is an on-going process for me
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