Most of us tend to live busy and hectic lives, which usually means most things have to be done in a timely manner. One of those things that we tend to find not having much time for is meals. Not only does this affect the types of foods that we tend to eat, but it also affects how fast we consume these meals. Most of us tend to be pretty fast eaters, and while this might be nice when it comes to trying to save some time. This is something that hurts us when it comes to trying to lose weight. I’m one of the first people to admit that I’m guilty of eating food way too fast, especially if I’m hungry, but there are a few steps that we can take in order to help us consume these meals a little bit slower. Being able to consume meals slower will help us realize our satiety, and can help us avoid things such as overeating. This is because it takes your brain about 20 minutes to be able to tell whether you are full or not. So here are some simple steps that we can take that will allow us to eat a little bit slower.
Schedule
As I mentioned earlier, most of us have busy schedules that keep us moving from one thing on to the next without much of a break in between. This is why something as simple as scheduling a time for you to eat each day can help allow you the time you need to sit down and eat without feeling like you need to scarf down your food. So when you plan out your week, try and set aside 30 to 45 minutes to eat your meals. This will allow you the time you need to be able to sit down and eat your meal without feeling like you need to eat it in under two minutes.
Consciousness
Most of us tend to consume our meals so fast that we don’t even realize half of what we just ate. Unfortunately, eating our meals that fast can actually turn into a habit for us if we do it often enough, and a bad habit at that. Thankfully, there’s one simple fix to breaking this habit of eating quickly. That solution is simply to just be conscious about what you’re eating and how fast you’re eating it. Most of the time, we grab some food and eat in about just as much time as it took us to grab it and don’t put much thought into what we just ate. However, simply taking the time to become conscious about what you’re eating is a simple step that you can take to help slow you down when eating.
Serve Smaller Portions
I’m sure this isn’t the first time that you’ve heard this when it comes to eating for weight loss. Not only does eating smaller portions help prevent us from overeating, but it’s also a way for us to slow down and take longer while we’re eating meals. This is true because if we serve smaller portions and end up wanting to go for seconds, this requires us to get up and serve ourselves more food. This alone helps to give us a little bit of a break and helps us tap into our hunger cues and figure out if we really need that second serving of food or not. When serving smaller portions it also allows us to clean our plate without forcing ourselves to try and eat all of the food and therefore leaves our brains feeling satisfied after the one serving.
Forget Multitasking
I’ll be one of the first to admit that I’m not the best when it comes to this one. I’m sure like a lot of you, I tend to find myself doing something else while I’m eating. Whether it be something as simple as sitting on my phone or going and doing other tasks in between bites. Now, I know you might think that doing other tasks while you’re eating might help slow you down, but in all reality it just causes us to eat faster once we go back to our food. So next time you plan on eating a meal, try and set aside the phone for 20 minutes, or try and wait to do that task until you’re done eating your meal. This will help allow you the time you need to once again focus on what you’re eating and slow down a little bit.
I know eating slower isn’t one of those interesting or mind boggling things to learn about when it comes to eating for weight loss, but it’s one of those small details that can help make a huge difference. Taking small, simple steps is really all it takes in order for us to start eating slower and each of those small steps begins to lead us further in the right direction.
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