A New-Fangled Diet Plan

Here’s a new idea for a diet plan: Eat slower.

Yes, it’s that simple. Almost without exception all of the people that I’ve known in my life who have “weight problems” eat fast. And by fast I mean instantly. They sit down to eat (or stand, or drive, or lay on the couch) with one thing in mind; applying food to their faces. They don’t enjoy the flavor of the food, or the conversation of friends, relatives, or co-workers. They don’t enjoy their surroundings, or the music playing, or the program on T.V.

Even if you’re eating at your desk at work you can eat slowly. Force yourself to do it. Take a bite and read today’s post at your favorite Blog. Take another bite and click on www.thecrochetdude.blogspot.com. Read it for a while and chuckle. You can at least grin while chewing. I even laughed up green tea through my nose while reading one of his posts, so be careful! Stop eating for a few minutes and click on www.crazyauntpurl.com. She’ll be your best friend in four paragraphs. Eat a few more bites and look out a window. Stop eating while writing down your shopping list on a post-it note. Take a few more bites…. You get the idea.

When you eat fast:
* You can get much more food into your stomach before your brain knows that it’s full.
* It puts a lot of stress on your stomach, gallbladder, liver, kidneys, and pancreas.
* Although you may disagree with the following statement, you can NOT be enjoying the actual food. You might be enjoying the carbohydrate “high” you can get from eating this quickly, but I’ve watched my Grandpa eat so fast that there was no possible way that he could even taste his food.
* Talking and laughing are excellent added ingredients to food. They add oxygen to the food in your stomach and actually help the digestion process.
* Although about 80% of the people in the world will get a hiatal hernia in their lifetimes, it is more likely that you will get one, and get it earlier in your lifetime, if you eat too quickly. (Note to self: post on hiatal hernias later).

When you eat slowly:
* Your stomach and all of its corresponding organs have time to process the food correctly.
* You assimilate more of the nutrients in the food.
* Your pancreas can process the sugars and carbohydrates more efficiently, and you are less likely to get Type II Diabetes.
* With just a few bites of food in your stomach your sympathetic nervous system can tell your brain it’s no longer hungry within 5 or so minutes. This is why many “diet” pills work best when taken 30 minutes before a meal. (I don’t think any diet pills will ever help anyone lose weight long term.)
* You can truly enjoy the flavors, textures, surroundings of each meal. Enjoy SOMETHING while you are eating, which is why the experts say to not eat in your car (at least play nice music) or while watching the T.V. news (watch “Sunrise Earth” on cable if you can).

Garfield the Cat once said “Diet is one letter away from Die”. Well I say “Fast is one letter away from Fat”.

And one last note: Be thankful. I don’t care if you say a prayer before each meal, but at least be grateful for the food in front of you. Even if it’s a Whopper value meal, be grateful for the life of the cow that the beef came from; be grateful for the perfect amount of salt of the French fries (or those disgustingly wonderful onion rings!); be thankful for the sweet nectar of the cola washing down the sesame seeds; be thankful for the little bit of vegetable matter that makes us justify the whole meal as not a total loss of health food dignity.