We all know that we should be eating healthy, and if we’re being honest most people even have some awareness around the types of foods they should be including in order to do this, however, when it comes to implementation it can be a struggle. Today I’m sharing the easiest healthy eating tip you’ll hear this year and how you can start to implement it into your life. Are you ready for it…
Slow down when you’re eating. Yep, it’s as simple as that (or so it sounds). I want you to take a moment to think about how long it typically takes you to eat a meal. If the answer is less than 20 minutes you are probably eating too fast. We live in a society where we are on the go all the time and it’s hard to sit down and eat slowly, and honestly…we don’t even realize that we are doing it. Your meals should take you at least 20 minutes to eat. This gives your brain and stomach enough time to communicate about how full you are, anything less than that and you may be overeating.
Here are 5 tips to help you slow down while you’re eating
Set Your Utensils Down or Use Smaller Utensils
A simple tip to help you slow down while eating is to set your utensils (or your food) down between bites. Chew fully and swallow before picking your utensils (or food) back up. We don’t always realize how quickly we are eating until we force ourselves to put our utensils down. You may not realize it, but maybe you haven’t even fully swallowed before you put the next bite on your fork and move it towards your mouth. Another option you can try is to use smaller utensils. Sometimes, I will recommend kids utensils if this is something people are really struggling with. Kid’s utensils are typically smaller, so you won’t be able to put as much food on the utensil which will force you to eat slower because you won’t be able to put as much food in your mouth using these smaller utensils.
Set a Timer
Try setting a timer. Set a timer for at least 20 minutes and make sure you slow down enough that the timer expires before you fully clear your plate off. If you eat with others regularly, you can challenge each other to be the last one done eating as well. Eating with others can also encourage conversation during the meal which will slow you down as well.
Turn off the Screens
Do you have a TV or a phone in front of you when you are eating? We often reach to screens to scroll or watch when we are eating, but this leads to a lack of awareness of how much or what we are eating. The screens give us a distraction and cause us to continue to eat, without realizing how full we may be feeling. Turning off screens while we eat can help us slow down and tune into more of the cues our body is giving us about how hungry or full we are.
Eat Mindfully
Eating more mindfully also helps us slow down when we are eating and tune our awareness into our bodies. When we eat mindfully we want to focus on the tastes, textures, and smells of our foods. We can also think about the food and how it got to us. Consider what processing took place, how did the food travel to us, those types of things. Tuning into these things helps us slow down and savour our foods and will also help us with the final tip.
Tune Into Your Hunger and Fullness Cues
When we slow down we are better able to tune into our hunger and fullness cues. When we eat quickly or are doing other things while we eat it can be more difficult to be aware of these sensations in our body and this may lead to overeating. When we slow down and listen to how our body is feeling we are able to tune into how hungry or full we feel. Ideally, when we are eating we want to try and eat until we feel 80% full. This is typically enough to make us feel satisfied without feeling stuffed. When we can eat to this 80% full feeling we typically eat a bit less and over time which may lead to weight loss. Slowing down will help us understand and listen to our bodies better over time.
Slowing down while you’re eating is not always the easiest task, but if we can practice it regularly it can be a fantastic nutrition habit to start to build into our daily lives without having to change the types of foods we are eating. I know that it can be difficult to implement this at every meal all the time as well, so start by trying to do it with one meal and then you can add and make adjustments from there. Let me know if you’ve try it, can you slow down while your eating? Sound off below!
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