How often are you multi-tasking when you're eating? How many times do you chew your food before swallowing it? Practicing sitting down for a meal without distraction, taking a moment to be grateful for your food, and actually chewing (an important first step in the digestion process!) seems simple but it can have a positive ripple effect in so many aspects of your life - mind, body, and heart. Are you up for the challenge?
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Hey life booster. This is Dr. Amelia health coach and veterinarian here to help you ditch yoyo, dieting people, pleasing and perfectionism by breaking the norm and living a life that energizes you from within. Today is going to be a little bite size podcast episode and it's very on theme because we are talking about chewing. So one thing that I am really focusing on this month is slowing down with my meals and actually chewing my food and being really present with my meals. Because I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to multitask when I'm eating. My brain loves productivity and being as efficient as possible and so I tend to think like, oh, well, I'm having breakfast. I can also do this. And, you know, while I'm having lunch, you know, I can just eat while I'm doing another project or, for dinner, maybe I could be watching TV or, or even sometimes talking with my husband, which I of course love doing that during dinner, but it does make it so that I'm not really paying attention to my actual food as much. So I've really been challenging myself to practice, especially in the morning when I'm just in a little bit of like a go, go, go. I wanna be super efficient. I'm super energized. You know, I tend to be very productive in the morning, which feels good, but, there's a little bit of that rushed energy and I am really practicing taking at least one meal a day as an opportunity to slow down. So the other day I did that for the first time in a while, at least just like really making a point of, I sat down with my breakfast and I just focused on it. I just allowed myself to really chew. I was not looking at anything and I just enjoyed my meal. And it meant that I ate a little bit slower because instead of doing something else where I'm kind of like, you know, shoveling food in my mouth and eating a little bit and then swallowing and like just really not paying attention. I was actually putting the food in my mouth chewing, really enjoying the flavors, and I will tell you that breakfast salad because I totally break the norm. I love like a nice big epic salad for breakfast complete with a fatty fish, like sardines or anchovies or salmon or makerel, filled with this is not like a little tiny, like anybody iceberg, lettuce salad. This is a salad packed with healthy fats, like avocado or extra virgin olive oil, some flax seed, roasted vegetables maybe some fennel seed, so much goodness packed into that salad. I really enjoy them. And yet, sometimes I it's just gone and I'm like, did I even really pay attention to that salad? No. But when I actually sat down to just enjoy it, it was so, so good. So I really encourage you to think, like how often do you have this beautiful meal in front of you or this really delicious food and are you not really appreciating it so much because you're distracted? This simple thing of just actually, you know, paying attention to your meal, accomplishes two really powerful things. One is that it gives you a moment in your day just to pause and to have some gratitude. I am even practicing, just sitting down, having a moment, just to be grateful for the food that I have and then really enjoying it. It's a great way of just decreasing your stress. Just slowing down a little bit and in the morning, that's great for me, especially if I'm on the way to a hospital shift, it's just a great time to just be in the moment a little bit and really, kind of like meditating just to kind of ground myself and to be centered. The other thing it accomplishes is that if you are chewing more chewing as a very key part in the digesting process, you have enzymes in your saliva that are helpful. And, and of course, just the act of chewing that is the first process in digesting your food. And if you're only chewing, a few bites and then swallowing it, it's just going to make digesting your food harder. So you may notice that just taking some more time to slow down and chew your food, it helps you to feel so much better. You may also notice that if you're eating a little bit slower, you know, sometimes if you eat too fast, you don't notice that you're eating too much, that you're full until afterwards. And then it's like a little while, a few minutes after you eat. You're like, oh, I ate too much. So if you're slowing down a little bit and actually paying attention to what you're eating, then that does allow you to pay attention a little bit more to your satiety cues, satiety cues. I don't know why that was so challenging to say So today and this week, I really wanna challenge you. See, if you can pause for a meal, see if you can pay attention to just chewing and really savoring the flavors of your food. And even, if you are just feeling too rushed, I really challenge you to practice right before your meal just taking a moment to be grateful for that. And then even just practice the first one or two bites really sitting down, enjoying the flavors, chewing your food and breathing a little bit and see what that does. See if it brings you even more joy. If you really enjoy the flavors so much more. Okay. Wishing you an amazing day and cheers to your inevitable health, happiness, and success.