Day 2: Think Food Quality, Not Food Quantity

Dear Friends and Family,

My organic wine should be in the mail, and hopefully, at my post office box when we go to check the mail today. I'm ready to begin pondering "Day" 2 in the 30 Days to a Greener Diet: Think Food Quality, Not Food Quantity.

Here's the thought starters they provide:

1. cut back on over-processed foods
2. splurge on important substitutions
3. reacquaint yourself with your stove

I think I do decently on all three counts. But, there's a couple of things I want to tackle that are linked. How do you tell when you're full? My stomach's a woefully inadequate gauge of my fullness.

I've been trying a trick, somewhat inconsistently. Perhaps now is the time to perfect it. When I eat, I'm woefully efficient. While I'm chewing, my hands are busy queuing up the next bite. So, when the mouth is empty, there's more food ready for it. Instead of prepping the next bite while chewing, I could put down the cutlery, focus on the bite at hand and enjoy it. When the mouth is empty, I could decide on what the next bite is and prep it and deliver it to my mouth and put the cutlery back down. Repeat as needed.

The other thing I could do is after each bite assess, still hungry? full? somewhere in between? Honestly, this one is one I'm not sure I have the patience to tackle. For me, it's just flat out easier to portion it out before hand and not think about it during the meal. You know: 6 oz rice, 2 oz chicken, etc. Ultimately, I think it's important to learn portion control. Maybe, that comes next after learning slow eating.

And, last but not least is food timing. Is it important to have discipline here? I did it for awhile on Weight Watchers. I think it's a good thing, but it takes discipline. I would have a minimum time, call it two hours, between food. So, if I ate at noon and felt hungry at one, I would force myself to wait until two before snacking. That way you don't become a constant eater, but a grazer. And, tied to it was a "kitchen is closed" time, call it eight o'clock. If I'm hungry after that time, I wait until the next morning.

For now, I think I'll tackle slow eating. I could tackle focused eating (e.g. not reading online while eating, not eating at my desk, etc.) but maybe that's for later. Too much distraction guarantees I lose patience with all of this.


Cheers!
mouse