Eat Sitting Down
This is a tough one for my life. I am often feeding others while I eat my meals. I walk from one person to another and eat as I am going between. I get interrupted when having snack when someone needs assistance in some way. At first, I thought I can’t do this; I need to find another way. But, as I read further, I realized the difference it could make in the long term. I began to understand why it is so important to make the change to always sitting every time I eat. The reason behind this is to become more aware of everything I put in my mouth.
Think about all the opportunities I have to eat standing up. There are samples in the grocery store, snacking while cooking, parties, etc. That is a lot of opportunity to put calories in my mouth without being mindful of what I am actually eating. BLTs (bites, licks, tastes) happen most when I am standing. What I am learning is that it all matters. Every BLT has calories and the potential to sabotage my success.
Normally when I eat standing up it is impulsive eating. “Just one quick bite and then I will do something else.” It never occurred to me before that this thought process sabotaged my efforts at losing weight. When I eat sitting down, it signifies to me that I am planning to eat and I have a plan about what I am going to eat. Sitting during eating implies that I made a choice to eat. Seeing the food spread in front of me gives a satisfaction of seeing what I am about to eat and in turn I feel more satisfied. If I am standing as I eat, I do not see the amount of food I am eating and do not feel as satisfied as I do not feel I have eaten as much even if I have eaten the same amount or more.
By making this a lifelong habit, I can continue to be aware of what I am eating and not add extra calories in here and there. This is one more step on the journey to mindful eating. I will always need to be aware of how I fuel my body or I will be back where I started.
I will work on making it a habit to sit down every time I eat. When I am walking through Costco and the samples are on every side, I will have to think before I try one. I will need to decide if I really want to have the bite and where am I going to sit to eat it. That may seem far fetched, but the more I consider it, the more I believe that this is an important step in changing my attitude toward food for my lifetime.
Think about all the opportunities I have to eat standing up. There are samples in the grocery store, snacking while cooking, parties, etc. That is a lot of opportunity to put calories in my mouth without being mindful of what I am actually eating. BLTs (bites, licks, tastes) happen most when I am standing. What I am learning is that it all matters. Every BLT has calories and the potential to sabotage my success.
Normally when I eat standing up it is impulsive eating. “Just one quick bite and then I will do something else.” It never occurred to me before that this thought process sabotaged my efforts at losing weight. When I eat sitting down, it signifies to me that I am planning to eat and I have a plan about what I am going to eat. Sitting during eating implies that I made a choice to eat. Seeing the food spread in front of me gives a satisfaction of seeing what I am about to eat and in turn I feel more satisfied. If I am standing as I eat, I do not see the amount of food I am eating and do not feel as satisfied as I do not feel I have eaten as much even if I have eaten the same amount or more.
By making this a lifelong habit, I can continue to be aware of what I am eating and not add extra calories in here and there. This is one more step on the journey to mindful eating. I will always need to be aware of how I fuel my body or I will be back where I started.
I will work on making it a habit to sit down every time I eat. When I am walking through Costco and the samples are on every side, I will have to think before I try one. I will need to decide if I really want to have the bite and where am I going to sit to eat it. That may seem far fetched, but the more I consider it, the more I believe that this is an important step in changing my attitude toward food for my lifetime.
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