One of the first habits we give to people regarding their nutrition journey is eating slowly.

It’s not sexy, but it’s effective. There are a couple of reasons as to why we choose this one first.

We want people to develop a personal handbook on how their body behaves and responds. A handbook that can last a lifetime instead of a one time diet that usually ends with our hands back in the cookie jar, with no real change to our life. Developing this personal handbook means that we need to start listening to our body knowledge, which we often throw out the window in favor of our more logical brain knowledge. The thing is, brain knowledge doesn’t usually help us change. We all know that we need to eat lean proteins and plenty of veggies, but we don’t do that because we are missing a crucial part of the puzzle: our body knowledge.

What is body knowledge?

Body knowledge can be described as your intuition, or those feelings you get about something. Think of when you were out partying as a teenager and your mother called because she just knew something was up.

One time my brother went to a party. He told my parents where he was, but in the middle of the night my mother felt as if something was wrong. She didn’t know what was wrong—she just had a feeling. I jumped into the car with my mother, and we drove the forty-five minutes away to where my brother was supposed to be. We got to the party, his truck was parked right outside the house and nothing seemed wrong so we turned around and headed back home. But, not even ten minutes later, we got a call from my brother. He had locked himself out of his truck and couldn’t get home.

My brother was perplexed when we told him we were right around the corner and going to be there soon to open up his car. My mother had an intuition, a body knowledge, that something was up, and she acted on it. We can use this intuition in regards to our nutrition as well.

Have you ever binged and you woke up the next day feeling fat and bloated? To someone on the outside you don’t look any different than you were the day before; however, you feel the tightness of your jeans and an overall puffiness from the booze, grease, and sugar. You simply feel fat. That’s your body telling you something is up, and that your behavior the night before is not working for you. In instances like this, it is essential for us to use our logical brain knowledge to notice what our body knowledge is saying.

Eating slowly can help get us into the right mindset of creating our handbook.

1) Eating slowly creates mindfulness

We start to become aware of what our body feels like when we a full, overstuffed, and satisfied. We will begin to notice how our body responds to different foods. For example, you might learn that eating a whole box of Entenmann’s donut holes on Sunday while binge-watching TV doesn’t set you up for being productive or feeling very well on Monday. We start to avoid those situations because we start noticing what makes us feel crummy.

2) Eating slowly attunes us to flavors, textures, and smells

We might start to notice that we don’t like the taste, texture, or smell of junk food when we eat it slowly. We notice that real food tastes better than junk food when eaten slowly. Our body starts to crave the food that helps us feel and perform better. We instinctively begin to seek out better choices.

3) Eating slowly starts to let our body know that we are eating and the GI tract becomes prepared to receive food.

Smelling, tasting and chewing lets our body know that food is about to enter and it starts to secrete enzymes to aid in digestion. Ever notice when you smell something delicious you start to salivate? That’s your body preparing to receive food. Many times the simple act of eating slowly helps with common problems like heartburn and indigestion.

4) Eating slowly doesn’t control what you eat

You can eat slowly literally anytime, anywhere, and with any food. You can eat at Grandma’s house at the holidays, out to drinks with friends, pizza night, or that key lime pie on the menu that you just have to try. You can enjoy life without feeling restricted or deprived.

5) Eating slowly makes your body the boss

Not everyone’s body metabolizes everything the same way. Eating slowly allows you not to have to rely on counting calories, weighing and measuring food, jumping on the scale every day, or counting macronutrients. You learn what your body needs without having to use external forms of control. You can save your energy that you would spend on those things for other aspects of your life that carry a little bit more importance.

Eating slowly is considered one of our super habits. It’s simple, but it can be challenging—as some of the simplest things indeed are the most challenging.

Good ways to start implementing eating slowly in your life:

Put your fork down between bites. There’s an easy start for you…
Relax and breathe. You might find that eating slowly helps you reduce stress. Who couldn’t use a little stress reduction?
Set a timer when you are eating. Start with trying to take 15 minutes to eat then gradually increase the time to 20 or ideally 30 minutes. It takes about 20-25 minutes for your brain to realize you have eaten. Therefore, it takes 20-25 minutes to know if you are satisfied eating or not.
Chew a few more times than you need to. Digestion starts in your mouth with your saliva. The more you chew your food, the better it is prepared to enter the rest of your GI Tract.
Enjoy and savor each bite. If you’re going to eat it, it better be tasty. Notice the smells, flavors, and textures.
Eat without distractions (TV, phone, computer, or work). The goal is to become aware of your body and what it is telling you. You can’t be mindful if you are concentrating on something else.

You know the old saying—don’t knock it ’til you rock it. Give eating slowly a try over the next few days and let us know what you find. And if we can be of any help, let us know.

What’s Up With This Eating Slowly?