How to eat slowly to avoid overeating

Content

Steps
Tips
Warnings
What do you need

The concept of eating slowly as a way to avoid overeating is based on the simple fact that it takes your brain 20 minutes to get the signal that you are no longer hungry and that you can stop. Our bodies need time for digestive and hormonal processes to take place at a point or phase that is distant enough to give a "signal of satisfaction." Before convenience foods were invented, it was normal to chew longer and more thoroughly, so after 20 minutes, people received a natural signal without having to slow down their meal. However, given the culture of fast food, this process is often skipped, as the food is delicious and the person first overeats and then receives the signal!

Eating slowly can help you better understand hunger signals and recognize the reasons for the fast absorption of food, be it emotions or the pleasure of eating. However, eating slowly is not a decision that is made under the influence of the moment; it is rather a habit developed through practice and perseverance.

Steps

1 Reprogram your brain. Don't even try to get into the habit of eating slowly until you've mentally replayed it in your head for at least 21 days. Relax and use your imagination to create mental images, virtual pleasures that your brain will recognize and remember. As part of this visualization process, visualize yourself as lean and fit and:
- Eat slowly while enjoying your meal.
- Try to taste the food and its texture; imagine how it changes when it gets wet from your saliva.
- Drink a glass of water before, during, and after meals to help you feel full in your stomach.
- Make sure to visualize the end result you want, such as a lean, healthy, energetic body. Also, scroll through the final result in your head: how will you look in that dress or in those jeans, suit, etc.
- Consider buying culinary magazines to chart triggers for your hunger. Write down where you are and what you eat, how quickly you do it, and how you feel afterwards (especially how hungry you were, or vice versa). This will be a useful source of information as hunger triggers and attitudes vary from person to person.
2 Remove as many prepared foods as possible from your pantry. Eating slowly doesn't just mean chewing more slowly; it also means reducing the portion and cooking process. If you're worried about not having the time to cook raw foods, ask yourself how important your health is to you, or if you prefer quick cooking that can lead to degenerative diseases, putting nutritious foods last on your list. priorities. Start making time for healthier foods because the busy pace of your busy life can only be maintained with healthy foods. Allocating more time to prepare healthy food will help you take care of yourself, it will be a kind of therapy in your active life. After you throw away the processed foods, replace them with healthy, fresh foods. For example:
- Replace white pasta with bran pasta and white rice for brown.
- Replace canned pre-cooked foods and frozen convenience foods with fresh foods you can use to prepare your own meals.
- Throw away ready-made desserts and replace them with fruits, yogurt, and other healthy desserts.
3 Try to sit down to eat as soon as you feel hungry. The problem arises when you start to die of hunger, and you feel like you would eat a whole horse, then you eat too fast and risk eating more than you need.When you are so hungry that you feel dizzy, weak, and irritated, which means your body has been deprived of essential food for too long, you will not be able to eat peacefully while enjoying your meal. Instead, you will be stuffing yourself with food to relieve symptoms of weakness and feelings of irritation. But this will never help you!
4 Always relax before eating. Take a few deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your mouth. After you have done this, hold your breath for a while and exhale slowly through your mouth. Get rid of stress before you start eating - this will save yourself the risk of comfortable eating when food is used as a stress reliever, and you can focus on relieving stress regardless of food.
- Remind yourself of the rewards (good health, good looks, etc.).
- Look at the clock and mentally add 20 minutes. This is your goal: spend at least 20 minutes enjoying your meal.
5 Drink a glass of water and / or a small serving of light soup before your main course. Drink water with meals. This will help you achieve a feeling of fullness.
- Keep in mind that not everyone recommends drinking water with meals, as some people believe it can dilute the nutrients in your food. However, this theory is not supported by other nutritionists who believe that water, on the contrary, promotes digestion. In other words, listen to your body's reactions by drinking water with your meals.
6 Leave the fork behind after putting food in your mouth. Take a sip of water, engage in conversation. Enjoy every bite, make it so enjoyable that you'll want to repeat it again. This is the essence of slow eating, you switch to the people with whom you are eating, perceiving the meal as a break, which you should pay attention to and enjoy it.
7 Focus on your food and really enjoy it. Your brain will remember this pleasant sensation, and this new way of eating will become automatic after some practice. This does not mean eating near the TV, or reading a book, or surfing the Internet. By distracting from food, you reduce its value, and it seems to you that you have eaten less than you actually did, and your brain will try to trick your appetite, and it will seem to you that you need to eat more. Give your brain and body a rest and really focus on the food in front of you. Savor the food, appreciate it, and be present during the eating ritual without being distracted by anything else.
8 Take at least 20 minutes to eat. You should have a wall clock that you can see while you eat to keep track of the speed at which you are eating; eat the last part of the dish really slowly. If you are still hungry after 20 minutes, it means you were eating too fast! Another way to find out is to understand when you are feeling completely full or slightly hungry.
- There is a sensor in your brain (hypothalamus) that should be activated after 20 minutes (in some cases, plus / minus a few minutes). First, the digestive and hormonal processes take place, and then our brain realizes that we are no longer hungry; before the brain receives the information it needs, we may feel like we have a full belly, but we are still not full.
9 If you still feel a little hungry, stop anyway. Drink a little more water. This is the moment when you have to use your willpower, remember your motivation and visualization. After 5 minutes, you will no longer be hungry, even if the food is very tasty, because you will feel satisfied and full.
- Get distracted if visualization doesn't work for you in this case.Go for a walk, watch your favorite TV show, write a poem, call a friend, go for a swim, knit a sweater, feed an animal, comb your pet, wash your car, change bedding, etc.
- Drinking a hot drink will help you overcome any remaining hunger. Drink coffee, tea, warm lemon water, etc.
- If you still feel hungry after eating slowly, you may have a nutritional deficiency or some kind of illness; it can also continue due to psychological problems. It is worth talking to your doctor about this if this continues.

Tips

Reduce your portion. Help yourself, buy a smaller plate that can hold a normal, rather than a generous, serving.
Remember, you should never finish a serving on your plate. After a while, hopefully, you will learn to put in a smaller portion and even cook less than you should eat, at least learn to leave food on your plate, stopping at the moment when you feel full and satisfied.
Try to take a walk after eating, even a 5 minute walk will do the trick.
Don't wait until you feel the effects of overeating; behave properly at the table. Keep track of the speed of how you eat, drink water, look at the clock. You will eat slowly automatically after you achieve the desired result.
Take small portions. You can always get a supplement. Or take a small plate, fill it up to trick your brain into eating a whole plate.

Warnings

The moment you feel uncomfortable and your stomach is full, you have eaten too much.
If you are craving to eat something, wait at least 10 minutes. Better yet, eat something healthy in return.
Don't confuse a feeling of overeating with a feeling of satisfaction; your stomach may be full, but you still feel hungry and continue to eat. Eating slowly will help release your mindset, allowing you to pay more attention to your hunger cues. This will help you overcome the urge to keep eating even if you are full. And don't ignore nervous overeating, which can often override satiety because you're trying to numb the senses, not feed the body. If this continues, you need professional help.
If you are nutritionally deficient, no matter how slow you eat, you cannot cope with it without healthy food. When you eat your burger and fries slowly, you are all eating the same burger and fries. Eat healthy foods to make sure your body is getting all the nutrients it needs.
Try not watching TV, playing video games, or reading a book while you eat, this will distract you from how much you have eaten, and you will not pay attention to the signals that your brain is sending you.