At some point in the process of eating a meal, most people stop briefly and lay down their forks or put down the food they’re holding in their hands.
Then they might stretch, talk a little, watch TV, or even read the newspaper.
After this “pause” in their eating, people will often glance down at their food and decide they want more, so they pick up their forks and resume eating.
But after finishing the rest of their food, they exclaim, “I shouldn’t have eaten that because now I’m too full.”
When you naturally pause in your eating, you’re usually at the exact point where you feel satisfied or comfortable.
In fact, this pause seems to correlate exactly with the moment your stomach indicates it’s taken in enough food. If you continue to eat, you quickly move to the level of being too full.
Today’s assignment (my answers are in blue)
1. At each meal and snack, notice when you pause in your eating. Record how you recognized the pause as well as how much you had eaten at that point.
I love the eating pause concept! I’m always amazed at how accurate the pause can be in helping me know when I’ve eaten enough food.
A couple of years ago, I decided to indulge in a Dairy Queen Blizzard. I was with some friends, so we sat at a table to visit while we enjoyed our ice cream.
Suddenly I looked down and realized I had “paused” for several minutes, and that my milkshake was only half gone. But as I thought about my stomach and how it felt, I knew that I’d had all I needed.
I was amazed to see this work so accurately, even with a snack. By the way, I actually tossed the rest of the shake in the trash!
2. Once you’ve paused, stop eating, regardless of the amount you have left. Wait for at least two hours before eating again. Describe your experience with recognizing the eating pause.
At a recent restaurant meal, I paused when I’d eaten half of my salmon and part of my vegetables. I was surprised at how quickly I reached that point of feeling satisfied.
Although I stopped eating, I kept thinking that I MUST need more food than that. But two hours later, I still felt fine, so I think it was the right amount of food.
3. If you realize you were actually hungry, work at fine-tuning your listening skills and improving your ability to use the eating pause as a tool. Write a few notes about how you can improve this in the future.
My biggest problem is that lots of times, I get preoccupied with eating or talking, and I forget to watch for the pause. I need to work on staying more aware of my actions, and use the pause as one of my tools for managing my portion amounts.
Excerpted from Day 35 in the book, 100 Days of Weight Loss