Mindless Eating

My husband sent me a link to a pretty funny video clip, the kind of skit you'd see on Saturday Night Live.  The clip was for an infomercial for a product to deliver food to our mouths more effectively.  It touted that it was the answer to those who found it to be too much effort or too tiring to lift a fork to their mouth.  With the push of a button, food placed on a tray would be mashed and moved up a chute directly to the mouth, so all a person would need to do was swallow.  Since the food was mashed, no chewing was required - for those who found it too exhausting to chew.  As a bonus, those who called in the next 10 minutes would also get a giant bib.  It was pretty funny, and also slightly disgusting as the video showed the food being poured into one mouth after another.

The video also made me think about all of the mindless eating I'd done in my life.  I can't count the number of times I hardly tasted what I was eating and just shoved it in as fast as I could.  This was especially true when I was eating for emotional reasons; I remember numerous times when I'd stand in front of my refrigerator with the freezer door open, shoving handfuls of frozen chocolate chips into my mouth as fast as I could (because I "needed chocolate").  There was a time in my life, and not that long ago, when a contraption like the one in the video might have seemed like a good idea and an efficient way to get the food in just a little bit faster and with the least amount of effort.

One of the things we learn on this program is how to eat slowly and mindfully.  I don't know about you, but I tried to make every small meal last as long as possible (I still do!).  I take a small bite of a crunch bar, chew it thoroughly, drink some water, take another bite . . . Doing this fills me up and gives my brain time to get the message that I've eaten and am satisfied, making me aware of my "full signal."  Staying on plan means that we're planning out our menu for the day, carefully choosing our lean & green, and perhaps enjoying eating now more than we have in a long time.  That was true for me, and part of the "enjoying eating" came from knowing that I could eat without feeling guilty all the time about what I was eating.

Obviously, Medifast meals are NOT gourmet and they certainly don't taste like my own home cooking, but as my tastebuds adjusted once I got off all of the high fat & white sugar, I found most of the foods to be pretty good.  I still eat many of the products (and we love the new brownies!) because they not only provide great nutrition in grab and go convenience, but they taste good, too.  I savor what I eat - mindless "shoving it in as fast as I can" eating is part of my obese past, not my healthy present and future.

Changing how we eat and changing how we think about food takes time.  The changes we want to make are reinforced every day by the choices we make.  Choose wisely :-)