Defragged

I laughed when I read the instructions for chewing and eating meals in the Medifast Diet Startup Guide. How could I possibly stretch out 4 oz of chili into 15 minutes?

My thoughts were, "I'm too busy, quite frankly, to take the time or to care. I'll never be able to do it."

But wait ... Isn't that perhaps part of the reason I am overweight? I wasn't taking the time to really enjoy my food? I was gulping it down because eating slowly and enjoying my food wasn't convenient? Was I really aware of how much I was eating because I wasn't eating slow enough?

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day here in the USA, and I stayed on the Medifast Diet plan as close as possible. If anything I may have overdone it a bit on my Mashed Cauliflower recipe, but all in all I suspect I was able to lose weight yesterday despite it being Thanksgiving Day.

Strangely though, I found it quite interesting to watch my family eat their calorie rich meals while I ate my Medifast Lean and Green meal. Here are a few things I noticed about their eating habits that of course were an exact mirror of my own prior to starting the Medifast Diet.

1. How long did it take them to eat that single bite of Sweet Potato Casserole or whatever the food was they were eating at the time I noticed? Was it swallowed completely before the next spoonful?
2. How much chewing per bite did they actually do before swallowing?
3. What were they drinking with their meal? How often did they take a drink between bites?
4. How much in ounces or cups did they eat per food item? This was an eyeball guess, of course.
5. How did each food on their plate relate to Medifast's Lean and Green portions? Was there too much Lean or too much Green? Was there enough? Was the food nutritionally balanced based on what I've learned from the Medifast Diet so far?
6. When they appeared full, did they stop eating? Or did they clean their plate even though they said they were full?
7. How long in total minutes did they take to eat their entire meal?
8. Did they go back for seconds or even thirds?
9. How soon after they ate their Thanksgiving meal, did they head on over to the dessert table? Did they eat dessert immediately after their meal even though they said they were stuffed? Or did they skip dessert entirely?

Oddly enough I also noticed that being with people that didn't take time to eat their meals was subconsciously effecting my eating habits unless I made a conscious effort to chew slower, drink water between bites, set my fork down while I chewed, etc.

Now don't get me wrong. I didn't stare nor did I point fingers at anyone. I simply wanted to step back from it all and observe their eating habits because I know that is how I ate for 46+ years. I wasn't judging. I was merely observing my old self through them, and boy did I see an old self that I didn't know existed.

So what is the answer to the question, "Can you really learn to stretch out eating each meal regardless of how small it may be to 15 minutes?" Yes, you can.

I am living proof that it is possible to eat 4 oz. of pudding or chili, a nutritional bar that is 3-1/2 inches long, or even a 6 oz. bowl of soup in an average of 15 minutes. I've discovered that savoring every bite helps my body realize that it has eaten a meal. My old self would have likely downed a 3-1/2 nutritonal bar in less than 1 minute leaving my body to wonder whether it really had eaten.

Thanks to the many things I've learned through the Medifast Diet, I am enjoying my meals, my body understands that I have eaten, and I'm losing weight too.3

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