Eat Small, Eat Slow, Eat Skinny

The older we get the more we repetitively learn a simple truth: food is fuel.

Three other important truths: 1) our tanks are small; 2) they fill quickly; and, 3) like a high-performance vehicle, we need the best fuel to perform at our best.

Disturbed by many mirages of excuse to eat whatever is put in front of us (or more perhaps), the ancient, and indeed eternal, agenda for health never relieves itself from effect upon our bodies. We reap as we sow. Long life, and good life at that, is dependent on such simple things as dietary intake, sleep and exercise. There’s no getting around it.

Three key ideas help us arrest the slide into dietary oblivion:

1. Eat Small

Many of our meals are super-sized. Too many.

Our stomachs are typically the size of a clenched fist, and despite the fact most of our food compresses as we chew it, we cannot cater that well with two, three, four or five fistfuls. Gorging on food is a sin, but it’s characteristically a practice of rich society.

The smaller our meals can be, the more our bodies are ready for the next meal at its appointed time. If we find our digestive systems are bound up, like a traffic jam, it could be time for a small season of fasting—to lessen what we eat for 3-4 days. After such a period of circumspect eating we will feel better within.

2. Eat Slow

Combined with eating small is the warrant to take our time and not rush our meals.

There’s a lot to be said for having meals at the family table and not before the television, for discussion is a healthy distraction slowing our eating—we cannot eat whilst we’re talking, or not too well. But dependent on what television we’re watching it can increase our rate of eating. We therefore don’t enjoy our food as much.

Eating slow is simply giving our digestive systems the consideration they’re due.

3. Eat Skinny

Possibly the most important of all three is watching what we eat.

Even the skinny person is going to have problems with cholesterol if they don’t adhere to sound intake of certain foods.

Eating dense foods, stacked with the nutritional goodness of lean proteins and low Glycemic Index (GI) carbohydrate, together with important vitamins and minerals, are not only good for us, but they fill us up as well.

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The wisest diet requires us to eat small, eat slow, and eat skinny. These are all doing things. Being healthy is beyond knowledge; it’s a practice; a way of life.

When the focus turns to food when it shouldn’t (i.e. it’s not mealtime), find a worthy distraction. Become habitually distracted from snacking.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.