Be kind to your body

Hello and good morning. As I was sitting here eating my breakfast while browsing the internet, I suddenly remembered, it is not recommended to eat at the office desk. I'm not sure why that is, possibly because it encourages you to rush food and get back to work, or, that you should concentrate on every mouthful and let your taste buds savour the moment without interruption. 

I must say, I don't go along with this, for me eating and looking at a screen go hand in hand. I eat more slowly while reading or watching a video. My breakfast has just taken me 25 minutes to eat.

I know a certain person, won't name names but someone I know well, who shoves his food down his throat at breakneck speed. When I am in his company eating a meal he always berates me for eating so slowly. He says I should eat it while it is hot because it will be cold before I am finished. I could never understand why this should be a problem, hot food cold food what does it matter. I think the fact that he is overweight says a lot about his eating habits. 

 Food digestion starts in the mouth, by chewing food and mixing it with saliva not only adds to the enjoyment of eating by titillating your taste buds, it also starts the breaking down process in preparation for it moving on  through the gullet and into the stomach. If you are going to force feed yourself your body will not be able to extract all the nutrients it needs, and you will probably end up with one awful belly ache as it struggles to break everything down.

I like the saying, 'your eyes are bigger than your belly', yes, it happens to me sometimes, but not very often. I nearly always eat everything on my plate. Occasionally I stop eating before it's all gone, and put it in the fridge for the next day, but not very often.

When I am at home all day my breakfast takes me 25 minutes to consume, my lunch 40 minutes, and my dinner 45 minutes. Admittedly when I was working full time I wasn't able to give so much time to eating, but now I am retired I am more mindful about how I should treat my body.

I prefer to eat alone, because I can concentrate on every mouthful, even in front of a screen. When I am in company I find it difficult to have a conversation and eat at the same time. My mum told me never to speak with my mouth full, and yes it is rude if your friends can see what's going on in your mouth.

I never stick to set times for my meals, I have approximate times, depending on whether my previous meal has gone through me quickly or slowly. I wait until my stomach tells me it is ready for more. Breakfast is about 8am, lunch between 11.30 and 1.30pm, dinner between 5 and 7pm.

Eating tons of food at a fast pace is basically self abuse. I sometimes read about eating challenges where people sit round a table scoffing vast quantities of one type of food, eggs comes to mind. Some of these people must be totally oblivious to the damage they are causing themselves. Indeed some of them do die. I would like to see this type of challenge totally banned. Aside from the health point of view, there is a moral issue that to publicly fill yourself to bursting point is an insult to those who don't have enough to eat.

To wind up, are you a slow eater or a fast eater? Do you watch a screen while you are eating, like me, or not? Do you eat alone or with others? Do you put too much on your plate, or is the quantity just right? Do you have a cooked meal at lunchtime or something lighter? Do you have a cooked meal in the evening or is that high tea time? Questions questions questions, come on, tell us your scoffing habits, or tell me to mind my own business, ha ha.

Thanks for popping in, have a nice weekend, we'll catch up soon.
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