Day 5 – The Beck Diet Solution

Day 5 is about eating slowly and mindfully (I think she could have wrapped this one up in Day 3 as well since they are so closely related). 

Beck gives two reasons for eating slowly and concentrating on your food. The first is physical,studies show it takes 20 minutes for our brains to register our stomachs as full, by which point, most of us have eaten past full into uncomfortable. If we eat slower, we will recognize signs of fullness before we stuff ourselves, thereby eating less and being able to lose weight.

The second reason is psychological. Eating is more than just feeding our bodies, it’s also about feeding our souls and spending time with people we love.  She gives several good suggestions for learning to eat slowly, if you are a fast eater and creating cue cards if you need to, to remind yourself to eat slower.

To be honest, this has never been a problem for me. I do sometimes eat quickly, but I love food and savour every bite when I am sitting down and enjoying a meal.  I have more issues with #3, which was eating while doing other stuff and I’m working on that one now.

 

Things I am giving myself credit for today:

1. Eating consistently even though I am tired and have no appetite.

2. Meal planning for the week.

3. Only eating while sitting down.

4. Read my response cards.

I haven’t read Day 6 yet. Today has been an odd day (more in another post later) so I will probably read it and post about it tomorrow.