Fast eater trying to become a slow eater

Are you a fast eater or a slow eater? Have you ever cared about the speed of eating? In my case, I know I have been a fast eater all my life. For example, during my high school years, all the students went down to a school cafeteria and enjoyed their meal all together. That was one of the moments I realized I eat faster than most of my peers. Even though we started eating all at the same time and served the same amount of food, I was always the first one to finish and watch everyone else enjoying the school meal. Though, I thought there was no problem with my eating speed. All the concerns started to disturb me since I went on a diet.

I observed myself eating and realized that I was swallowing even without chewing a lot. I counted the number of times I chewed, and surprisingly, I chewed only three to four times and swallow the food immediately. Consequently, it makes me hard to feel I’m actually full leads to the higher possibility of overeating. Not surprising though, because it is common sense that a faster-eating speed is associated with bigger glucose fluctuation that leads to insulin resistance, resulting in gaining more weight. However, gaining weight is not the only problem. I found that fast eating makes it hard to fully enjoy the taste of the food. The only thing I thought about the fact whether the food tasted good or bad, whether the food fills me up from the stomach, whether it was fulfilling or not. I neglected the mixed combination of all the different ingredients inside one cuisine, not knowing the joy of eating. I can say without any doubt that for the past 23 years, I did not know how the food ‘actually’ taste. All of the taste I thought I knew was vulgar, in a sense.

As I encountered a term, ‘mindful eating’, I started to change the eating behaviors. The term “mindfulness” means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. In this sense, “Mindful eating” means paying attention to our food, on purpose, moment by moment, without judgment, and is an approach to food that focuses on individuals’ sensual awareness of the food and their experience of the food. It definitely encourages me to gain awareness of my eating experiences and savor the moment.

Now, I try to practice mindful eating on every meal I intake, and now it became my routine. Surprisingly, I feel full easier even though eat less than before. The best part is, I feel much happier. I will keep this as my lifestyle from now on and would strongly recommend for those people who have the same problem as me.

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