Focusing on Your Food....

Lately I have been making a conscious effort to track my food so diligently and avoid things that don’t fuel my body. Sometimes this can be hard, especially when the idea of something REALLY yummy that I haven’t eaten in a while wanders into my brain. One of the things I’ve been working on is when and where I choose to eat my meals/snacks. 

I know some of you are probably saying, "Does it really matter?" I believe it does, and for me, I’ve been tracking how this has been working in my day to day life.

 Most of the time in the mornings, for instance, I tend to make a protein shake to drink on the way to work, or if I choose to make some sort of a breakfast burrito with egg whites and veggies, I eat it in the car on the drive to work. It’s not long after I’ve gotten to work and I’m telling myself I’m hungry. The same scenario usually occurs when I eat my morning snack at my desk and sometimes even my lunch, depending on my day and what I need to get done. My afternoon snack is then usually a protein bar on the way to the gym and I find that the only real guaranteed sit-down meal I am having is at the dinner table every night. And even then, there are those times from time to time, where that is even eaten on the go. From looking at my day and really evaluating the quality time I spent eating, it really wasn’t happening. It was just when I could fit it in or I did it because it was time to eat. 

Just making a conscious effort to stop doing whatever it is I’m doing and really enjoy what I’m putting in my mouth has helped me to not think of food so much as an addiction but instead as fuel for my body. I think for so many years I would just eat to eat. It was what I knew how to do.  I had no recollection of really the good from the bad or calories/proteins/carbs/fats. I just ate.  Even when I had been educated about these things but still wasn’t focusing on the times and places when I was eating food, it all ended up feeling like a job, or like I said,  I just did it because I had too. 

For the past few weeks while trying to make a change and focus on quality eating time, I’m feeling fuller longer and not constantly thinking about the next time I get to eat – things that naturally come when you’re a person who has struggled with either weight loss or food issues.  By taking the time to break away from what I’m doing and sit at the table, try not to work and eat at the same time, and minimize the times I have to eat on the go, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction. It allows me to focus on each bite. It allows me to drink lots of water with whatever I’m eating. It allows me to feel like I’m in control, I’m a normal eater, and I can enjoy just about anything, as long as I do it in moderation. 

I know I’m not perfect at this by any means but just making an effort has been huge!  It plays a key role in making good choices and maintaining what I’ve worked so hard to become.