I Can Make You Thin

A few nights ago Josh and I spent time with our friends Jonathan, Joy, Matt, and Sayo. Sayo taught Joy and I how to made "gyoza" which are Japanese dumplings. Oh my, they're good. Look 'em up!

I recently stumbled upon a special on TLC called "I Can Make You Thin." I watched it for a few minutes and wrote down four the "4 Golden Rules" of eating. Here they are (roughly):

1. Eat when you're hungry.
2. Eat what you want.
3. Eat consciously.
4. When you think you're full, stop eating.

I'm astounded by these "rules," because they aren't the typical diet guidelines. The first two happily negate what everyone's been telling us about weight loss. I've had trouble completely cutting out certain food groups; I end up eating a whole box of Girl Scout cookies the third day in. I'm sure there are those out there who've mastered the art of discipline, but I don't think it comes down to discipline only. "Everything in moderation" or "balance" is a better approach to LIFE--and food. I've mastered both extremes--health-nut AND cake-and-cookie-connoisseur (usually on the same day)--and I'm ready to combine the two for a healthy lifestyle.

I decided to try these rules for a few days. Rule number 3 is a biggie; "conscious eating" means no distractions. For me this means not eating in front of the television. I can easily down a whole box of Wheat Thins during one episode of Super Nanny. Conscious eating brings your mind back to the true main event: THE MEAL!

As suggested by the program: take a bite of your food, put the food and utensils down, chew the food twice as long as you usually would, enjoy the taste of the food, swallow, and repeat. A woman who loves macaroni and cheese tried this exercise. She had a big plate in front of her and ended up eating only half of what she'd normally consume. Supposedly there's a delay between when we're actually full and when we realize it. By slowing the eating process, we're letting our body tell us when we're full.

The effects of this exercise, I realized, reach beyond the amount of food I eat. When I took the time to "enjoy" the food, I noticed that certain food didn't taste as good. The foods which taste better happen to be healthier foods. The program recommends trying this exercise with a fast-food meal. We're used to eating these meals so fast that we don't pay attention to how they taste.

I'm not sure about some of the other techniques of this program (yet), but the rules were fun to try for a few days, and they're relatively easy to stick to.