“The Sigh” – Language of the Stomach
A Simple Trick to Eat Less
Many of us are on-the-go. We are rushing to work, classes, workouts, children’s practices, and running errands. While it’s important to get to the places we need to be, remember the main “place “we want to be: healthy.
Listening to our bodies, taking your time while eating, and paying closer attention to our hunger are just as important as getting to work on time. Like our alarm clock tells us when it’s time to get up for the day, our body has its own signals to tell us when we are full.
The Sigh
Think about the meals you’ve had recently, and the sighs you experienced in the past. This is our bodies’ way of saying “Thank you for the healthy meal – I’m full and satisfied”. We don’t pay too much attention to it; it’s automatic. Today, after a meal, pay attention to when you sigh. Afterward, take about five minutes and stop eating. Drink some water, distract yourself on the computer, or get up and wash some dishes. If you are still hungry after those five minutes, have a couple more bites and you’re done! What will most likely happen is that you will realize you are satisfied and not physically hungry anymore – your body’s alarm clock is still ticking!
Helping You Take Notice of the Sigh
To help ourselves get into the habit and notice our sighs, here are a few tips to get in the zone:
• Eat at the dinner table – If we are eating on the couch, in the car, or in bed, we go on automatic pilot. We aren’t eating in an appropriate place to take notice of our signals. The T.V., the drive, or any other kind of multitasking with food will tune out the sigh signal. When we are focused only on eating and enjoying our food, the sigh will be noticeable and you will feel satiated.
• Get others involved – Ask your partner, roommate, or a friend to help notice when you sigh during a meal. At work, ask a co-worker you eat with to take a test drive with you noticing each other sighing. Once you notice your signal, you’ll get a better gauge of how much you eat before you get full.
• Take it slow – Taking our time to chew, savor, and enjoy our food will help to give our mind time to communicate to our body that it’s full. If we scarf our food down, we aren’t allowing our body to feel full. Don’t turn that alarm off and keep eating. When you hear that sigh and feel that fullness – we are done.
Listening to these signals our bodies’ send is new for a lot of us. During the business of your week, start paying attention to the sigh. Practice the ways to take notice of it. Soon enough, that alarm clock will get louder and louder, and in time, we will become healthier and healthier.
“Ahhhhh (sigh)” – I like the sound of that.
