Distracted eating.

The other day, for no particular reason I decided to reward myself with food.  Not because I had eaten well for weeks and weeks and should be allowed a cheat day, I just thought to myself, pizza sounds good, eat pizza.  So I ordered an individual bacon pizza, because frankly bacon pizza is the only way to go, it's the dog bullocks, the mutts nuts, the bees knees, whichever colloquialism you deem necessary to describe something that is the shiznit.  So I sat at my desk and ate my pizza while mindlessly searching the madness that is the internet.  Click here, scroll here, watch a funny video there, and before I knew it the pizza was gone, kaput, no mas señor.  Where could it have gone?  I had a vague memory of eating it but no way could I have already finished this delightful pizza that was my reward for being me.  Literally the memory is gone, I could not remember the flavors, forgotten was the feeling inside that you get with you eat something that is pure deliciousness.  All I had was a full unsatisfied belly, I am Jack's broken heart.  Until last week's Weight Watchers meeting I never put a term to what I was then referring to as "the time someone stole my damn pizza", go figure they talked about this and called it distracted eating, that was lesson number one.

Last week I was sitting with Hila enjoying a lovely breakfast of eggs, Canadian Bacon, fruit, and my good friend the hash brown, toasted to complete perfection.  The deliciousness of this alone forces it to be eaten last, that is just how we eat food, save the best bite for last.  As we were talking, the was phone ringing, the baby was crying, and Hila looks as me, eyes wide with an empty plate, "I don't even remember eating my hash brown".  Once again utter heartbreak.  Lesson number two in distracted eating.

We are busy people, tied to our cell phones, our iPads, God forbid we don't reply to a text message within seconds of receiving one.  We have become a people controlled by this technology and it is making us fatter.  I can eat, a lot, if I am distracted I can eat even more because I am paying zero attention to what I am doing I am just shoveling.  As a family we have decided to try and disconnect, unplug, put the damn phone down during meals.  We used to eat all our meals in front of the TV, zone out and veg and eat.  Now eating at the table is the rule not the exception.  I enjoy my meal more when I am focused on what I am eating, I find that I feel fuller longer being more aware of what I just ate.  Go figure I also know more about how my wife is doing, we talk, we look each other in the face and talk.  Don't get more wrong, I love instant messaging, text messages, email, etc. just are much as the next guy but I am now working on a way so these easy means of communication do not run my life.  

In one instance above the interwebs distracted me because I let it and I cannot remember just how delicious my pizza tasted, or figure out who stole it.  In the other instance, life was the distraction and it got the better of Hila through no fault of her own.  It just happened, life that is.

The lesson here is to avoid distractions, disconnect, focus on what it is you are eating, sit and enjoy your meals.  Life will still be there afterwards, I can promise you that.