Slow Down
So many of us are looking to increase our metabolism. We want to calorie-burn better, we want more energy, a stronger immune system and better digestion. So it’s logical to assume that in order to have these things, we need to push harder. We need to work more, move faster, push ourselves to the limit. It seems to make sense that a better metabolism happens when we get into the highest gear possible.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Slowing down can be a powerful metabolic enhancer. When we move slower and step into a physiological relaxation response, digestion is enhanced, our energy level increases and our calorie burning capacity is improved.
I know this may sound counterintuitive – which is why few people adopt this absolutely life-changing practice! But when you incorporate this practice of SLOW into your life, you will see how it is a very powerful remedy for so many of our nutrition-related health challenges & symptoms.
The metabolic power of slow is more important in this fast world than it ever was. More and more, the world seems hooked on speed. We like fast Internet, fast cars, fast service at the restaurant, fast money, fast weight loss, sometimes it seems we don’t have time to wait.
When it comes to food and body, high-speed living creates some huge disadvantages. Many of us eat too fast. Around 80% of my coaching clients consider themselves fast eaters, or at least moderately fast. It’s rare that a client tells me they are a slow eater. Fast eating is a huge stress on the body. It’s not natural and the body simply doesn’t like it.
We literally will go into a stress response when we eat too fast.
Depending on the intensity of our stress, to some degree we will go into digestive shutdown. Enzymatic output in the gut is dramatically decreased, blood flow to the gut is approximately 4 times less during a stress response, the muscular churning of stomach and intestines can slow down or even come to a halt, nutrients are excreted, often in significant amounts, cortisol and insulin increase and slows down calorie burning capacity.
In addition, eating fast puts us into some degree of digestive upset. When we have food in our system but we’re not metabolising it. This can lead to bloating, gas, and nausea. Another common side effect of stress-induced digestive shutdown from eating fast is heartburn. If you suffer from heartburn, your body is talking to you. it’s asking you to slow down.
So you can be eating the healthiest food in the universe, but if you eat fast, you won’t be getting the full nutritional value of the meal. Fast eating does not serve us!
The act of eating fast also completely de-regulates our appetite. It takes the body approximately 20 minutes to realise it’s done eating – this was a lesson brought to us by research long ago. The body needs time to scan a meal, to determine what it needs, and to see if we need to eat more, or if the meal is done.
During a stress response, the brain has significantly less ability to register taste, aroma, satisfaction and to decide ‘did I get what I needed?’ The result is that we could eat a lot of food, but the brain will still register that we are still hungry so we eat more food, and we think we have a willpower problem, but the real problem is we eat too fast.
Slow down. Food will taste better, your appetite will be naturally regulated, you’ll digest better, you’ll assimilate better, you’ll calorie-burn better, and you’ll notice life and all its beautiful and subtle details that we tend to miss when we’re moving at high speed.
Slowing down is free. It’s time to reclaim your natural pace.
