(PICTURE: My new role model.)
I feel like I don't have too many vices. I don't smoke, do drugs, drink in excess (0-4 beers a week), or gamble (minus the occasional fantasy football league). However, one vice that I do have is that I eat really really fast. Yes, I admit it -- I'm a super fast eater.
My whole life I feel like people have been telling me to slow down when I eat. Whether it is my mother, grandmother or friends, I've been told to take my foot off the accelerator when I eat. I could blame my dad for this bad life habit (it's his only vice too) but I'm old enough now to shoulder the responsibility myself. Recently Huyen has been getting on my case a lot about slowing down when I eat (it's a wife's job to get on her husband's case about something, right? I mean, I should have seen this coming as soon as I proposed). Every time I have any sort of ailment, Huyen tells me it is because I eat too fast. Well, I'm sure my tennis elbow isn't from eating too fast but perhaps my lifelong history of a volatile stomach could be attributed to my speed eating.
So, as of today, I'm going to make a concerted effort to eat slower. I won't be turtle slow but I will be much much slower. I'm not sure I'll hit the 30 chews per bite level (which a woman at a restaurant suggested to us recently) but I will bite my food more.
For extra motivated I just googled "eat slowly" and the first entry listed five reasons to eat slower:
1. Lose weight (yeah, I could lose a few pounds).
2. Enjoy your food (I do enjoy my food but hopefully I could learn to enjoy it for a longer period of time).
3. Better digestion (This is the one I could really use the help with).
4. Less Stress (So chewing slower will help us get through immigration faster?).
5. Rebel against fast food and fast life (I don't like fast food so this isn't a problem...although I could go for a McFlurry every once in a while).
Eating slower for now on,
Ben
