 guys, welcome to day three of our 7% slower learning to go slower challenge. Today, we're going to cover the very basics of mindful eating, otherwise known as chew your food, man. So we're gonna talk about mindful eating a little bit today, or at least how to get started with that. Let's wait for some folks to pop in, we'll see if the usual suspects roll in. I'm trying a new camera setup today. So hopefully it's gonna work out. I don't the quality on restream has been at little dicey last couple of days. I don't know why. But we'll do the best we can. So as you guys pop into the stream, just give me a wave so I know you're here so I can know you hear me and we'll get we'll get rolling. So over the last few days, we've been talking about, like daily tasks, little like life tasks, like showering and brushing your teeth and brushing your hair that we can use as opportunities to practice going slower and learning to be a little bit mindful in our day. Because the premise behind this is that if you can learn to slow down, even when anxiety and stress are asking you to speed up, you can actually start to make a little bit more progress in your recovery. So this is why we're talking about these things. And today, we're going to cover the very like I said, the basics of sort of mindful eating, and we're going to just start with chewing because mindful eating has become quite the rage or bunch of people are talking about that. Now, I don't claim to be any sort of expert in the area of mindful eating. But we can certainly talk about how to at least begin to do that. Right. So we will do that. I don't see too many people popping in. I don't know if we're having extreme problems or not. Well, Bethany is here. So that's a start with her lizard emoji. But let's get into it. So you guys can always watch the replay of this. Just to see what's going on. When I look down, it means I'm looking at the comments, but the camera is here and the comments are there. So I'll do the best that I can for you guys. So mindful eating, which we can start with. Well, I wonder what's going on here. Hang on just one second. I wonder if I forgot to turn on the public. Oh, Nicky's here. Okay. So sorry, I thought I had a technical problem. All right. Thanks, thank you. I appreciate it. I thought I had screwed up on YouTube. So let's talk about mindful eating and why eating is a good opportunity to practice going slower. Like eating is something that all of us do at least multiple times a day. Although before we get into it, I do want to take a second and acknowledge that if you are having a real problem eating, like if eating is a struggle for you, which sometimes it turns into for a lot of people who are dealing with anxiety problems, they really struggle to eat. And if that is you, if you're losing weight, you're having a hard time eating, you have no appetite, you're nauseous all the time, then mindful eating isn't necessarily a thing for you, right? It's important for us to acknowledge that you can just like for the people on day one who are maybe having a problem with showers, you can actually look at other places to begin to use this skill as opposed to in your just in your eating. So if you are struggling to eat right now, because of your anxiety, you do not have to learn how to how to mindfully eat, you can use these principles and other daily tasks, somebody had substituted loading the dishwasher for showering the other day. So just want to acknowledge you guys. However, if you are not having a problem eating and eating is something that you do do regularly, then you can use it as an opportunity to practice this new thing of slowing down and paying attention. Right? We're defining mindfulness as the skill of putting your attention somewhere and keeping it there. So mindfulness is really just about paying attention. There's nothing special about it, it's just learning how to pay attention. Part of that is learning to slow down and focus on the thing that you were doing at the moment. So in terms of mindful eating, we could talk about, you know, giving yourself the opportunity to actually taste the flavors and the textures. And I know there's a lot of that when it comes to mindful eating and the sense that go along with eating and all of those things. I'll be flat out honest with you, I am not a foodie, although I don't really look like I'm missing a whole lot of meals. But I'm not a foodie. I don't really get into cooking and food and that sort of stuff. So that's why I can't really speak authoritatively to the idea of focusing on textures and sense and tastes and things of that nature. Because that's just not me. But at a minimum, when we eat, we do have to chew. So we can work on that. Now I would urge you to, I don't have a really microphone boom problems here. It's like today's a technical nightmare. But I would urge you to really think about like, how much time do you put into eating? It may not be a lot. A lot of people, especially if you're anxious all the time, you may look at eating as just a chore that you really have to get get over with really fast. Like I just need to eat fast because I don't want to have to deal with this. You might not want to sit at the table and eat because you're having a hard time sitting and eating, right? You know, just sitting still and being there quietly for a while. So you may be rushing through your food or you may be actually just grabbing whatever you can whenever you're starving, just jamming it in there eating over the sink, you know, that's part of my problem. I'll just I haven't eaten all day. I'll get really hungry. I'll just like grab something out of the fridge. I'm just gnawing at it like a chicken leg as I walk around. That's not okay. So what we can do is we can say at least give yourself the opportunity. When you are eating, it would be nice if you, you know, gave yourself the chance to actually sit and take a break for five minutes to eat. You're allowed to take a break to like actually feed your body. You know, it's one of those life things that we kind of have to do. So it would be nice if you could give yourself that break. But at a minimum, when you are eating something, you can start with just chewing more slowly, right? I know some people use this as like weight loss advice and things of that nature and it might be eating more mindfully as opposed to just shoving it in might help if you're in a situation where you're trying to lose weight. But we're not looking at it that way. We're just looking at it as a way to slow down. So at a minimum, when you do eat something, even if you're eating it on the run, even if you're eating it while standing up or over the sink or you just grabbed it out of the fridge and you're just going to eat something quickly, at a minimum, you can start to slow down your eating and start to engage a little bit in the practice of mindful eating if you just chew more slowly. That's it. Like it's not a very complex thing to do. It's just chewing. We all know how to chew. But if you can give yourself the chance to at least chew your food a little bit more slowly, and just focus on the act of chewing. So when you take a spoonful or a fork full or you take a bite of whatever it is, just give yourself 10, 15 seconds, which is a long time to chew. Give yourself that time to just chew. That's it. Just chew slowly and focus on the sensation of chewing and the act of chewing, the repetitive behavior of chomp, chomp, chomp. So we all know what chewing looks like. We all know how to do it. Do it more slowly. So maybe give yourself, you know, you might have to start by saying, I'm going to chew for 10 seconds before I swallow. That might be a thing. I think for me, if I had to chew for 10 seconds before I swallow, it would really, really make me think about my chewing, because I probably don't chew for 10 seconds ever, which is not a good thing. So at a minimum, give yourself the opportunity to chew more slowly. And the chewing more slowly may lead you to discover other sensations, the textures and the sense and the taste of what you're eating. And if you love food and you're a food person, then great, then you may find a new sense of, you know, something new that you can get some pleasure from or that you can enjoy or put your mind on that brings you some sort of satisfaction, which is great. But at a minimum, if you chew your food a little bit more slowly and set yourself a goal, like I'm going to chew for 10 seconds before I swallow each bite, well, then that granola bar that you're just sort of choking down because you're starving and you have to eat might take, you know, two minutes to eat. But that's okay. That's okay. So as opposed to constantly engaging with the symptoms in your body and the thoughts in your head, those racing, racing, repetitive thoughts, engage with the repetitive behavior of chewing, like, okay, I may be having a lot of scary, anxious, catastrophic negative thoughts right now, or I may be feeling a lot of physical sensations that I hate and I'm afraid of. But I can still chew slowly while I am experiencing those thoughts and those sensations, and I can choose to put my attention and keep it on the act of chewing. So that is the idea that where we can use chewing our food as a sort of an intro to mindful eating. And if you want to start to explore the idea of mindful eating a little bit more, go ahead, there's nothing there's no harm in that. Like I said, it's really become a big thing lately. A lot of people are talking about it. So if you want to start to learn a little more about that, that's great. But at a minimum, this series is really about finding all the little things that are handed to us all day long by life, showering, brushing your teeth, combing your hair, eating. We're going to talk about three more things in the series, which is mindfully listening because a lot of us always have some sort of sound around us and we kind of need that, but we don't really listen. We're talking about walking. We all generally walk. And we're going to talk about breathing. We cannot talk about slowing down in mindfulness without breathing. I'm going to leave that for the last day you knew was going to be there. But if you start to do these things, the showering, the brushing your hair, the brushing your teeth, chewing more slowly, it may give you an awareness where you can start to find other things in your life that you can use as practice for slowing down and starting to like work on your practice of mindfulness. The opportunities are all over the place. They're wonderful and they're just part of what we'd have to do anyway. So if I'm going to have to chew when I get done with you guys, I'm going to have to eat something. I'm kind of starving. If I'm going to have to chew, I might as well slow down and use chewing as an opportunity to practice being a little bit more mindful, present and focusing my attention. Why not? Right? So let's see. I will look at some comments here. The comments are down below me. Like I said, hopefully this whole thing is working well with the new camera. Let's see, chew your food, man. That's what it's called, dude. That's what it's called. What up, Laura? Laura's here. This, let's see what Tina has to say. Tina says this so much. I think I overeat because I eat so very fast and just rush through it. Yes, that's very possible. Again, I'm not necessarily addressing weight loss or weight control with this. But I know there are lots of people who are in the area of weight control and fitness and wellness, who really, really are pushing mindful eating as part and parcel of that whole thing. So yes, you might find it that if you do begin to slow down your eating and your chewing, Tina, that might actually work out for you. It's very possible. Thank you, Bethany. Everything finds fine to you, which is good. Let's see. Chantel says, I always eat my food very slow. I don't like rushing it. Huge kudos to you. More of us should be like that. That's good. That means that you find some enjoyment in that food and you give yourself the opportunity to experience that. No, I like this, so I'm not going to rush through this. That's really great. And you know what? Even if you're listening and you're not like Chantel and you don't necessarily do what she does, you may find that starting to chew a little more slowly might unlock that for you. Possible. You never know. She'd always remain open to possibilities. Bessie's here. Hello, hello. What does Bethany have to say about eating? Let's see. I stopped distracting myself with my phone while eating salad yesterday and I realized I wasn't actually enjoying the dressing. Now, how do you think the dressing people feel about that? That's good. It's so interesting to see and I'm digging all of your comments, like in the Facebook group and whatnot, watching you guys actually use these little tools. Those of you who are following along with the challenge, it's always cool to see those little light bulbs go off. When I was doing this and I said in the toothbrushing episode a couple of days ago that mindful toothbrushing is near and dear to my heart because having to do that and that was a necessity for me during my recovery to prepare for my driving exposures, having to do that really was the gateway to me that unlocked a lot of this stuff. That's why I included the the toothbrushing thing. Nice strat. Thanks brother. Have not played the strat in a little while. I finally restrung it after it was missing an E string. I was missing G string for months and months and months. Finally we strung it and I broke my high E string. So I got to string it again and then I can play it again. Let's see here and I've been buying interesting for a long time. Very good. So let's see. Bessie says so really just happened to the other senses like taste and smell. Yeah, sure. Now I know those of you guys who follow along on a regular basis might say, Oh, this is starting to sound very dangerously close to find five things you can smell. Find five blue things count three things that you can touch. I get that and it is related to that. That's true. And you guys have heard me sort of pick on that sort of stuff quite a lot. You'll notice that everything I talk about in the series and in the book when I wrote 7% slower. Look, I'm getting really good at pointing by the way. When I wrote the book, you'll see in the book which hopefully you guys are going to read because I talk about all of the stuff in here. I never use 7% slower as a panic diffuser never like and even for me it was not that when I started to have to slow myself down when I was prepping for my driving exposures. Because I was in a panic getting ready to drive. I never did it to try to stop the panic. So while this does sound very much like, you know, count five blue things, you see three things that you can smell. I'm not saying that this is what you do only when you panic. Everything I've said in the series is we use these little life skills as opportunities to practice going slower so that we can slow down when the chips are down. So you do this stuff. While you are not necessarily anxious, you might be a little anxious, but this is not meant to like, well, just wait to have a giant panic attack and then try and choose something slowly to stop it. It's not that at all. But yes, it does bring the other senses into play and you may find that it unlocks that like suddenly when I mean, look, we know that, you know, taste is also involved with smell. So if you're going to chew your food a little slower, you may actually discover that it tastes actually tastes different than you thought it did. Very possible. I'm always amazed because I'm not a food person when somebody can take a mouthful of food and pick out like, is that tarragon? Is that this? Like I am blown away by that. Like I, I do not have the ability to do that. I probably never will no matter how slow I chew. But if you slow down your chewing, you may find that you're one of those people who the heck knows, right? It's possible. So let's see. No comment here. I realized I get bored when I do nothing but just eat. Interesting mindfulness challenge. Okay. Well, not everything is necessarily going to be applicable. So it might be that mindful eating or slow chewing doesn't necessarily fit for you. It's just one possible thing that you can use to practice going slower and to like bring your energy level down so that when you need to, you can put that into play. But you may also find that that idea that I am getting bored could mean, oh, I can't say quietly with my thoughts. Like I need something to distract me. I need something in my head or there's going to be a problem. Sometimes people with anxiety issues confuse boredom with distraction. Maybe not. You might genuinely just get bored. And that's totally fine. If you get bored just sitting there and chewing slowly, then by all means you don't have to be bored. But it would be interesting to give it a shot and see how that plays out. Good comment. Really good. Okay. Let's see here. I'm so used to looking at my phone, reading a book, a lot of people do that. A lot of people do that. One of the things I do that, I'm absolutely guilty of that. But one of the things that I did a couple of years ago when I started trying to build a little bit more of a like a morning routine to just sort of organize my days a little more is I promised myself that if I am sitting with a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, or I make eggs, I'm eating breakfast, whatever it is. I promise myself that I would not spend the whole time on my phone. In fact, I try not to be on the phone. I'll put on a podcast to listen to or some music or something like that. But I try really hard to not actively be engaging with my phone or any device, at least for breakfast and for having a cup of coffee, at least for a few minutes, just nothing but that coffee or that tea or those eggs. I could do that. So it's a good thing to maybe try to put down the phone and just see how you work out. Sometimes these things expose our avoidances and our distractions and our safety behaviors, which is fine. If it does, then it tells you that it's something to use. Something to work on, right? Let's see here. Yeah, so like Stacy is saying that she has problem eating and that's what I acknowledge in the beginning. Some people who have anxiety problems have a hard time keeping weight on because they just don't want to eat. I get that. So the best advice I've ever heard people give with that and that's why you wouldn't necessarily want to engage. I don't want you to make eating a special thing. Because for you, you just have to eat like any way that you can get those calories in is fine. If you're chewing fast, who cares if you do it quickly? Who cares? I don't want you to put qualifications on your eating. If you're struggling to eat any way that you can get the calories in is fine. And the answer that I always hear people say when to people who say I'm having a hard time eating and I'm losing weight, you know, you can use protein shakes, you can use those insurer shakes, anything that's calorie dense so that when you do eat, you're putting a lot of calories into your body, nuts and seeds. If you can eat them, things that are more calorie dense are always the suggestions that I hear so that when you can eat, you can eat smaller quantities if that makes you a little more comfortable, you do have to eat ultimately, try and get the calories in the best you can be efficient than the number of calories you put in your body when you do eat. So let's see here I say, okay, this one came up yesterday, I believe two and I wanted to address this. So I'm glad you're asking again, as a practice going slower, will the feeling of maybe guilt or that I'm lazy go away? This is a excellent question. I'm sorry that I can't see your name because restream doesn't know. But this is an excellent, excellent, excellent question. One of the things that I wrote about and it is there is in 7% slower, I address this, the idea that you may see going fast or getting things done or being busy as an accomplishment. That's pretty common, especially in this day and age and especially, you know, in a social media environment, we're sort of that hustle culture is still revered in a lot of ways. Or if people around you think that that's who you are, you're the person who's fast, you're the person that gets things done. You may wear I'm fast, I'm busy, I'm productive as a badge of honor. And this practice will tend to expose that. But in many ways, for a lot of people, especially people who are dealing with gad or all day anxiety, I don't know why I'm so anxious, I'm just anxious all the time. Many of them, if pressed, will say, Oh, yeah, I'm that person, I'm the get things done, I'm the solver, I'm the doer, I'm the fastest guy in the room. So will it go away? That's something that you're going to have to really work on. And you really sometimes have to confront that. The idea that you must always be in high gear, or else you're guilty or you're lazy, says that you probably have to work a little bit on where that self worth or self judgment comes from, right? Give yourself a break, be nice to yourself. You are not required to be a speed demon and be like tremendous productive person to be worthy, you're okay, even if you're eating slowly and like enjoying your food, you are still worthy of like acceptance and validation and respect and love and all of those things. So will it just go away automatically? Maybe but it may be a red flag that says, Well, I have maybe some other issues I have to work on. Those like habitual things where you get your validation or yourself worth from being fast, could be a thing you want to think about. Just thrown it out there. Really, really good question. By the way, thank you so much. Oh, me is here. Yes, Mia needs to work on her mindful eating. We were talking about that the other day. But what up chick? Let's see. This is good. I love the word in this. It has for me changes things. Behavioral changes are powerful. And guess what? They are. They really, really are. So I talked about this in the book. I've talked about it in the anxious truth. My other book I talked about in the podcast all the time. First, we behave and the thoughts and the feelings follow along. So really working on changing our behavior is really where this is at more than anything else. So many people think that I could just change the way I'm thinking, I could change my mindset, I could change my thoughts, I could control my thoughts, I can somehow change, get into a new mindset or make a shift. The little but when you're dealing with the problems that we talk about all the time generally speaking, if you want to start to feel differently, you must act differently. And chewing slower is one tiny way that you can act differently. So thank you for bringing that up. Behavioral changes are powerful. They are, they're incredibly powerful. Let's see here. I can do a couple more. I can point my pointing has approved. That was last night when I was setting up the different camera. I'm like, Hey, I could point. Very impressive. Thanks guys. I appreciate you praising my pointing. I really need it. Let's see what Sarah has to say. And then we're going to end it because I got a little longer today than I wanted to. There is just anxious feelings, very little thoughts, but I usually feel anxious. Can't get rid of the feelings. You're not. Well, this is a little bit beyond the topic, but if you're listening to the podcast, if I don't know if you're in the Facebook group, but if you're consuming the material, I say this over and over and over and over. You're not trying to get rid of the feelings. Like if your goal is to make those feelings go away, that is the secondary effect. The primary goal is to change your relationship with those feelings, to stop seeing them as something that you must banish. They I must get rid of them. That's going to be really frustrating. So that them going away is a secondary effect. Your primary goal is to change your relationship with them and your reaction to them so that you can learn that you do not have to be afraid of them and treat them like they are some sort of horrible enemy. That's a that's it's that's the overriding thing and just about everything that I write or say. So it's in all of the podcasts and everything. So there you go. Mia reads a cereal box that me is old school. Me and Mia are about the same age. So yes, as I said to her yesterday on a call, that's how I know what riboflavin is. So thank you. Let's see here suddenly developing strut in the bottom of my coffee cup and whether it's dishwasher safe. Alright, hey, whatever that takes. Alright guys, 21 minutes. This one has been a little bit longer. I love all your comments. I hope you guys are like trying all these things. So today try to chew your food man like slow true a little slower. See how that works out. Try the shower stuff if you can try the toothbrush and try the hair brushing. What else we talk about nothing yet but tomorrow I believe we're going to talk about mindful listening, either walking or listening is tomorrow. I'm not sure which one yet another opportunity to practice paying attention and slowing down while you pay attention. So hopefully you come back and I'll see you guys tomorrow. If you have any more questions or comments, you put them on the in the Facebook group. I'm looking at the comments there for sure. I'll do my best to answer them. Thanks for your attention. Check out now that I can point I'm just going to keep pointing you guys are going to get tired of this. I'm just going to point through the whole thing. Check out 7% slower. I am uploading the print version to Amazon today. So at some point in the next two or three days, the print version will be available. I will let everybody know the audiobook version I will finish narrating tomorrow. That will be out next week also. And I'm also uploading to Ingram Spark, which will get me into book depository in all those places. So by the middle to end the next week, we are we should be firing on all cylinders. Any way that you want to get this book, you can get it. And this week's podcast episode by the way episode number 173, the anxious truth.com slash 173 contains me reading chapter six. So if you want two free chapters from this book before you ever get your mitts on it, go to my website at 7% slower.com, make sure you're on my mailing list and you can download chapter one in audio format or PDF. And if you listen to this week's podcast episode, you can get chapter six, because I will I read that as part of the podcast episode. So check it out. I will see you guys tomorrow. Thank you very much. And yeah, keep at it man.