Do you eat a meal in 20 minutes or less? It might be time to slow down

To really pay attention you have to stop multitasking while eating. You also have to savor each bite. And to do this, you can't rush your meal. You need to put down your silverware while eating. You need to chew more. And this usually means you eat less. Which means you get less lethargic and, often (as a side effect) you might lose weight since yo

What I’ve also found is that mindful eating is a bellwether for whether or not I’m present. If I can’t focus on my meal, it’s usually a sign that I’m not grateful for things around me at all. If I’m rushing, flipping on my phone, reading the news or multitasking while eating, it’s almost always a sign that I’m distracted and need to take a break.

We do things quickly—not better, but quickly—to gain time. But what’s the point if in the time we gain we just do more things quickly? I have yet to meet someone who wants their headstone to read, “He rushed.”

Carl Honoré, in his book In Praise of Slow, sums it up beautifully: Fast and slow do more than just describe a rate of change. They are shorthand for ways of being, or philosophies of life. Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quantity-over-quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful

One of the most common sayings in Japan is “Hara hachi bu,” which is repeated before or after eating and means something like “Fill your belly to 80 percent.” Ancient wisdom advises against eating until we are full. This is why Okinawans stop eating when they feel their stomachs reach 80 percent of their capacity, rather than overeating and wearing