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Andrea, on of the newest members of CFOTM, hitting the back squat for the first time!  Very nice.

FREE YOGA @ 1030 w/ lululemon athletica in the highlands!

March is flying by...if only the weather would make up it's mind to stay nice for more than a day!  Last week was brutal from start to finish and the fact that you are all coming back for more is so exciting!

ARE YOU CHEWING?

courtesy of CrossFit Invictus

I am as prone to rushing from task to task as anyone.  And unfortunately, my food intake is at times treated just like a task that I have to finish so I can move on and get something else done.  This is not good.

I have become more and more aware recently of the importance of slowing down to chew and enjoy my food.  This might sound silly, but when was the last time you sat down with no television, music or any other distraction and truly enjoyed your food?  I am guessing that more than a few of you are guilty of eating while multi-tasking.  In which case, you probably are not thinking too much about how well you chew your food.

The Weston A. Price Foundation website has a very good, concise explanation of why proper digestion is aided through slowly and thoroughly chewing your food, so I am borrowing from it with gratitude:

“Chewing your food thoroughly begins the digestive process, breaking food into smaller particles and mixing it with saliva and amylase. The smaller the particles of food swallowed, the better broken down it will be in the stomach and the more surface area for nutrient absorption will be available in the small intestines. If you really want to get the most out of your food, not only do you have to make good food choices, but you have to be able to break down and effectively absorb the nutrients from your food. It doesn’t make sense to invest extra time and money into preparing quality food, if you eat it quickly and forget to chew it. So, as you learn to relax and enjoy your food, really focus on completely breaking it down before swallowing, and pause before taking another bite and, most importantly, don’t forget to breathe!”

For six other tips to enhance digestion, click here.

If proper digestion isn’t reason enough for you, perhaps feeling more satisfied and less hungry will convince you to chew a bit more.  Our good friend Wayne sent me an article that ran in the New York Times discussing a recent study showing that subjects who ate a serving of ice cream over the course of 30 minutes produced more hormones (peptide YY and glucagon-like peptide-1) making them feel full and satisfied than those who ate the same serving over the course of 5 minutes.

Now, nobody should be surprised by this.  Anyone who has been to an all-you-can-eat buffet or a big Thanksgiving dinner knows that if you don’t pile it in quickly, you’re not going to have room for that second or third plate.  Nonetheless, the study (which has some problems, like the fact that it was only conducted on 17 males) supports what we already know – if you slow down and chew your food, you will feel more satisfied and will almost certainly ingest fewer calories per sitting (see this study of 3000).  So chew for at least a few extra seconds at each of your meals today, and try to make it a habit going forward.