INTEGRIS Health: Multi-tasking Meals

Search

Multi-tasking Meals? (Big Mistake)

Do you eat at your desk?
Do you eat while you drive?
Eat while watching TV?
At your computer?

Are you “okay” with your body weight?
Is your stress level under control?
Do you have energy to do the things you need to do?

If you answered “yes” to all the questions in red and “no” to all the questions in purple—there may be a reason! Healthy eating is more than just WHAT you eat. WHEN and WHERE you eat also factor in the picture.

The body functions best when you eat meals and snacks in a consistent manor. If you skip breakfast, nibble and pick at lunchtime, and then look for the nearest drive-through to grab dinner after work—you are bound to feel hungry, tired and stressed.

Even if you pride yourself on being able to do ten things at once, don’t make eating one of them! Eating is, and should be, a pleasure. It’s important to take time to enjoy your meals. Eat at a designated place, like the kitchen table, or dining room. Don’t eat at your desk or in front of the computer. Having too many distractions while you eat makes it impossible to recognize feelings of fullness. Moreover, it’s very difficult to separate a true need for food from the desire for more food when you’re preoccupied, pressured, distracted, or hurried.

EXAMPLE:
You’re in a panic to pick-up your kid and you only have 25-minutes to get to piano lessons. You skipped lunch and are absolutely starving. Ah—a value meal is sounding great, so you pick one up and devour it in route. Intellectually, you realize that you have just eaten 1,500 calories in one meal, which is enough for a linebacker! Nevertheless, you don’t feel satisfied. How could that be? How could you still be hungry? Why do you find yourself craving a dish of ice cream?

INDEED, there is much more to eating than simply fueling the body. Enjoying meals has been a social experience since the beginning of time. Every civilization has celebrations and traditions around eating meals together. Breaking bread together is truly part of being human. “Togetherness” “Bonding” “Socializing”

RESEARCH supports it too. Did you know children who sit down and eat meals with their family weigh less, get higher grades, are less delinquent and have better attitudes?

November 24
	HeartSaver CPR at Pacer Fitness Center
November 25
	Ask a Pharmacist
December 01
	Plans Change- You Change-Brookline
	RX for Stroke Patient Class - ISMC
	Tai Chi Chih-BMC
	Line Dancing
more...

INTEGRIS Community Health Improvement

North Office
(405) 717-9870

South Office
(405) 636-7474