Why have I eaten my last 93 meals screen free?

Let’s back up a bit.

I started reading Julie Montagu’s Recharge: A Year of Self-Care to Focus on You with the aim of dedicating time to my wellbeing. I vaguely remember having read parts of it before and the section that stuck out to me, and that I wanted to give time to, was the digital Spring clean. But alas, I chose to start at the beginning.

The book is divided into undated months (so you can start any month) and each focus on a different area. Cliché as it may be I decided January was the best time to start. The first chapter was about eating which made me a bit wary. I am not interested in dieting or even body positivity (I’m more of a body neutrality girlie) so I was worried about the kinds of things that would be suggested. 

I was happily surprised when most of it was geared around intuitive eating and noticing when we tend to eat out of emotional hunger rather than food hunger. This intrigued me because, like many people, I turn to snacks when I’m bored, sad or even celebratory. Now, I’m not interested in what food is considered “junk”, “bad” or “ultra-processed” to use its new re-brand. Food has no inherent morality and I absolutely hate it when people talk about how they’ve been “bad” or “naughty” having eaten something they liked or wanted. I hate that society and culture at large has forced them to feel bad about eating something they enjoy. That said, for me, it was important to become more aware of when I do emotional eating. The exercises in this chapter were easy enough, mostly around noticing my thoughts when I wanted to eat something high in salt, fat, sugar, etc. For me it came down to two main categories: when I felt like I deserved a treat or when I needed a pick-me-up. Familiar territory for most, I’d hazard a guess.

Because this month was about noticing patterns that I maybe wanted to change I decided to expand out from just emotional eating and look at other aspects. I realized there were two other areas I wanted to work on: mindless eating while in front of a screen and eating slower. Now to understand this second part, you need to know a little bit about my family. There are certain members who regularly eat their food so fast that they end up choking. I started to recognize this in myself. I realized I was stressed about not having enough time so I would quickly shovel food in so I could get to more “important” things. I love cooking, baking and food in general but how could I taste my food if I was inhaling it?

The book says that you should chew your food thoroughly, something that I found difficult and, if I’m honest, gross, before this last month. I did not relish food becoming mush in my mouth. Also the book said that each meal should take about 20 minutes to eat. This seemed like an obscenely long time which I guess makes the case for why I needed to be aware of my patterns in the first place. 

So I set out to eat 3 meals a day slowly and without any screens. The first few days were excruciating, mostly because of the extended chewing. I’m a daydreamer by nature so staring at my walls while eating didn’t bother me that much. But sitting there chewing and swallowing and putting my fork down between bites (as the book recommended) made me very fidgety. I felt more rushed than ever before. My brain was in overdrive with stories of how I don’t have time for this (I’m a freelancer who works from home, I definitely did), how I wouldn’t be able to keep it up so I may as well just stop now (I ignored that) and that this was just plain stupid (it wasn’t). That first week I would look at my watch to see how long it took me to eat a particular meal and I did not believe that my normal 5 minute lunch would stretch to 10 or 15 minutes or even longer eventually. 

It got easier after the first week and towards the end it started to feel normal. So what effects did I notice? For one thing, my digestion got better. Definitely the slow eating thing. But the biggest change I noticed was that I was less fidgety and hurried. I could take my time and know that there was enough of it. 

Eliminating screen time during meal times was great too because my attention was on the food rather than split with my phone or laptop. This also helped me feel calmer.

I honestly didn’t think I could do 31 days of slow eating and no screens during meals when I first started but I wanted to challenge myself nonetheless. I’m so glad I did. I truly saw the benefits and was able to make (hopefully) lasting change. 

As the calendar ticked over to a new month today, I got up for breakfast (potato cakes) and ate calmly, peering at my bookcase, letting my mind wander to wherever it wanted to go, satisfied in the knowledge that my new habit was fully entrenched.