Will Clower, PhD, author of The Fat Fallacy: The French Diet Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss, explains that the French do not multitask with food. I found this to be very interesting. You will not find car cup holders in French cars. I thought this must be some colossal mistake on the part of the French car industry. How is it that one does not drive while drinking coffee or slush for goodness sake? Well, the French do not and they are very satisfied with that, thank you very much.
You see the French do not eat and drink while running errands. They do not eat on the run or grab a donut and go. When it is time to engage in the activity of eating that is exactly what is done: eating. Eating is not confused with dropping Johnny off at practice or picking up Susie from ballet. The French eat with purpose. Driving is for driving, running errands is for running errands and eating is for eating. They do not mix these any more than a 2 year old mixes peas and peaches.
So, it got me thinking about drinking and driving. Drinking of the non alcoholic sense, mind you. How often is it that I feel the need to sip my favorite cup of Starbucks while driving? Far too often my pocketbook and hips want to scream. So, if I were to cut out eating and drinking during times that were not designated for meals would it really make an impact on the amount of calories I consumed. After putting in much thought I realized that it would make a huge difference. Mixing in eating with other tasks can cause us to eat mindlessly, forget what we ate, drink high fat drinks, indulge our hunger with high fat options, and not think much of driving through to get a small fry. Are we really hungry all these times we are eating?
I challenge you to take notice of the times you eat mindlessly. That sound strange, doesn’t it? How can you keep track of the mindless. That is exactly the point. We should not be eating mindlessly. Mindless eating will pack on pounds faster than the hare won the race.