The Importance of Chewing

What's to tell you about today?
Well, went down the trail as usual, had a cereal breakfast as usual, had two slices of ham and cheese on toast for lunch, and a small but filing portion of rice and Mexican beef and vegetables (Cinque de Maya and all that) for dinner. Inbetween all that, I edited my ass off and even sacrificed the daily biking session to the demands of a deadline.

What does this mean, all in all? Well - as I'm out just being tomorrow with d and Ma, I'm also not going ot get the now-traditional exercise in then either, and Tuesday is weigh-in day. I don't, honestly, know what to think about that - could have done enough to lose a little, might be static, may even have put back on a pound or two. I simply cannot tell - every time I try and make a non-neurotic, non-scales-based judgment about it, I think something different this week. I guess it'll be a surprise!

One thing I've been meaning to mention for some time though is the importance of chewing.

This is a revelation to me..

No, really, it is.

I'm chewing more since starting this proper second stage of the Disappearing than I've ever done before. I know what you're thinking - chewing's been around as long as teeth, ya fool, what the hell do you mean it's a revelation?

Well...I've never actually bothered with it that much before, to be honest. Eating has always been very much a case of "get it in, get it down. Sometimes, whole meals would go down with minimal interaction with the old choppers. I've been known to swallow even roast potatoes whole.

So to be chewing, all of a reasonable-sudden, comes as a complete surprise. It makes you feel like you've eaten more. Was I supposed to have known this from a young age?

Chew, O my fellow-Disappearers...chew. It makes soooo much difference to what you feel you've eaten, how full you feel, and how long the fullness-feeling lasts.

Tell you another, possibly related thing, too - since starting back at 17st 9, I haven't had any of the cravings yet. None of the manic determination to stab people through the heart for eating ice cream. None of the chorus of temptation in the supermarket. Ha - maybe I'm deaf to temptation these days, who knows?

Anyhow - onward, to tomorrow, and the joy of just being alive and in the company of my wife.