The way we eat and the way we live go hand-in-hand. For the majority of people, they are eating in their cars, at their computers, while talking on their phones - trying to "fit it all in" when really this is a surefire way to "stuff ourselves" and pack on the pounds. This manner of eating is reflected in the busy-ness of our chaotic lives - attempting to juggle one or two jobs, children, pets, a mortgage, car payments, and maybe even return to school to upgrade credentials. Yikes - how did we become human "doings" rather than human "beings"?

Truly, if we are trying to multi-task, chances are we won't do anything really well. Our brains aren't equipped to have all those neurons firing at once. Taking shortcuts will only give us pains in the long haul - the fast life sets us up for gaining weight and developing chronic diseases. When parents set this frenetic example for their children, the kids can't help but feel caught up in the tidal wave - no wonder childhood obesity is on the rise, along with eating disorders and mental health issues like attention deficit disorder.

It's time to stop the race on the road to nowhere!

Here are some tips to put your life in a slower gear by altering how you eat and think about eating, too:

Tip #1: It's all in your mind!
Making a lifestyle change not only involves changing the foods you eat, but changing your thought patterns that got you to where you are. If you simply follow a diet, something imposed on you from the outside, without making shifts on the inside in how you think about those foods and how you eat, then you are only going to go through the motions. You'll probably have some initial results, but then, you'll gain all the weight back once your subconscious mind gets into the groove of its old patterns again. The first step in letting go of fast living is to slow down the monkey mind. How many of us take the time to police our thoughts? If we don't, they'll eventually become manifest, so be careful. Try writing down all your limiting beliefs about food and eating - even those that you grew up with - like, "No playing with your food!" or "People in Africa are starving, so I should eat everything". Write each statement that was told to you or that you developed on your own - one per sticky note. And then, cross out the old and create new, updated statements to reflect a positive healthy message. For example, instead of "No playing with your food!", try "I enjoy eating healthy food" or "Preparing meals is fun and exercises my creativity!" Post these notes all around your kitchen so you are absorbing the new messages into your subconscious. This really works!

Tip #2: Look at your blindspots
Shake it up a little bit - your life that is! We often get into 'food ruts' or certain patterns of eating that most likely parallel our stuck mind. As Anthony Robbins has said, "If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten." So, then the question remains, where haven't you looked? What haven't you tried? How can you refresh your life and eating in a whole new way? If you are living the fast life, what would it be like to live medium to slow? Or just slow? Have you tried a slow food restaurant? How long does it take you to eat? Just 5 minutes to scarf it down? Try to impose a big yellow yield on your eating path. Extend your eating time by half. Focus on chewing thoroughly and being relaxed when you eat so that you digest your food better. Maybe another blindspot, or something you haven't tried is eating in solitude. When you eat, do you tend to blast the radio, the TV, or surf the Internet? Let it all go...and surrender to silence while you're eating. See if you feel differently or if it changes your eating, and even better, your entire life! I don't think it's far-fetched that you can change your life by altering how you eat - especially since the way we eat is a reflection of our lives.