I work at a start up company in Silicon Valley, and the people I work with are pretty quick at what they do. This of course mainly points to their quick thinking and doing their job extremely well. But it also has to do with them eating extremely fast. I have always been a fast eater, but I was in a whole new class. I’m not sure what it has to do with anything, perhaps a burning desire to return to their keyboards and compose code, or just an impatience about being around too many other people, I don’t know. But the amount of time it takes an engineer around here to clear a plate of, say, potato salad, is pretty impressive.

But for someone who is limiting their food intake to 1,200 calories per day, one wants to enjoy their food they’re eating when they have it. Since meals tend to be much smaller and lighter in nature, such as salad and perhaps a small portion of meat, if one is a fast eater, the amount of time to down your meal will be just a couple of minutes, perhaps a little slower if it contains a beverage. And if you’re eating dinner with someone else, showing impatience while watching your wife “slowly” finish her meal isn’t a good way to build up your relationship.

Just before writing this post, I made myself a tuna sandwich (two slices of wheat bread, one spoonful of tuna salad spread, mustard, lettuce, tomato and pickle) and a small glass of water to wash it down. I told myself that I would stop and enjoy each bit of that sandwich, something made easier reading the news off of my iPhone. Not only did I enjoy that tuna salad a whole lot more, I was able to actually compose a thought in my head thinking about what I was reading, thinking about family, long lost friends, you name it.  I also actually thought about how good that sandwich tasted.

I think you get my point. This doesn’t just go for people on a diet.  Slow down when eating your meal.  You’ll enjoy your food a whole lot more, and it will probably also help you not take those unnecessary snacks between meals.

Happy eating.

In the case of a diet blog, I think it goes a little farther in that when a person is no longer on a diet, either due to success or due to falling off the saddle, the blog also suffers.  In my case, now that I am back on the saddle and have lost some weight again due to my Calorie Nazi diet, I hope to parallel that experience by maintaining this blog again. I have posts on this site that claim to want to maintain the blog again, but to my two or three audience members our there, I do intend to try.

But NO MORE! Now that the holiday is close to passing, I plan on repeating my successful new year’s resolution from last year of shaving off some body fat. Last year I succeeded in losing 50 pounds, and I think it’s fair to say that losing 10 pounds should be a somewhat easier task than what I managed last year. Going to the gym today and working up a good sweat and 15 laps at the pool was a good feeling. Now that the Christmas meals are past, for the most part, it’s time to return to my 1,200 calories per day until I reach my 10 goal. Last year during my diet, I managed to lose about 9 pounds a month maintaining the 1,200 daily calorie limit. I know how it feels to lose the weight and need to force myself to get back on track as I was before, but after a hiatus of a few months, starting up a diet is like revving up the starter engine of an old 1920’s biplane that hasn’t flown in a long while. Just need to spin that propeller a few times!

Childhood obesity experts say more American youths are becoming obese because so many are addicted to television, video games, testing and fast food.

Our study suggests that more of these young adults will have heart disease when they are 35-50 years old, resulting in more hospitalizations, medical procedures, need for chronic medications, missed work days and shortened life expectancy.

Via CNN.com

It’s not hard to imagine Hardee’s — home of the Monster Thickburger — kicking off a campaign promising 2,000 calories for under five bucks. And if that campaign works, other fast food outlets could move in a similar direction, putting at least one or two mega-calorie options on their value menu. Fast food outlets have long asserted that they were giving you a lot of food for your money. Now they’ll be able to make that argument with numbers. Indeed, you might end up with some outlets advertising how many calories you get for your money, while others tout the lightness of their meals.

I find this rather discouraging to say the least.

Via the Washington Post.

For example, I am a chocoholic and one thing that I absolutely love is a cup of hot chocolate. On a cold day, nothing beats a cup of hot chocolate when visiting Peet’s Coffee with my office mates to start off the day. During the summer I always bought a cup of sugarless iced-tea, which certainly helped in my daily caloric intake. But a cup of hot chocolate can certainly pack a number of calories unless one is careful in how they order it.

What I do is I order a small hot chocolate with no whipped cream. According to the data I have been able to find, a small cup of hot chocolate is 200 calories.  On a 1,200 daily calorie diet, that leaves me with 1,000 calories left to consume for the day. If I decide to order a small hot chocolate, I am sure to add a fast paced walk during my work day, a route that is just over 1 mile in distance and takes just under 15 minutes to walk, a nice 4 mph walking speed. And according to my diet/exercise database of calorie numbers, a 15 minute walk at 4 mph is 76 calories. If I do this twice in my work day, that adds up to just over 150 calories, leaving just 50 calories of that hot chocolate drink.

Adding in exercise routines to counterbalance calories that I have eaten or drank during the day is what I do on a regular basis to try an end up at the daily 1,200 calorie mark. And just to be sure, I add an additional workout at the gym in the evening.

Nearly 28 percent of purchasers reported seeing the calorie labeling information, and almost 90 percent of this group reported that they purchased fewer calories as a result. However, the researchers found that the number of calories purchased in New York City actually increased slightly, from a mean of 825 calories to 846 calories. The authors concluded that calorie labeling increased the percentage of consumers from lower-income, minority communities who reported seeing calorie labels, and subsequently the number of consumers who reported that the information influenced their food choices.

My guess is that this New York City law that requires calorie counts to appear next to menu items largely helps those that are already focused on dieting and losing weight, while those that are not dieting and perhaps don’t care so much about the number of calories in their meals simply ignore or are not even aware of the information they are looking at.

However the law needs more time to evolve and create a greater awareness before any study has results that are truly helpful and realistic, as this study may have started too soon after the initial implementation of the law.

Via Marc Ambinder.