Autonomy by GMB Fitness
Autonomy means deciding and moving. Ryan, Andy, and Jarlo aren't here to shill for some stupid supplement company. This show explores fitness as a way to play your own game and do more of what matters, all based on decades of training, coaching, and clinical experience. And truly awful jokes. If you hate every formulaic fitness podcast, you just might be in the right place.
Autonomy by GMB Fitness
Put the Fork Down
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If you're trying to control caloric intake, one of the most effective tactics we know also turns out to be the simplest: put your fork down between bites.
OK, that's it. No need to listen...
Unless you want to learn:
- how it works and why this is so effective
- the psychology behind hunger and satiety signals
- how to get into the habit of really noticing how you feel as you eat
If you care about any of those things, then please do listen, because you'll learn how to notice when you're full, enjoy your food more, and be able to choose how much you want to eat, all with one concrete action.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Ginormous Marathon Bouncy house. So up here with my boy Josh, we use we just got done bouncing around in that bouncy house. It was a lot of fun. It's great. hope everybody out there doing well today. Pretty heavy conversation because you know, it can just really make you full. And that's what we're talking about actually, is basically many of us we just have this issue of over eating meals. I know when there's something good out there Mexican food, especially for me, I go to my favorite Mexican restaurant, I just put it down. And the thing is, as well, it's great. Sometimes we do eat a little bit more than we really wanted to. And we missed. We got past and beyond that point of just being full and feeling good. And so today really that's what we're going to talk about Josh is going to cover this and I think it's a great topic, even if this is something that might not be too interesting. And whatever dude, listen to it, you're gonna get something out of this. And it's very simple actually. And I really love what Josh has to say about this. And hey, man, just go ahead and run with it. Let's do it.
Josh :Okay, cool. Um, yeah, man, I think everyone's had the experience of, of at some point eating more than they wanted to write whether whether it is going out to the restaurant and being your favorite food, or even just getting home from work late and let and just inhaling your food and having too much. And a lot of our clients have mentioned that, you know, sometimes they have too much and they feel kind of stuffed or they have too much. And as it was more than what they wanted, or more than for their goals or their values. And, and so we're gonna look at how to how to regulate that right? And a lot of usually people approach it either from this world of intuitive eating, we're supposed to build to figure it all out from inside yourself or from the diet world where you're supposed to count everything up and have these rules. And we're kind of going right down the middle, we're gonna give people a little bit of a structure that will make it easier for them to notice when they're full. Right. Um, the whole game with everything with GMB is awareness and checking in. And, um, so we're gonna, we're gonna talk about the master guideline for creating more awareness during meals.
Ryan :Oh, I love itI love it. So the autonomy of eating, always bringing it back to that. I love that. Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about just sitting down. And, you know, what should we be doing? Basically, how should we be eating and I say that not necessarily exactly what we should be doing in terms of our macros and our things like that. But being present when we are eating I know this is a huge topic and I love hearing about this. So explain a little bit about that how we can bring better awareness when we're actually sitting down at a meal.
Josh :So the easiest, simplest and often most game changing way is to just put fork down between bites. Right? I know, I know.
Ryan :Not it can't be that easy go on now. Or the chopsticks, one of the two, you know, depending on where you are like over here, that would be put the chopsticks down.
Josh :Or for the sandwich, you could put the sandwich down, right? It doesn't matter what it is. But it's one of those things where all of us know that if we're super fast, we're gonna miss fullness cues, right? And so everyone's heard, "Eat slowly or wait 20 minutes." But that's hard to do in real life. I mean, I've heard of clients, actually watching the clock, and it's, tedious and weird.
Ryan :That's crazy. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but wow,
Josh :It sucks.
Ryan :Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.
Josh :They're trying to do the right thing. right. And they probably heard from someone 'you have to eat slower.' What's cool about putting the fork down during bites is, is it's behavioral. It's a thing you can do, right? And it doesn't have to be every bite and some folks might take a sip of water between bites or some, they might not put food in their mouth while they're still chewing the last bite or whatever. But if someone has an issue with with eating super fast, this is such a clear way to handle it. And if there's anyone here that's listening, and many of our clients, when they do their initial assessment, mention that they eat super fast. And those are the same clients that when they start putting the fork down between bites are the ones that say, 'This was the first time I ever noticed I was full during a meal, like in my life.'
Ryan :Wow. Wow, that's huge. And what that is really huge. You know, something that's, this is something I mean, of course, the eating skills going through that. And I've gone through, obviously, I've seen all of your work. And this was a big one for me as well. I love food, I try to eat, I actually try and eat as much as I can. Because my meal in the evening is always after my big workouts. And so the one thing that I found that really helped me by putting the fork down is as well, during dinner, it's family, you know, time and we have our conversations. It's allowed me to be a better listener, to be honest. So that was another thing too, as far as taking a bite and then putting my chopsticks down, because we use chopsticks over here, but putting those down and just listening, you know, whether it's usually my son or my daughter talking 'bah bah bah,' but allowing me to be more active in terms of a listener and partaking in that conversation, sort of just sitting there stuffing my face, and so the that was another benefit that I got actually from, from you, in going through and just understanding that, hey, just in between bites, put the utensils down and just chill for a second.
Josh :Yeah, that's amazing, right? Like you get to be more present with your family. That's a pretty solid benefit that goes way beyond whatever. And I know how that how important that is to you. Also that's so cool.
Ryan :Yeah, exactly, man. So kudos to you on that. So, you know, and I like what you said too. It's, it's an action. And it's an action that you can partake upon that's very easy. And I think the other thing that I really love about this is the fact that you have that in your hand. And so as a reminder, it's simply just put it down and then chill for a second. And the simple action of doing that, then it's going to help right away and instead of just, 'Take a pause.' It's like telling a person 'Relax.' Relax. Yeah. How are you gonna relax? Well, in this case, you just need to put that fork down, for which I love. Yeah, the action. So yeah.
Josh :Oh, one thing I would say, um, it's very simple, the people who need it the most do not find it to be easy. They, they find it to be horribly, horribly awkward, sometimes painfully so at first, but because it is so clear, it actually changes really fast like it's one of those things where if someone tries it, and if someone listens to this tries it tomorrow and finds it to be excruciating. I want you to know that that's okay. And in a month, it'll all of a sudden feel, it'll feel very natural. It's hard at first, but it doesn't take that long. And then once it's ingrained, it's just kind of automatic. And that's cool. That's super cool.
Ryan :So let me, no, this is great. I really love that and I can totally see where this can be difficult for people like anything it's you want to you're so used to it's an ingrained habit to just shovel your, you know, food and if you're that way, it reminds me of, sorry, kind of going off a little tangent. But in Japan during the lunch hour, it's like this, I'm sure everywhere in the world, but you know, in Japan, if you go to a ramen restaurant, a ramen stand a noodle stand, you're going to see people with the bowl up to their face and their chopsticks literally shoving or shoveling the noodles into their mouth as fast as they can so they can finish and go back to work. And so I could see where this could be very difficult, not just in that context. But when they were to go home in the evening and eat and try and slow down. So yeah, how are you...? Go ahead if you can go into this a little bit deeper. And I think you know where I'm trying to go with this.
Josh :Absolutely, I'm so glad you brought that up because it's really, really important. Context matters, right? I've had a lot of clients that are parents. I've had a lot of clients that are nurses, I've had a lot of clients that I've short lunch breaks for whatever reason, if you have, if you've got 10 minutes to eat your ramen, and you have to shovel it in and run back to work. You don't have time to get seconds, you're not overeating. That's not an issue. You might be hungry later, sooner because you weren't present during your meal. But that's just not reality and my clients are nurses that literally could not stop. They had to take bites, so many clients that are like parents of young kids, and they spend meals managing their kids old time. This is a thing. If you absolutely don't have time to overeat, this isn't a issue. You know, there's not one of those things where a very few of our clients use this for breakfast. Right? They slam their breakfast, they get out the door.
Ryan :Now that makes sense. It totally makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Josh :So yeah, it doesn't have to be every meal. It's the places where it matters. Almost always dinner, sometimes lunch, you know?
Ryan :No, that's really good to hear. And that was just something that just kind of popped up in my head as I was thinking about this. So then in that case, what are we looking at here? So let's say that we do want to embrace this habit. We want to make it a habit, how can we go about tracking it in and you know, let's just be honest, things that get tracked, get done, you know, things that don't get tracked, don't get done. And so therefore, if we're looking at implementing this new habit into our life and becoming more aware, how are we going to track this? Is it going to be, you know, every single bite, we have to put the fork down? Or we have to do it for every meal? Or how can we go about starting to implement this into our, in our lifestyle?
Josh :Wow good question. Oh, you definitely don't have to track every time you put down the fork. I had that few clients that did that. Because they were like, 'This is so weird.' I'm just gonna but you don't have to do that. Just, it's just a matter of, give yourself you know, zero to three points. You know, if you do breakfast, lunch and dinner, then breakfast, lunch and dinner. And most people start off putting the fork down at bites, you know, maybe five times during a meal or 10 times during any meal, and then they work their way up. You can still count that, like we just want to be practicing this sometimes. So just about that simple. And, and there's little ones things where it really just goes to show that it's important to track things but we're not looking for 21 meals a week. Yeah, I have a lot of, like we were saying, we have a lot of clients that don't do this for breakfast. Yeah, maybe they're shooting for 14 meals a week they're shooting for lunch and dinner, that's fine. Or 12 or whatever.
Ryan :Right? Just like working out. I mean, you know, you're not looking at crushing every single workout, what you're looking at is the long run, and how many, you know, just at least having a handful of really solid sessions that you can chalk up and actually use to help propel you forward and, you know, even looking at the handstand, it's not about getting every single, every single handstand. It's within that session, getting a couple good attempts, and you'll be working towards that. So I really like that. So, so go ahead. What were you gonna say you're gonna add something to that?
Josh :Oh, well, you were saying like a couple good attempts. It kind just struck me, it's like checking in with your stomach and seeing how full you're getting. Doesn't have to be every time you put the fork down. But maybe a couple times during meal. If you check in, you're like, oh, wow, I am full.
Ryan :Very cool, very cool, very cool.
Josh :Kind of a bird walk. But a couple things that jumped out to me, is this the only guideline that most of our clients bring with them when they're like on vacation, or when they're out on date night with their spouse or whatever. It's something totally not weird, not diety that they can do to manage their food intake, and also enjoy their food more. That's the other thing that everyone reports is that they actually enjoy their food more when they're actually there, when they're actually present for their meal.
Ryan :And if you put that fork down, you can talk with your date. There you go, right. Hey, win win. You know, I went out with this person the other day, but they're just shoving food into their face the entire time we didn't even actually talk. Alright, so this is good. This is very simple, simple advice, again, like you said before. It's probably going to be difficult in the very beginning if this is something that you've never really done before, but it's really not about thinking you need to get it every single time you know, put that fork down, just eating slowly. Like you say, it allows you to check in and notice when you're full. I love this because it's an actionable thing to do. And this allows you to check in with yourself again, a personal note, as I mentioned earlier, was that it allows me to be more present there for my family, instead of just trying to shove down as much food as I can because it's immediately after my workout and I could eat a bear. But again, I also like the last point you brought up, this is something that you can take with you when you go on vacation, when you're on a date or out at a restaurant or something like that, and it's not weird and you don't have to say, 'Oh, I can't eat that because I'm on a diet' or whatever. Okay, you're just being conscious and aware of what's going on.
Josh :Yeah, I think that's really brought up like with your family. It just reminded me how many clients we have that have kids. And they're like, 'I don't want to teach my kids the weird diety things like I did.' Yeah, and the thing about putting the fork down between bites is it's none of those things. We've had clients that are like, 'Oh, I just tell my kids it's good manners.
Ryan :There you go. Right.
Josh :That's, so it's, it's healthy, right? Yeah. And yeah, it's healthy. It's normal. It doesn't look weird, you can do it with any kind of food, right?
Ryan :Yeah, you really can and that was the thing too, you know you were saying sandwich I was thinking burrito, sushi.
Josh :Yeah, put it down between bites, it's fine!
Ryan :Literally really good stuff, man. I like it and you can do it too with your beer. You know, chugging your beer, just take one sip and then put it down. Talk with your friends. And, you know,
Josh :I saw I used to have a friend who was Brewmaster and he's like, 'Anyone that slams their beer doesn't like beer.'
Ryan :Oh, yes, I totally agree there, man. I totally hear you.
Josh :He's like, 'I'm here to enjoy it, you know?' Yeah. I mean, it's whiskey, right? Yeah. If you've got some amazing scotch. Yeah. Are you going to do a shot?
Ryan :That's right, man. And you know me, I'm a tequila guy. And a lot of people can't believe that I drink tequila and they think I shoot it. It's crazy, man. I drink the good stuff. And I sip it and I'll sip it just a little tiny bit and it'll take me an hour, you know, it's like whiskey. So I love this man, I think this is really good. So let's go ahead and end it here but I want you to give us a final bonus tip.
Josh :Not every meal needs to be goal oriented. Right? Just just really, really simply you can you can have, you can have meals that are about being social, you can have meals that are about like being on vacation. You can have lots of different meals that's normal, that's healthy. And something that that popped up in the group that was really cool this week was actually someone was talking about how, actually there are multiple people talking about having meals that aren't goal-oriented, having meals that are kind of like treats or things that are extra delicious or things like that, on purpose and socially, and for fun, actually helped with not having those kinds of things to manage stress or emotionally or by accident, and so on. So it's cool, actually planning meals that are just for fun.
Ryan :I love it. I love it. That's really cool, man. All right, thanks for listening. Everybody put that fork or your chopsticks down. And also, we'd love to hear if you have any questions for us. Check us out over on our Facebook group, become a member because all of these questions and topics that we cover are questions that our listeners have requested. Once again, thanks for listening everybody. See ya.
Josh :See ya!
