I’ve been beeminding my weight for quite a while, and one thing I’ve learned is that slowing down the rate at which I eat can help my weight loss progress a lot. Most recently I’ve done this by setting a timer for 10 minutes and trying not to finish a small plate before the timer beeps.
This technique, however, can be tricky to stick to, as I have to focus pretty hard to keep my pace correct.
Do you guys have any ideas on other techniques that might work better in the long run?
I think mindfulness of the act of eating is key. Not having a meal be secondary when you’re distracted, watching something, or doing something else. Chewing is also important, anywhere between thirty and forty times per bite.
following, as the kids say
I am glad you are mentioning this. I wanted to reply the same earlier but didn’t because I felt people might think it is too esoteric.
Since we have now established that mindfulness plays an integral part in nutrition, I want to mention fasting, ideally a one week fast with water and tea only. One of the most powerful (legal) tools that I know.
I know this is nothing that can beeminded, except “Do a one week fast” twice a year with an insanely high pledge, but I wanted to mention it anyway since many people may not be aware that not eating for a week is a) way easier than it sounds b) ridiculously powerful in the way it can transform your eating (and mental) habits.
Disclaimer: Talk to your doctor of course.
I am always a little bit self-conscious with creating new topics so please forgive me for hijacking this thread, but I feel my question is related enough.
I was thinking about how to Beemind Intermittent-Fasting. Intermittent-Fasting is where you have, for example, an eight hour eating period and then you don’t eat (aka fast) for sixteen hours and repeat that process. It has been mentioned in a couple of blog articles and there are people [1] who beemind intermittent-fasting, but I am not sure how to best do it.
What I would like to do is create a data-point for my last meal and then another one for my first meal after the fast. I am of the opinion that the fasting period is more important than the eating period. In other words, if I eat nine hours after the begin of the eating period that is okay as long as my fasting period afterwards is still the expected sixteen hours. (I can then simply do a shorter eating window and get back on my regular schedule, say eating time is from 10 till 18 o’clock.)
However, I would always want to derail if I eat before sixteen hours have passed.
I have tried some intermittent-fasting apps and they are annoying. Either they try to sell you a complete nutrition plan, they are completely bloated (for basically a stop watch with two modes), or they don’t give you the flexibility to extend the eating period a little.
I would be curious to hear from anybody who has a way of beeminding this use-case properly.
[1] https://www.beeminder.com/jaydugger/intermittent-fasting
I just beemind skipped-suppers, adding a 1 for every supper I don’t eat. But sounds like that may not be the right solution for you… 
Not sure whether this would work but you could use the beeminder timer/Toggl and time when you are fasting and have a goal of 16 hours a day of the category/tag fasting