I have to read while eating

This is something I semi-regularly pick up on and swear to do something about, but then forget about again. I remember as a kid, reading/books/stories were used to distract me from eating. I think I was a slow eater or maybe I just didn't like to have to eat or something, but when Dad read to me while I was having breakfast, it distracted me to allow him to get on with it.

 

It's weird, to this day, I will preferably read while eating – even in company, even when it is company I enjoy, I yearn for a book when eating. Somehow those two activities have become joined in my brain.  It's something I need to separate, but I find it difficult. Eating is basically, well, boring for me. The action of putting food in my mouth, chewing, swallowing and repeating the sequence is plain boring. The food could be lovely, it can be full of flavour, it can be cooked by the best cooks/chefs the world can supply. The fact remains, I find the whole thing boring.

 

 

My mind doesn't like to dwell on the fact that I'm eating. It does anything and everything to tell me I'm not eating, not really. I wonder if it is something to do with all those years I was on diet after diet, after diet, after diet........and my brain was trying to get food into me without telling me about it? Last night, I made myself a lovely omelette with onions and peppers. It tasted really nice. I sat at the table to eat it, having specially laid a place, put down a place mat, etc, etc, deliberately left my book in the other room.....only to find I had finished the omelette with a book in my hand and no memory of how it got there or of eating my meal. This is obviously something my subconscious feels I need to continue doing, possibly from years of trying to eat food that tasted like cardboard in various attempts to lose weight.

 

 

So where do I go from here? Well I will persevere with my quest to eat my dinner while concentrating on the food. Lunch is a bit of a lost cause, since I eat at my desk and no one else is around for lunch with whom I could share the meal with. Breakfast is an affair that can't really be called a meal, since it is normally rushed, but if I get dinner under control, then I can start addressing my morning routine. The morning routine is something I want to change anyway, so it's not a huge step forward.

 

 

Tonight, I will put some music on, one of my favourite CD's, as I am eating my dinner and see what effect that has. I wonder if my tastebuds have become blunted over the years?