Eat regularly and in the right conditions

Here are some useful ways of balancing your lifestyle in relation to

your dietary
habits.

Eat regularly
Chinese medicine recommends that we eat three main meals a day
with a break
of approximately five hours between each meal. So for example, if we
have
breakfast at 7 a.m. our evening meal will be around 6 p.m. Having
said this,
each person needs to create their own routine. Consistency is very
important as
the stomach likes regularity. When we eat regularly, we start to feel
hungry as
we mentally and physically prepare to eat. The result is better spaced
out energy
throughout the day. If we miss meals this will deplete our qi and
imbalance the
Stomach and Spleen, which are the main Organs of digestion.
Creating a routine stabilizes our dietary habits. This means that we
are less
likely to eat convenience foods and we will eat in a way that is good
for our
health and wellbeing. We also need to consider the times when we eat
during
the day.
Avoid eating late at night
If we eat late at night our body will not have enough time to digest our
food
before we go to sleep. Our sleep should nourish us. If we are still
digesting
food at night, less energy will be available to replenish us and we may
wake up
feeling tired. Continually eating late can also lead to the nourishing
yin aspect
of our digestion becoming deficient, making it more difficult to settle
inside and
leading to insomnia or light sleeping. It can also contribute to even
more serious
illnesses such as diabetes.
Allow time for digestion
As well as eating regularly, strive to eat in conditions that assist your
Stomach
and Spleen to assimilate your food. Nowadays many people don’t find
the time
to sit down and properly digest their food. Compare this to the
Chinese.

Chinese people typically take their lunch and then relax and maybe
even catnap
for half an hour afterwards. The rest allows them to digest their food
and
prepare for their afternoon activities. This strategy means that they
feel ready to
accomplish their tasks more efficiently than those who have not taken
a break.
Many of us may remember that our grandparents also took this time
to relax.
After lunch, people would often have half an hour’s rest before going
back to
work. It is now common for people to eat on the run and take a very
short
lunch-break instead of sitting down to eat properly. Often people take
their
meals while they are stressed or involved in other activities, such as
watching
television, reading a book, sitting at their computer or making
business deals.