Slow Club: noticing my speed
If you walk around London at the moment, you’ll see phone booths advertising smart debit card readers with the promise that they’ll shorten the time you spent queuing for coffee. The cult of speed is so far advanced that the theory now goes: spending sixty seconds paying for coffee with cash is going to bring your life crashing down around your ears.
But while this distresses me, I’m also implicated up to my eyeballs. I spend my weeks madly wedded to work deadlines, cramming in as much as I can and getting by on minimum rest. Hell, it’s only the third week of January and I’m already feeling burned out. So it’s exciting to be signed up for Slow Club, which over the next eight weeks will throw down the Slow gauntlet and challenge me to take my foot off the gas now and again.
According to my first email from the Slow Club team, my first challenge for the next week is simple: just noticing my speed. They recommend picking one moment in the day where your ‘internal speed demon’ kicks in. For this challenge I nominate my early morning routine, which generally involves leaping hysterically out of bed, skipping breakfast and running around swearing about not being able to find my keys. Sticking with the instructions, I’m not going to judge myself about this; but I have sneaking suspicion this is one moment where I could start slowing down.
On top of that, there’s a Slow Walk to take, which may involve tearing myself away from my computer screen one lunchtime. And most excitingly, a Slow Adventure around the city, which sounds like the perfect opportunity to remind myself that London has more to offer than screeching underground trains and heaving pavements of pushy people. Even in the most built-up areas, you can find peaceful places of retreat.
So there’s plenty to get cracking with. I look forward to reporting back with tales of speed, slowness and (attempted) contemplation in the Big Smoke.
Chris Cox
Image by Mike King
January 19th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Great idea – everyone moves far too fast in London. I can’t believe people cram on the tube when there’s an empty one 1 minute behind – I mean, did you really need that extra minute?! Saying that, I’ve wanted to barge people out the way for walking slowly when I’m in a rush before. So watch out!
January 21st, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Excellent to read Deepa’s SLOW CLUB update about noticing how quickly you eat. This is certainly a change down a gear that can easily be made by anyone and can have wonderful benefits, health-wise and much more.
Some tips are:
Put down your cutlery every now and again to help pace yourself – esp. if eating on your own.
A good conversation over a meal helps pace a fast eater – research has shown than many people eat very quickly when watching TV; and are often not fully aware of what is on their plate.
Think about the time that was spent in preparing the food ( respect the cook!), or if you really need to put your eating rate into context! – the time it took to grow the vegetables or nurture the livestock that have now ended up on the plate before you – or the journey the food has made to reach your plate.
Also for effective digestion, many people recommend not eating past 8pm so that you are not digesting while sleeping; and therefore resting well.
As a reminder there is the old adage; “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” – that way the evening and overnight are left to allow your body to digest your food properly and get ready for the next day!
Slowing down your eating (and drinking) rate really helps you to enjoy the taste and texture, think about the food-chain, respect cooks and producers, make better choices about local and fair-trade food – and if some are your favourites come from further afield or are specialist then make the numerous costs in them reaching your plate worthwhile! Don’t’ just gobble them down!
As food on markets, in shops, at cafés and in restaurants goes up in price – what better (and simpler) way to get value for money and treat yourself well than simply slowing down how quickly you eat and drink!
Bon Appétit!