Sit down to the table with confident cheerfulness, and take a moderate portion of the food; take whatever thing looks most desirable to you. Do not select some food because you think it will be good for you; select that which will taste good to you. If you are to get well and stay well, you must drop the idea of doing things because they are good for your health, and do things because you want to do them. Select the food you want most; gratefully give thanks to God that you have learned how to eat it in such a way that digestion shall be perfect; and take a moderate mouthful of it. Do not fix your attention on the act of chewing; fix it on the TASTE of the food; and taste and enjoy it until it is reduced to a liquid state and passes down your throat by involuntary swallowing. No matter how long it takes, do not think of the time. Think of the taste. Do not allow your eyes to wander over the table, speculating as to what you shall eat next; do not worry for fear there is not enough, and that you will not get your share of everything. Do not anticipate the taste of the next thing; keep your mind centered on the taste of what you have in your mouth. And that is all of it. Scientific and healthful eating is a delightful process after you have learned how to do it, and after you have overcome the bad old habit of gobbling down your food unchewed. It is best not to have too much conversation going on while eating; be cheerful, but not talkative; do the talking afterward. In most cases, some use of the will is required to form the habit of correct eating. The bolting habit is an unnatural one, and is without doubt mostly the result of fear. Fear that we will be robbed of our food; fear that we will not get our share of the good things; fear that we will lose precious time--these are the causes of haste. Then there is anticipation of the dainties that are to come for dessert, and the consequent desire to get at them as quickly as possible; and there is mental abstraction, or thinking of other matters while eating. All these must be overcome. When you find that your mind is wandering, call a halt; think for a moment of the food, and of how good it tastes; of the perfect digestion and assimilation that are going to follow the meal, and begin again. Begin again and again, though you must do so twenty times in the course of a single meal; and again and again, though you must do so every meal for weeks and months. It is perfectly certain that you CAN form the "Fletcher habit" if you persevere; and when you have formed it, you will experience a healthful pleasure you have never known.