Insights about Leaving Food

I committed last night to 'leave at least 1-2 bites on my plate at each meal'. I often serve myself sliced fruit in a baggy. So I have a ready container for what I don't eat. However, I often don't want to leave food that's still on my plate, ESPECIALLY when I enjoy the food. Here's what I experienced with breakfast:

I chose a thick slice of homemade cranberry relish bread topped with almond butter, peanut butter and cranberry relish (containing apples, tangerine, cranberries and walnuts) and some apple slices. I cut that bread into 2 parts, because all those toppings can easily all off a whole slice. I first enjoyed 2 apple slices, but remembered I really wanted the cranberry/nutbutter bread. After a few bites of half the bread, I felt less hungry. I thought "OH NO! I really wanted the bread. I hope I didn't already get full on the apple slices." I also considered whether I could save half the bread with toppings for another meal. I tend to think in terms of 'meal-sized' leftovers. However I wanted to eat what I prepared, because I'd anticipated this meal for awhile. So when I heard my stomach say 'enough already' before I ate much of the second half, I kept eating. Then I remembered my commitment to leave food at every meal. SAVED by the commitment! I left about 2 bites' worth, stopped eating and wrapped it up.

Then I started thinking about those 2 bites: "Should I have just thrown that away? What can I do with 2 bites?" I also remembered Geneen Roth's question (in 'Breaking Free from Emotional Eating'): "If you were told you could have food again anytime you wanted it, would you still be eating it?" I recalled all the times I didn't want to stop eating something that I loved, because I couldn't trust that I would let myself eat that the next time I felt hungry. I wanted to trust that I could have my breakfast leftover the next time I was hungry, like for lunch, but that didn't sound good when I was full after breakfast.

When I returned home after a long walk I was hungry again (about 5 hours later) and the cranberry bread with toppings sounded good again. Actually when I'm really hungry almost any starchy/fatty/protein with fruit meals sound good. However, I had 4 slices of leftover apple plus the 2 bites of that bread with topping. I contemplated making just 1/2 slice of bread with toppings, so I wouldn't have leftovers. However I decided to have a very thin slice of the bread, with very thin layers of the toppings plus my leftover apple and 2 bites of bread from breakfast. Amazingly I felt satisfied after eating all that EXCEPT about 3 bites of the thinly sliced bread with toppings. LOL How ironic!

Nevertheless, that was a good 'experiment'. Do I plan to have that leftover 3 bites of bread with toppings again for dinner? NOOOOO WAAAAAYY!! Enough already with cranberry bread with toppings and apple slices. I get really bored with eating the same thing 2 meals in a row, much less 3. I'll have turkey, vegies and rice for dinner (a frozen leftover meal from Christmas dinner). I'll add the wrapped 3 bites of bread to the other small leftover containers accumulating in my freezer. Yeah, I could throw out small amounts like that, but I do love creative cooking with leftovers. I suspect the bread with toppings will be a dessert for some low starch/low protein meal, when I want some bread.

I understand why I'm reluctant to leave a few bites. I don't want to see that food again so soon, even when I love it. I also don't want to figure out how to plan a meal around 3 bites of food. LOL Can I throw away remaining bites of foods I enjoy? I often do that with breakfast cereal, which I eat 3-4x a week. Maybe I'll try throwing away 2-3 bites next week. This week saving 1-3 bites at each meal is all I want to attempt.