Changing Beliefs, Changing Habits Part 5

After I learned to eat only when I was physically hungry and stop eating when I felt satisfied or comfortably full, the following beliefs made me resist stopping when I felt comfortable. Again I will list each irrational belief followed by a description of how I changed that belief and/or the new belief:

IB If I stop eating when I feel 'satisfied' or comfortably full, I will feel 'deprived', esp. if I don't eat dessert, which will make me binge later.

After I considered my beliefs about 'deprivation' and other areas where I felt 'deprived', my new belief became: I can always more of the same food or even a dessert the next time I feel hungry or at the next meal. However continuing to eat past 'satisfied' will deprive me of physical comfort for awhile after the meal.

IB If I stop eating when I feel 'satisfied' or comfortably full, I will get hungry between meals, start snacking and then binge.

After I challenged and changed my belief about 'snacks lead to binges', I no longer feared getting hungry between meals. So my new belief became: I can eat anytime I feel moderately hungry, whether I choose a small snack to delay a meal or I choose a larger meal. So I don't need to overeat to avoid between meal hunger.

IB If I stop at 'satisfied' I will get hungry and snack between meals. Then I won't feel hungry for a scheduled meal with my husband. So I will eat when I'm not hungry, which will make me overeat at that meal.

After I experimented with snacks of different kinds of foods, I discovered which foods could satisfy my hunger just enough for the moment, but allow me to become hungry for a later meal. So my new belief became: If I feel hungry between meals I can eat just enough of a snack to temporarily satisfy hungry but be hungry again before a meal.

IB If I stop eating when I feel satisfied or comfortably full, I will get low blood sugar symptoms before the next meal, feel desperate to eat and either binge or overeat at the next meal.

After I observed which foods or combination of foods kept me UNhungry for long periods, I realized that I could eat comfortable amounts of foods with 'staying power', rather than stuff myself to prevent low blood sugar before the next meal. So my new belief became: I can stop eating foods with staying power when I feel comfortably full and stay unhungry for long periods.

IB If I stop eating when I feel satisfied, I will waste food by not eating everything I served myself.

I tried several approaches to challenge this belief (1) I left a few bites of food on my plate every meal; (2) I kept a leftovers storage container by my place at the table to remind me to store excess food in the fridge, not my stomach; (3) I tried to guesstimate how much to serve myself by using my loosely clenched fist as a guideline for my stomach size; and (4) I 'observed and corrected' with various meals how much was too much and how much felt just right. Eventually my new belief became: I can avoid wasting food by serving myself 'comfortable sized portions' or by storing leftovers in the freezer, but I waste food whether I throw it away or eat excess food which I don't need.

Despite my efforts to challenge and change my beliefs about eating past satisfaction, I still sometimes hear myself saying: "I'm not hungry, but I'm not full. I could stop now, but I want to eat more until I know that I'm DEFINITELY full." Satisfaction seems so elusive that I often prefer to stop eating when I feel obvious pain, rather than elusive 'not hungry, not full'. However, I learned that, if I stop when I feel neither hungry nor full, my stomach will soon tell me that I reached 'full' after it digests the food a little more. If I eat very slowly and focus on my physical sensations, my stomach will send me 'comfortably full' signals. Nevertheless, rather than keep eating after I reach the not hungry/not full point, I can choose to ignore my self talk and just stop eating. When I choose to just stop, I observe that I can survive without those extra bites.