Finding and Increasing Exceptions

In my previous post I listed beliefs which influenced my hestitation to stop eating when I felt comfortably satisfied. One of those beliefs is "If I stop when I feel satisfied (not hungry but not overly full), I will feel deprived." However I have noticed occasions or meals that I do NOT feel deprived when I stop eating at the point of comfortable fullness. Those occasions are EXCEPTIONS to my belief (or even 'rule') that I will feel deprived when I stop eating at my 'comfortable' point.

My 'exceptions' to my deprivation belief include:

When I eat at restaurants, I plan to take home leftovers, because I believe restaurant portions are too large. I look forward to having a second meal from my restaurant leftovers.

When I serve myself with the rest of my meal sliced fruit (apples, oranges, pears) in a plastic bag for leftovers, I can easily stop at 'enough' and leave the fruit for another meal.

When I save leftover portions of entre meats, vegies, soups, casseroles, I look forward to using that food in future soup or casserole creations.

So I began to consider my beliefs about those 'exceptions' in order to find more exceptions to my 'deprivation' belief. Then I realized that in restaurants I not only believed I would receive more food than I needed, I looked forward to eating the extra food at a future meal. In the sliced fruit exception, I believed I could easily stop eating at 'enough' and put the extra slices in the refrigerator for another meal. However, I also believed I would ENJOY that fruit more when I felt hungry again, than if I continued to eat it past my satisfaction point.

I also considered what I've read, that stopping at satisfied is easier if you believe you can eat the same food again anytime you want. Then I realized I DID NOT believe I could always eat the 'same food' anytime I want, because I rarely LET myself eat the same food again as a snack or part of a future meal. I usually vary my meals so that I won't feel bored by what I eat. When I eat a bowl of hot cereal I usually do not want to save small amounts, because I don't think that will taste appetizing later. Rather than throw out 2-3 bites, I just eat those last bites and often feel uncomfortable. When I eat a salad, I don't believe I can safely eat leftover dressed salad a day or 2 later, because I fear bacterial growth on salad leftovers. So I don't believe I will let myself enjoy some foods again, because I don't let myself leave leftovers of certain foods. Nevertheless, I can eat hot cereal every morning if I want. My husband would love to eat entree dinner salads every night. Yet I still didn't trust that I will let myself have the same food again, if I stop eating at the point of enough.

So I tried increasing my 'exceptional' circumstances. I frequently included an easily storeable food (like fruit) in most lunches. I saved some of last night's salad and had a few bites of my leftover salad at lunch today. I ate the same hot cereal and fruit for several days in a row until I got tired of it. I even ate peanut butter and fruit for breakfast and peanut butter and fruit for lunch yesterday. I remembered how much I enjoyed making soups and/or casseroles from little containers of my leftovers from meals. All those 'exceptions' helped convince me that saving excess food is more pleasurable than eating all the food I serve myself and making myself uncomfortably full. I can enjoy those leftovers more when I'm hungry again at another meal, on a different day or even in a different form. All those 'exceptions' to my belief about deprivation changed my belief from usually true to rarely true.

Beliefs are like rules. We can find exceptions to rules. If we find enough exceptions, we may no longer trust those rules. We may even change those rules. Likewise we can change our beliefs, if we look for, find and increase the possibility of exceptions.