Do More of What Works

As I sat to eat my breakfast this morning, I realized I almost always feel comfortably full AND satisfied after breakfast. I don't struggle with eating past fullness at EVERY meal. Then I recalled what I learned from solution-oriented brief therapy principles: Nobody uses disordered eating habits EVERY minute of the day. So in order to decrease using those habits, they can look for and learn from their exceptions. In other words, they can do more of what work, rather than focus on what doesn't work. So I asked myself, what helps me stop eating when I feel comfortably full at breakfast and realized:

(1) I eat what I love at breakfast. I have either a peanut butter and fruit topped muffin or a bowl of hot cereal with almond butter, hazelnut milk and chopped fruit. Those foods are easy to digest vegan protein (nuts and grains), sweet, fatty and starchy foods.

(2) I serve myself the amount of those foods which usually makes me comfortably full. Do I feel like I'm dieting when I eat the same 2 breakfasts? No, because I love those foods. However, I have reduced the amounts over the years so that I feel comfortably full.

(3) I'm hungry when I start breakfast. So I know when I reach my full point.

(4) More recently, totally focussing on the food and my body sensations lets me enjoy the food so much that I don't want more 'tastes' and want to do something else.

How can I use 'what works' at breakfast to help me stop when I feel comfortably full at lunch and/or dinner?

(1) I need to seriously consider before preparing the meal: what I really want to eat, what would feel good in my stomach, which means what would digest easily, what would keep me unhungry for awhile, as well as what 'needs to be eaten', 'what I planned to eat at the next meal' or what is 'healthy' when I have a cold, fatigue or nutrient deficiency symptoms.

(2) I can usually visualize how much would feel good in my stomach. So I feel comfortable after eating with a small petit pan full of soup, casserole or even mixed foods for dinner. However I think I 'should' be able to stop when I feel satisfied while eating any size of plate full of food. I can usually 'eyeball' a restaurant meal and plan to save a certain amount to take home. Why don't I do that at home? I consider restaurant meals excessive and always expect to take home some of my entree. At home I don't serve myself grossly large portions, just a bit too much, but enough to make me uncomfortably full. So I can either plan in advance to save some of that meal at home or I can take some off my plate and store in the refrigerator before I sit down to eat. Alternatively, in the future, when I store leftovers in individual frozen meals, I can use petit pans, rather than plates. Although that seems like 'cheating', because I 'should' be able to stop when I feel satisfied, I want to do whatever works. Besides telling myself to stop eating when I still have food on my plate reminds me of all the 'fat' teasing from my dad and brother who said "You'll get fat if you eat more of that." So I rebel against stopping with food on my plate.

(3) I need to be moderately hungry, but not starved before a meal, in order to stop at comfortably full.

(4) Focussing at lunch helps me resist more 'snacks' or 'tastes' after lunch. However, eating dinner with my husband is more of a challenge to focussing. Tonight I'll try the netflix during dinner again, but with more comfort conscious portions.

Realizing that I don't overeat at every meal gives me the confidence to do more of what works when I stop at comfortably full: Eat satisfying foods, eat when I'm comfortably hungry (not starved), serve myself comfort conscious portions and focus on tastes, textures and stomach sensations. I'll try those ideas at lunch and dinner.