Stopping with Food on My Plate

I consistently stop eating when I feel comfortably full, when I serve myself just enough to satisfy myself and comfortably fill my stomach. When I eat the exact food that both feels good in my stomach and satisfies my taste cravings, I can more easily stop when my stomach says 'enough'. When I focus on the tastes and textures of the meal, without distractions like tv, reading or conversation, I feel happy to stop when I finish my meal.

However, when I serve myself too much food, when I don't choose satisfying foods, or when I'm distracted by mealtime conversation, I don't want to stop eating when I feel full. I need to feel satisfied AND full. So more recently I began to seriously consider what food would satisfy my cravings and hunger, before I prepared my meal. I also eat at least one meal a day (usually breakfast) totally free of distractions. After focussing on tastes, textures and stomach sensations during the entire meal, I'm happy to stop eating.

Nevertheless, I continue to struggle with stopping at 'comfortably full', when I serve myself more food that I can comfortably eat or foods that really don't satisfy my body or my cravings. I consistently want to 'clean my plate' at home. At restaurants I can more easily stop and leave food for the 'take home box', because I assume my meal will be much more than I need. However, at home I usually know and serve myself just enough food for comfortable fullness. Nevertheless, I sometimes overestimate how much I need or I feel less hungry than usual or I try to 'fill the plate', rather than guestimate how much food my stomach needs.

Here's what I hear myself saying when I feel comfortably full, but want to continue eating, because food remains on my late:

"I don't want to waste so little food. So what, if I feel a little more than comfortably full?"

"Okay, I could get up and store these last 3 bites in the refrigerator. However, I wonder how much food born bacteria has developed on this food while it sat on my plate?"

"How could I possible reuse 3 bites of vegies (or meat) or casserole or soup? This is too little for a meal and I don't like to snack on vegies or casserole or soup. I might just as well eat this\."

"I know I'll feel too full, if I eat all this food, but I don't feel comfortable getting up and leaving the table (or living room while watching Netflix) to put away this extra food, before my husband is finished."

"I can't waste this food after spending so long preparing this meal."

"If I stop eating now, even though I'm comfortably full, I'll get too hungry before the next meal and just grab anyting while preparing the next meal. So I prefer to eat until I feel obviously full."

"Of course I feel full. I took a probiotic before dinner."

"I can afford to overeat a little. I'm not overweight. It all balances out, even if I feel uncomfortably full occasionally."

"I really didn't get what I wanted to eat before I got full. I still need a sweet taste or some dessert to feel satisfied."

WOW! That's quite a list of rationalizations for overeating!! I'll challenge and 'talk back' to each of those rationalizations in my next post.