Tip: don't eat everything on your plate!

So, as a part of this whole weight loss thing I'm trying really hard to reset my relationship with food and eating. My family has always been fit and I was a healthy child until my bad relationship with food started as a teenager at boarding school, so I've been reflecting on that a bit and on my parents' lifestyle. I am currently trying to relearn a mealtime rule from my childhood, and I thought it might be interesting for a few others here.

When I was a kid, we were explicitly told not to finish everything on our plate. I think the original idea is based in politeness, like if you clean the plate then it implies you weren't fed well enough. I know that's not the common experience!

Basically: We were encouraged to eat half the serving on the plate and then stop for a drink, and check to see if we were still hungry. If we were, we ate more. The end goal was that we would always leave something on the plate, be it half a meal or a single pea. If we were extra hungry from sport or whatever, we could ask for a bit more - but any extra was served in a few bites worth, not another serving of dinner. We had to keep asking for more if we were still hungry.

I've recently started enforcing my mum's dinner rules with myself, and it's been positive so far.

• If I know that something needs be on the plate at the end of my meal, I need to be constantly aware of the food leaving my plate as I eat it, rather than shoveling it in mindlessly as I did for YEARS. I swear, sometimes I didn't even remember eating!
• I also try to be aware of my own hunger and satiety as I eat so that I can make a conscious, informed decision about when to stop eating.
• If I do come to the end of the food and am still hungry, I only serve myself extras in the TINIEST amounts, a couple of mouthfuls at a time. The effort of to get up and walk to the kitchen multiple times for another taste of food is usually not worth it.

This is helping me a bit because I really struggle with portion sizes and eating for the sake of eating, so I really hope that it can help others too!

submitted by /u/micki03
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