Overeating

Sorry if this has been asked before..Im just curious as to how many of you have been out to a restaurant or even at home and tend to eat everything on your plate even though your completley stuffed?

I find lately for me this has become an issue i think mainly due to the fact i hate wasting anything...basically my question is have any of you been or are in a similar situation and if so how did you get past it?

I wish i had a different perspective to food, im sick of snacking on crap like biscuits, cakes ect just because they're there!

I tend to finish everything off also just because I don't like waisting food either, especially if I cooked it. I'd rather finish something off than throw it away and now I'm hurting due to the excess calories. Any ideas of how to change this attitude about food?

I clean a plate every time!  (Ugh, yesterday it was at chipotle with an entire bag of chips and guac- oops).

Things that do work for me:  bag up half your meal at a restaurant and eat for a later meal (thus not wasting) and using only the small plates at your house.  Oh, and I serve myself a portion from what I make at home and put the rest away in the fridge before I even start eating.

Hope these help- you'll do great!

This is why we're all here.

I try to weigh and measure everything I eat at home so I get a better perception of portions, also in restaurants I keep away from calorie dense foods and order salads, or grilled poultry/fish, so in case i need to finish everything it will not harm my diet.

I hate wasting food, the healthy stuff is just so dam expensive.  I learned a few tricks that help me, but I still do it sometimes. (eat something instead of wasting it)

1. If I go out to eat I ask for a 2nd plate (or a to go box) cut everything in half and put half to the side.  Then I get 2 meals for the price of one. 

2. If its something I cook, first I try to reduce the recipe by 25% or more depending upon how much I usually have left when I cook it.  If its something I make often or really doesn't reduce well, I don't serve it family style.  I divide it up into how ever many extra servings I have put them in those zip lock containers and put them in the freezer even before I sit down to eat.  That way its not wasted and I have a lunch or two. And by the time I'm done eating the others are cold. Anyway home made tv dinners are the best.

3.  most anything can be vacuum pack it one of those home machine.  I have a off beat brand and it works wonderfully.

4. Produce and dairy are the hardest and my biggest pet peeves to waste. 

For fruit I either clean and freeze or store in my debbie reynolds green bags.

veggies I also use the green bags for and thought sometimes its more $ I buy less and make extra trips to the store (total pain in the a).  I also buy as much as possible frozen.

dairy - milk I freeze into smaller bottles and remove it from the freezer 24hours before I need it. everything else dairy I always go threw the self looking for the latest dates and but smaller quantities.

 

Hope this helps!

I have a bad habit of eating ALL my food at the restaurant. And for some reason, I always think I need to have dessert too. It's pretty bad. I avoid this by just avoiding restaurants altogether... if you're really disciplined, you can check out the cals on the restaurant website and limit yourself, but that's not me. I've tried and I can't seem to do it. So I don't even try! It works for me.

Same! I hate wasting food. So people think that I need to eat a lot when i don't. When I cut down on my food portions, they think I'm getting aneroxic(it's the same at home, not only with friends)T.T

It's really hard to lose weight like that. I'm in a healthy weight range but I just wanna shed off a few kgs.

You could think of it this way - whether you eat it or not its going to waste - if you overeat its going to waste in the way of fat so you might as well just leave it!

I'm a big eater and don't believe I'll ever be equipped with the ability to listen and respond to my body because, well, I have an excellent ability to tune things out.

However, I've gotten much better since I've made a conscious effort to improve. Also, holding myself accountable by logging in calories has helped. I may still eat my entire tofu scramble, but will only eat an approximated 1/4 cup of the hash browns (instead of the 2 cups they put on my plate) because I freak when I see the crazy addition on my intake.

And for those of you concerned about wasting food...my mom once passed me these words of wisdom: "The food will be wasted whether you eat it or not". Basically, if you don't eat it, the food may get thrown away. But if you do eat it (but don't need to) it will be wasted in unnecessary fat storage or, ah hem, in the local sewage pond. For this reason, pre-boxing or pre-planning your food is best practice to eliminate the catch 22.

I don't like to waste food either. However portion control needs to be a major factor in our lifestyle change (in addition of course to making nutritionally wise choices).

So if you have cooked too much, put a portion aside for the next day.

In a restaurant, eat a predetermined amount and take the rest home for the next day.

Restaurant food is almost always more calorie dense than what I prepare at home, so I may not have much of a calorie deficit (if any) when dining out even when bringing food home.  But by eating only a portion of your meal you may have reduced your caloric intake to a maintenance level for that day.  That's not nearly as bad as going well over limit and needing days to make up for it.

I don't like waste either.   I once saw the serious suggestion that to lose weight you should take the contents of your plate and throw half in the bin before starting!  LOL!    When at home it's quite easy to only buy, cook and serve what you intend to eat.  Measure things out if you're not sure how much is enough. If you don't want to eat crap like biscuits, just don't buy them.  If something's still sitting on a supermarket shelf rather than winking at you every time you open the cupboard door it's really easy not to eat it. :-)  

If you go to a restaurant (as opposed to a fast-food chain) you can try asking for a starter-size portion or a child-size portion.   And if everything on the menu looks enormous there's nothing to stop you asking for a green salad and an omelette. 

Sarah, I have noticed that I do the same thing. I fee obligated to eat it all even though my brain and body says STOP!! One thing I have been trying, is to put my fork down when I am done, even putting it on a plate for the waitress to come and get (and if I am at home, getting up and putting the leftovers away). If you're out to eat, ask for a to-go box right away, put half of the food in the box when it comes to the table, and then clear your plate. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yes, try to pack up half of your meal, or only order a lunch portion. But if its something you've made yourself at home, I don't understand why you'd eat it all for fear of waste... put it in the refrigerator!

I like the whole "the food will be wasted whether or not you eat it" i never looked at it that way and it actually does make sense! As for eating out i think i will definitley be taking up the idea of asking for a box before hand.

I always pre-plan my meals and i think this could also have something to do with the 'eating when im full' as i would have already worked out the calories ect in my meal so i feel i have to eat all my meal

Thanks for the replies guys you all made very good points :)

Someone probably already posted this, but just remember that if you don't eat it and it goes in the trash, it's wasted.

And if you do eat it it goes into your hips and out your butt, and it's wasted.

It's waste either way; just choose poop or trash. :)