I'm eating less, almost never snacking, and very rarely eating to the point of feeling overly full. I think these are pretty good accomplishments for having been at IE for less than two months! The one thing I am struggling with, though, is stopping at satisfied. I still want to clean my plate. For the most part, I've been dealing with this by just taking small portions so that I can clean my plate and not yet be full. It helps me realize how little it sometimes takes to reach that satisfied level. This works great when I'm at home and have control over what I'm served. It doesn't work so well when I eat out and get big portions. And I eat out a lot.
On the bright side, I'm definitely ordering less food than I used to, so I'm still not eating excessive amounts. But I do know that I can almost always stop and be satisfied before I finish, but I never do. I did it today. Had a hectic day of back to back meetings at work. As a result, I couldn't get away to get lunch until almost 3:00. By then, I was pretty hungry. I went to a favorite little sandwich shop and got a BBQ chicken sandwich, a bag of Sun Chips, and a soda. About three quarters through the sandwich, I knew that I should stop. But, man, was it tasty!! So I finished it. And the chips and the soda. And I was definitely full. Not stuffed. But quite full. I haven't eaten since, which I suppose is one good thing because in the past, I still would have had some candy afterwards and come home and had a snack or dinner. So, I'll take progress where I can find it. But I still want to work on stopping at satisfied.
So here's the challenge for the next week. I will leave at least one bite on my plate at every meal. I can do that. I know I can. And we'll move on from there.
I find it very hard to stop at satisfied when I go to long between meals. I think its because our body thinks we are going to go that long again and fills up on calories to make the stretch. Yesterday I had an experience just the same. I ate lunch around 12:30 and then worked until 5, then I had to go to costco before I went home. All I wanted to eat was pizza so I picked up the pizza at costco and brought it home for dinner. It was 6:30 by the time I ate dinner, 5.5 hours after my lunch. My nutritionist told me that our body can only store enough carbs for energy for 6 hours (except when sleeping, that's longer) so I was very close to running completely out of fuel, also I had been working and running around so it is likely that I ran out of fuel already. Anyway, I ate way more pizza then I would normally have and almost nothing else, I usually try to eat more balanced meals. I wasn't stuffed either when I was done and I didn't feel overly full either so I am trying to be accepting of the meal but in the future I would prefer not to go so long between meals and eat more balanced, especially at night when I don't really need carbs for energy since I am just going to be sitting on the couch mostly.
ReplyDeleteI am going to join you with leaving at least one bite on my plate each meal this week!!!
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