Leaving Food Behind Is Easier Than You Think

One of the biggest differences between eating like a dieter, and eating like a healthy thin person is how you deal with the amount of food on your plate.

I understand completely if you doubt that you will ever be comfortable or happy leaving food on your plate.  I thought that.  Back when I was a dieter, I never left a morsel behind.  If I could have seen me now, I would have been completely surprised.

Please give yourself a chance to be surprised too.

And also, give it a bit of time– think of all the adjustments you are making.

First, you have to adjust to the idea that you can eat whatever you are craving in that moment.   That is a huge adjustment.  You are used to ordering yogurt and granola when you wanted a steak sub or a snickers bar.  Or you are used to eating spinach when you wanted grapes.  Or you are used to eating chicken when you wanted shrimp and cocktail sauce.  Whatever.

You are also used to thinking that if it is a “free” food, like raw vegetables with no dressing, that you can and should overload your stomach.  Again, also a bad idea.  It is NEVER good to overload your stomach- it reinforces a bad habit of ignoring your satiety signal.

And, you are used to eating a “treat” on a pre-planned schedule.  For instance, you are used to diet strategies like, “I will eat dessert on Saturday night.”  Then Saturday night comes, and whether you want dessert, or you would really prefer more bread or spinach, you eat the dessert.

So, all of this diet mentality eating ends up disabling you.  You see your plate of food, and you eat it all, no matter what- hungry or not.

That is not how thin people eat.

Get rid of that diet mentality and all of the sudden that plate of food in front of you is just a plate of suggestions.  You can eat all the bread and all the vegetables and leave the meat.  You can eat all the meat and that is it.  You can leave the whole thing because it isn’t what you want, or because you are NOT hungry.  You can eat all the potatoes with butter and have seconds of that and nothing else.  You are free.

And when you are free, everything is different.  You aren’t eating because “this is it,” for the day.  You aren’t eating because, “I may as well, I am dieting tomorrow.”  You aren’t eating because it is “there.”

Get picky, guys!  I know it sounds weird, but turning down food is sometimes as good as eating it.  You will see what I mean, over time.

It is not because I enjoy turning down food.  It is because I value responding to my own hunger on my own terms, and no one is going to get me to eat, or not eat.  It is powerful.  Why? Because I feel powerful and smart everyday by bucking the diet industry rules.  I refuse to be led like a sheep.  And I want that for you too.

Again, this doesn’t happen right away.  Give yourself a chance to grow into this.

As you are training yourself to be free, just follow that one rule: eat only when you are hungry.  And remember, food is so awesome with that hunger sauce on it!