Everyday Systems

I'm going to start recommending this diet to everyone in the world.

(Stop laughing at me).

I just went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. The portions? HUUUUGGEEEE. Gigantic. It would have been about two regular dinner plates of food.

I quietly cut my meal in half while chattering away with my friends and family, and ate one half. I was comfortably satisfied. (I did refrain from eating the chips cause I didn't want that to count towards a plate of food).

The waitress came by and asked if I wanted the leftovers. Yes, I took the other half home and it'll be a fine meal in a day or two.

This is exciting because for the first time in my life a diet did not mean that I had to be "special" or have a talk with the waitress or the cook to get what I needed to stick to it, didn't need anything special. Nope, I just took a look at my plate and decided how much was a real portion, ate that and enjoyed it...

and no-one noticed a damn thing.

Even if I didn't lose any weight doing this, and I will, it would be worth it just not to have to be bloody "special" all the damned time to try to get my weight under control.

I'm becoming very fond of restaurants that serve "normal" portions. I've found a few in my area. All are locally owned and operated -- no chains.

Awesome. That's the hardest thing for me, not cleaning my "plate" even when it's more like a platter, and way too much food for me. That's why I treasure the few restaurants I know that serve food in normal portion sizes.

florafloraflora wrote:Awesome. That's the hardest thing for me, not cleaning my "plate" even when it's more like a platter, and way too much food for me. That's why I treasure the few restaurants I know that serve food in normal portion sizes.

I'm finding I'm cleaning my plate better, because not only am I only helping myself to "enough" (we've been eating in self-service places a lot recently), but also because I'm not snacking and so am actually hungry for my meals when they arrive. The 1 plate rule helps me to not overdo it, though, bcause I'm hungry and think I need more than I do!

That's the hardest thing for me, not cleaning my "plate" even when it's more like a platter, and way too much food for me. That's why I treasure the few restaurants I know that serve food in normal portion sizes.

I find that the platters of food overwhelm me. I know from the start that I won't be able to eat it all and I'll be taking some home. I'm definitely not a member of the clean plate club! Or, I guess "cleaning my plate" doesn't necessarily mean eating it all at one sitting. I can stretch it to two or even three sittings.

Wosnes, you're lucky. It sounds like your eyes are the right size for your stomach. The best way I have of dealing with the problem is just to stay away from restaurants. It's not ideal, but it's the only thing that really works.

I don't know if I'm lucky or not. It's the platters that overwhelm me -- just too much. But if a lot of food is presented sequentially on smaller plates -- I can eat it all because it doesn't look like so much food at once. I can graze my way through a day.

I think it's also a time thing. Usually there's not a lot of time to eat and I know I can only eat a certain amount in a small amount of time. But if there's an hour or so to sit and eat, I can put it away! I guess that would be controlled grazing!