Eating too much
Ok, so I just got through eating a nice home cooked meal. It was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and bread. Now that was one tasty meal with one exception. I ATE TOO MUCH, NOW I’M SICK!
So of course this got me thinking as everything does. Why in the world do we keep eating once we’ve reached our full point? You can see it all around you, especially if
Photo by Infrogmationyou are living in America. Everything has steadily gotten so much bigger over the years. Even in restaurants the plates you receive are humongous! It realistically is enough food to feed two or maybe three people comfortably.
I think it would be much better not only for the restaurants, but especially for their patrons to serve half the portions and charge you a little less. They would actually make more money because there wouldn’t be so much food going to waste. Also the people they’re serving would leave more comfortable and may begin to develop practices of eating less, which could help some of us lose a little weight.
If you think about it, by serving smaller portions in restaurants, this would also put deserts back on the map. I can’t count how many times I’ve eaten in a restaurant and when the dreaded question comes, “Y’all ready for some desert?” I nearly puke. Sorry, don’t know how else to say that. But I truly believe restaurants would sell more deserts if they weren’t stuffing everyone to the hilt.
Be Aware of your Surroundings
I think placement is everything. If you sit a full bag of chips or a huge bag of candy down in front of you, the chances you may eat it all is increasing. I believe that by limiting the portions available to you when at home can cause a decrease in amount eaten. For instance, pull a few pieces of candy out of the bag, or maybe get a handful of chips on a napkin and put the rest back. Usually by the time I’ve eaten the few pieces or the handful, I’m not wanting to go to the trouble of going back into the pantry and re-opening the bag to retrieve more. So chances are you may be able to limit yourself just by giving yourself a certain allotment and not the whole sha-bang!
The same goes for your dinner plate. If we give ourselves a smaller amount, then once we’ve devoured that, we’ll feel a sense of completion and won’t see the need to fill it again. Now this may not be true in all cases, but I’ve actually tried this on myself before and it did work. Although sometimes the psychological aspect may be your downfall sometimes. Meaning, if you think about how yummy that was and think to yourself, “I had a smaller portion this time, so I probably need some more, it won’t hurt.” Doing this kind of defeats the purpose though.
It’s that sense of completion combined with the over sized portions that causes us to over eat, in my honest opinion anyway. I’ve found that if you slow down the eating process and chew your bites more and don’t shovel it in, then you will be able to feel the fullness easier. They say it takes around 20 minutes to feel the effects of what you’ve just eaten. So by slowing your process down, you will know when you’re full before you’ve already gone overboard. This is so true, because when I eat something real fast, kind of like I did tonight. Then I regret it later, because I have over filled myself. But if I take my time, take smaller bites and chew them more, I will usually find my stopping point before the plate is empty.
The Strategy
One thing that we can do to eat less when restaurants are concerned is to share a plate with someone. This I’ve done many times and always left full. The plates at restaurants are so amazingly large that I can split one with someone and get more than enough food to satisfy the need to eat. Not only that, but it brings the cost of the meal down considerably. You could also split that meal and each order a side salad or something if it isn’t quite enough. It will take a couple of times experimenting with each restaurant until you know the portions sizes of your favorite dishes.
I’ve also found that eating a big breakfast is a good start. For one, it is a very important meal. It gives you energy to run on during the day and will help jump start your mind and other important systems in your body that you need going full speed to
have a productive day. Plus seeing how it is the first meal of the day, you have plenty of time to run it off. Then for lunch we could maybe eat something light, like a sandwich and a few chips, or possibly a nice salad. Just something to nourish us, but not enough to make you sleepy to where the rest of the day is miserable. Then at supper time, I would try to eat no later than 7:30 or 8:00 at night. The later you eat the better chance you have of going to bed with undigested food in your belly. This can go straight to your waist by doing this.
I’m sure there’s plenty of other good strategies out there for not eating more than we need. Would love to hear some more ideas. I just hate it when I eat too much….uggg 🙁
My problem is stoppin when I start eating haha. I’m not over weight thank god but I’ve tried limiting myself but I don’t seem to feel the need to stop until I’m full. I can eat and eat and eat for someone reason and not gain any weight…weird huh? Some say I’m lucky I say it’s not lucky because it’s quite expensive. Anyways limiting myself doesn’t work very well because it takes a lot to make me satisfied. So, I don’t see the point of eating then still being hungry.
Yah I hear ya Anthony, there are many people out there with the same curse, or blessing that you have. All depending on how you want to look at it. It’s all a matter of metabolism and of course how active you are. The older I get, the harder it is to get rid of what I’ve eaten. I just hate to eat and feel miserable after over doing it….
In my book, I would say you’re quite lucky to be able to eat all you want and not gain a pound.
Good Work and nice information
I was in NYC last year, and couldn’t believe the portion sizes. I was barely able to finish a single meal!
I’m glad you said that Stuart, I was wondering how portion sizes compare from region to region. I’m in Texas, and let me tell ya, our portions here are gigantic. It’s almost sickening…
It’s all so psychological what these restaurants do to their customers. For example, they’ll add more salt to their foods for the sole purpose of increasing drink sales. Restaurants are some sneaky little buggers 😉 Much props to those who can eat out and still control themselves
Oh man, I hear ya. Most people think that serving desert is just a normal part of a meal. But restaurants will try and sell you desert because the sweet flavor re-triggers a person’s appetite. They do it in hopes of selling something else, just what I’ve heard. But personally I’m always too full to even attempt desert!