'Not now' does not mean 'Not for hours'

[Guest guest]

Something that's been helping me lately is to remind myself when I'm eating that

if I'm full, choosing to stop eating now does not mean that if I'm hungry in 10

minutes I can't have more. Back in the diet mentality I felt a lot of pressure

to eat my whole meal, whatever meager thing it was, because if I didn't I would

need to wait for hours before I would have the chance to eat again (or if the

hunger got too bad I would have to cheat and eat something and feel bad about

myself for failing to 'eat right'). While it is more convenient for meals to

fit into nicely scheduled evenly spaced blocks of time, if all that it takes to

be full is a quarter of a sandwich, I shouldn't eat half a sandwich or a whole

sandwich just because it's mealtime and I shouldn't feel bad about myself if 45

mins later I am really hungry and eat the rest of it and a banana. Having a

scoop of ice cream now does not mean I can't have another one later in the day

(and it will probably taste better than if I have two scoops at once just

because I two scoops is my definition of unrestricted serving). If I'm at a

restaurant, I don't need to eat my meal (or even half of it) just because I'm at

a restaurant and am afraid of being judged by the waitstaff or other diners (I

can take it home and it will be fine later). Food should be subservient to my

needs and my schedule and not vice versa.