Tag Archive for: respect fullness

3 Tips to Leaving the Clean the Plate Club Behind

Picture this, you’re sitting at the dinner table with your whole family after spending the last hour cooking a meal. The meal has just started; however, you have only taken a few bites and you are already starting to feel full. You look around the table and everyone else is still eagerly digging into their food. You put your fork down and realize you are already at the point of comfortable fullness. You begin to feel a little guilty about spending all that time cooking to only eat a few forkfuls of the meal, so you continue you eat until you reach uncomfortable fullness.

Or, you are enjoying your meal, you get to a point of feeling comfortable, but you don’t want to leave any food over because you believe it’s wrong to waste food and/or money.

Many people have experienced that guilt or peer pressure that makes them clean their plate. As a child you might have heard the familiar line, “Clean your plate, there are children that are starving.” This mindset can lead to overeating and ultimately leave you feeling unwell and still guilty, for a different reason.

This mindset of “clean plate club” directly goes against the Intuitive Eating journey. You are ignoring your natural hunger and fullness cues. While in the scenario above, the person tried to tune into their fullness cues, they ultimately ignored them to clean their plate.

There are some tips and tricks that you can try to leave the clean plate club behind. Here are my top 3:

1. Eat Slowly 

Slow down the pace of your eating so you can achieve pleasure in every bite. Try not to rush through your meal, instead savor the food in front of you. When you have full satisfaction, it’s  easier to stop when you sense you have had enough. Put your fork down between bites to allow yourself the time to check in with your hunger and fullness cues.

2. Consider Leftovers 

Promise yourself that you will pack up whatever you leave over (even if it’s a small amount) so you can eat it tomorrow. You will then enjoy this wonderful meal again. Sometimes leftovers can be just as good, if not better, than the original meal. You can even try reworking your leftovers into a completely new meal, get creative in the kitchen.

3.Reflect on your meal.

Once you have completed your meal, take some time to reflect. Did you reach a level of comfortable fullness? Did you pass the level of comfortable fullness and now feel uncomfortable? Asking these questions will surely help you respect your fullness regardless if there’s food left on the plate or not.

Say no to the clean plate club and instead focus inward on how you are feeling. There are so many reasons to honor your fullness and your Intuitive Eating journey.

Want to learn all about the origin of the “clean the plate club”? It’s actually fascinating. Join me today at 12:15 pm EST for a live training HERE or HERE

5 Reasons for Your Clean the Plate Mentality

“What signals the end of your meal?”

This is a question that I ask my clients. And most of the time the answer is “when my plate is empty”.

This response is not uncommon if you’ve been a lifelong dieter. In today’s blog, I will highlight some of the reasons why you might be a member of the “Clean the Plate Club”.

5 Reasons You Might Be a Member of the Clean the Plate Club

  1. Lessons from Childhood: You might have been taught by well-meaning parents to clean your plate. Maybe you were rewarded for doing so, punished for not doing so, or were made to feel guilty if you didn’t eat everything on your plate (“the children in China are starving”). Let me emphasize the words “well-meaning parents”. I’m not putting blame on your parents, no no no. I’m just saying that in some households, this is a strict rule and you’ve learned to obey this rule for fear of punishment.

 

  1. Sense of Entitlement: You are on a diet, counting and measuring every ounce of food you are “allowed” to eat at a meal. There is no way you aren’t going to eat every last bite; you have “earned” it, you are “entitled” to it, and gosh darn, you are going to eat it. This is the mindset of a person who follows the rules of diets which tell them what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. It’s not your fault. It’s just a nasty side effect of dieting.

 

  1. Waste-Not Mindset: You value and respect the dollar, and food, which is great. But to what extent? If you eat all that’s on your plate beyond your level of comfortable fullness, because you don’t want to waste money or food, give thought to the fact that while you might be respecting the dollar, you are not respecting your body. I’m not saying to throw the food away. You can put it away in the fridge to finish at a later time. And yes, even if it’s a small amount.

 

  1. Ingrained Habit of Finishing All Food: We all develop habits over time. And perhaps your habit is to finish the entire “portion” of food, be that a sandwich or a snack bag of peanuts, regardless if you are hungry any longer. The great thing about habits are that we were not born with them, they are learned behaviors. Which means, they can be unlearned when they don’t serve us well.

 

  1. Food Insecurity: If food was not readily available when you grew up, it might be harder for you to respect your fullness and stop eating when you are comfortable. This can take time to work through. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself.

 

Respecting your fullness takes time. Knowing that you can eat the food you are eating at any time is also very helpful to being able to end your meal when you are comfortably full (as is starting the meal at a comfortable level of hunger, and not ravenous).

Here is a video on this topic to help you even more!

After viewing, if you have any questions or need help on your Intuitive Eating Journey, please head to www.TalkWithBonnie.com to set up a complementary call with me.