Yesterday, I couldn't finish my lunch. This is not a normal occurrence. I think my eyes were probably bigger than my stomach. And the guacamole on top was so filling! So after eating about two-thirds of my bowl, I just stopped.
One of these ubiquitous weight-loss tips you read in every magazine article is to do exactly this. Basically, stop eating before you are full. Before the buttons on your jeans are popping off like bullets and shooting friends and family through the forehead. Stop before you injure yourself and your loved ones. But what about that food still sitting on your plate? Well, some people feel that it is just fine to throw it out. (Gasp!)
My mother never forced us to clean our plates. Although she was raised during the Great Depression and World War II, suffering through food shortages and rationing in Great Britain, she has never been pushy about food. But somehow I turned out to be a huge believer in Waste Not, Want Not. Like it might have been one of the Ten Commandments. Since I'm not a big bible reader, it may be for all I know.
Now, if I am too full to finish my own food, or my daughters' food, I will always try to enlist my poor husband for the job. If it is meat left on the plate, the dogs are also a good recourse. And we compost, which my husband insists is not actually "wasting." Although it feels like it to me, if I am composting part of a meal instead of spent coffee grounds and egg shells.
Of course, I am usually insane about saving scraps of everything from take-out containers of dried out Chinese white rice to frozen ripe bananas for shakes to leftovers from meals eaten out. It is rare that I eat an entire meal served in a restaurant. I will almost always carry home half a burger or even a salad, which isn't always great the next day, but never goes to waste.
But is this really a good thing?
I think the best option would be to serve myself only the portion I actually want to consume. This is the way to avoid both the over-stuffed sensation AND the leftovers glaring at me from the table. But when I make a mistake and accidentally take too much, I think the better action is to leave some in the bowl and perhaps even compost that small amount, rather than try to eat it. There was no way my lunch was going to be delicious re-heated yet again (it was composed mostly of leftovers to begin with) especially considering the guacamole on top. (I have a deep-seated hatred of warm avocado.) So into the compost it eventually went. Along with a healthy dose of guilt.
It is pretty unlikely that I am ever going to become one of those rich suburban mother types portrayed on television, throwing out heaping platters of deli meats and hors d'oevres, stuffing wads of French toast down the garbage disposal. (A horrific scene from the movie Ordinary People which has forever scarred and disturbed me.) But I am seeking to turn in my membership card to the Clean Plate Club. If you share my dysfunctional relationship with plates of food, I suggest we try this together. We don't need to waste food on purpose, of course. (God forbid!) Just feel that it is okay on occasion to leave what we don't really need. Perhaps even compost it.
One of these ubiquitous weight-loss tips you read in every magazine article is to do exactly this. Basically, stop eating before you are full. Before the buttons on your jeans are popping off like bullets and shooting friends and family through the forehead. Stop before you injure yourself and your loved ones. But what about that food still sitting on your plate? Well, some people feel that it is just fine to throw it out. (Gasp!)
My mother never forced us to clean our plates. Although she was raised during the Great Depression and World War II, suffering through food shortages and rationing in Great Britain, she has never been pushy about food. But somehow I turned out to be a huge believer in Waste Not, Want Not. Like it might have been one of the Ten Commandments. Since I'm not a big bible reader, it may be for all I know.
Now, if I am too full to finish my own food, or my daughters' food, I will always try to enlist my poor husband for the job. If it is meat left on the plate, the dogs are also a good recourse. And we compost, which my husband insists is not actually "wasting." Although it feels like it to me, if I am composting part of a meal instead of spent coffee grounds and egg shells.
Of course, I am usually insane about saving scraps of everything from take-out containers of dried out Chinese white rice to frozen ripe bananas for shakes to leftovers from meals eaten out. It is rare that I eat an entire meal served in a restaurant. I will almost always carry home half a burger or even a salad, which isn't always great the next day, but never goes to waste.
But is this really a good thing?
I think the best option would be to serve myself only the portion I actually want to consume. This is the way to avoid both the over-stuffed sensation AND the leftovers glaring at me from the table. But when I make a mistake and accidentally take too much, I think the better action is to leave some in the bowl and perhaps even compost that small amount, rather than try to eat it. There was no way my lunch was going to be delicious re-heated yet again (it was composed mostly of leftovers to begin with) especially considering the guacamole on top. (I have a deep-seated hatred of warm avocado.) So into the compost it eventually went. Along with a healthy dose of guilt.
It is pretty unlikely that I am ever going to become one of those rich suburban mother types portrayed on television, throwing out heaping platters of deli meats and hors d'oevres, stuffing wads of French toast down the garbage disposal. (A horrific scene from the movie Ordinary People which has forever scarred and disturbed me.) But I am seeking to turn in my membership card to the Clean Plate Club. If you share my dysfunctional relationship with plates of food, I suggest we try this together. We don't need to waste food on purpose, of course. (God forbid!) Just feel that it is okay on occasion to leave what we don't really need. Perhaps even compost it.
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