We had pasta for supper last night. I religiously took out my measuring cup and measured out 1 cup of pasta to put on my plate. In my head I thought "Gee, that's just not a lot of food, i'm so sick of having to scale down on my portions". I sat down at the table a little sad because I'm at the point where I really do have to cut back on portions. I gloomily ate my pasta and when I went to take my last bite, I realised I was full. I couldn't even eat the last bite.

Only one cup of pasta AND I COULDN'T EAT THE LAST BITE! It's mind blowing really. I'm not at all depriving myself. I need to find a way to stop my brain from thinking like that! The more I think about it, the more I realise that it happens all the time. I portion my food, am upset that it's not a heaping plate full then proceed to not finish the portion I'm ok to eat. HELP ME TELL MY HEAD TO STOP SABOTAGING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know how you feel.I've started eating smaller portions and slowly.Also I've started only eating while hungry...it's been hard to figure it all out,but your right....when I eat slowly and savor my food,I'm full much more quickly.

I'm with ya there. I do the same thing. I think jeez, look at this measely little plate of food while everyone else is piled high with good stuff, but by the time I get DONE with that measely little plate of food, I feel satisfied, but not stuffed, and I feel good about myself that I ate a healthy portion while everyone else sits around complaining how miserably full they are.

"Ohhh my God, I ate too much."

"My pants are splitting at the seams."

"I have to undo my jeans just to breathe."

"I ate so much food I feel like I'm gonna puke."

Yeah, I remember those days. And I don't miss them one bit. While everyone else sits around all miserable, I'm content.

If you are not already using a smaller plate, do that. I have some nice little 9 inch sandwich plates that I picked up at flea markets etc and I serve my food on those. Everyone else uses the 12 inch dinner plates. I like my special plate as it is pretty and for me only and my food fills it right up and I never think I don't have enough, I often even leave some behind. That is very hard for me to do and I am still working on getting to the point where I do not care about the food left on the plate.

I actualy looked at smaller plates today and almost bought them but then i'd need to use a salad bowl... now i fill my plate 1/2 full with salad, 1/2 with my meal...

Mind you, if i eat my salad first on a separate plate, it would take longer to eat....hmmmmm.... the gears are turning........

I'm with you. I'm trying to eat four smaller meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper) and have benn measuring/weighing my food like a nutcase. Tonight, I put a 12 inch dinner plate half full of salad, and decided to have only .5cup of pasta. I was amazed at how much food it really was.

I find the key is to eat really slowly. I also plate my food at the stove and never bring any serving bowls to the table except those containing veggies. I like to make extra's for leftovers so if i package those immediately, there is no way I can go for seconds!

My 'secret' (well, a secret for myself) to not eating seconds is to never make more than I'm going to eat.

Making more than i'm going to eat saves me the trouble, and temptation of cooking again when I need to make lunch for the next day! I eat a smaller version of the supper I had the night before- I'm not a sandwich girl! lol

That's brilliant! I will have to try that one, I have these cute little clear plates that I've been meaning to try but for some silly reason I always "think" I'll need the bigger plate.

The hypnotist Paul McKenna (he's just conducted the largest weight loss experiment in the world - I think you can find it on SkyOne's UK website) has this great phrase: "It's time to resign from the empty plate club"! He says just give yourself permission to leave food - and it really works if you try his technique! The only time I've had problems is going to family meals, (esp one aprticular family member who prides herself on her cooking!) I managed to get a lot less on my plate on that occasion AND leave some - without too much upset!

I've thought about starting to eat in "courses". Have a soup first, then a salad, then the main course. Dragging meals out like that will probably make me eat less of the things I should eat less of and more of the things I can eat a lot of. It's just to balance that with having to throw supper down your throat in 5 minutes because you have to get the kids to their activities in the evening that's the challenge!

It's so frustrating somethimes because my husband and I really like to cook. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparingmeals from scratch. We don't buy anything pre-made- not even salad dressings. We spend all this time preparing and 3 minutes actually eating. There's just something very wrong about that...... Isn't there?

My grandmother is like that and I found a way around it last Christmas.

Say the offending object is roast beef. Cut off a piece, then from every bite you take cut a tiny bit off. They'll think you're just cutting off some fat, and it makes you eat more slowly.

If it's cake or pie, then just mush some on the plate and don't scrape it...

mush it on the plate! that's hilarious!