THE Lowly Peon

WoD: Food 
19 June 2010, 2:30am

Usually when I'm bored, and though this week has been busy I sure have been bored, I eat lots of little snacks all the time. Worse, the snacks fill me up, but something in my upbringing tells me i still need to eat meals three times a day. So for my week of discontent, I've been much more aware of my food intake. And it's felt great.

In fact, i think this is the thing that brought about the most change in my life these past few days. I grew up always following the eat-what-you-order rule, or the rule of the clean plate club. The problem is that I have a hard time figure out exactly how much I want to eat before I order. Or, when I cook food, figuring how much I'll need.

I hate being too full. Probably more than being hungry. Being too full makes me feel lethargic, it hurts when I'm active so i get lazy, and I tend to eat more because I'm not satisfied.

I don't have any sort of rule that I've been following to change this, really, but something has changed. I suppose it's because I've been eating slower, so I recognize better when I'm full or otherwise satisfied. I also realized that in the summer, I just don't eat as much. So the standard portions may not be rig anymore — a busy time in enter may mean a big meal at dinner time, but now, in the heat of the summer, even after a run, I'm pretty good to go with a small sandwich and some delicious juice. And a piece of fruit to leave my mouth feeling delicious!

I've also thrown away the notion of needing to eat meals. If I'm not that hungry at "lunch time", why should I need to eat a meal? Why not eat a little, then wait until i do get hungry?

Watching how much I eat has also made me more aware of what I'm eating. For example, I know that eating a bunch of cheese and crackers will fill me up and make me feel tired, so I'll eat fewer of them and still have a good meal afterwards (but i cant say no to cheese and crackers!).

Anyway, I feel much better. (So stop bringing so much delicious food to lunch, daisy!)