HELPFUL TIP FOR THE DAY

My "no longer hungry" button is broken, so I do it a bit differently. I very carefully measure my portions onto my plate, and when my food is gone, I declare myself no longer hungry.

I'm definitely hungry again for the next meal (4 per day). I don't know where this notion that you should never feel hungry comes from!

It's definitely tougher at a restaurant. Sometimes I figure out what my portions should be by eyeballing/comparing with what I would have at home. And sometimes I declare it a diet-free meal and eat however much of it I want.

And I wish they would serve human being size portions, too. There really should be an option to order half portions.

My plate that I always eat my dinner off of is a good 3 inches smaller than a normal dinner plate. not as small as a dessert plate and no where near as big as a dinner plate. I base my portions on that and when I eat off that pl;ate because I feel like I have had a full plate of food I am done. I also measure my food and if I am having a lot of protein and know I will fill quickly I put only a half serving of the other stuff on my plate. If I am still hungry I go back for the other half. When the full portion is gone I immediately store the left overs so I am not staring at them.

For all giving her crud about food wasting my ex mother in law swore that to maintain weight you never ate the last bite of food. Somehow this has always worked for her.

thats really interesting.........wish I thought of it............

Great idea if you're at home....what about at a restaurant. I had this issue when we went away for our anniversary. The portions were too big and I only wanted to eat about 1/3....we were staying in a very nice hotel and there were not in room refrigerators....he had a COW that I was going to waste it...he forced me to eat more and then I felt like throwing up....I ended up feeling horrible after both nights out. Why can't they offer 1/2 portions on the menu? I understand why they offer such large portions, but I AM NOT A VERY BIG PERSON AND I CAN'T EAT 1000 CALORIES AT ONE MEAL or even 500 really. It's WAY too much and I would rather throw it away then stuff myself and feel ill.

When I'm at a restaurant, I ask for a to-go box to come with my meal. When it arrives, I pack up half of the portion to take home, and then eat what's on my plate. I did this even before I was losing weight because restaurant portions are HUGE!!

Why not just put less on the plate and not waste food?

That's what I do

I could never throw away food!
To cut down portion sizes I got a smaller plate. Now I have less, it feels like I'm eating a lot, I eat slowly, and in all I'm eating less.

Same here I can not see myself throwing away food my cousin does that and gets me so upset!!

I only eat about half of what they serve in a restaurant. Most recently I've been asking for a to go box when I place my order...

^^ this is what I do. But unfortunately, the OP didn't have this option for lack of place to store it over the entire weekend.

I usually try and eat my dinner on a salad plate. I can fill my plate up and not feel like I'm not getting enough to eat. I'm not a big leftovers fan, but my husband is, so he always takes what we had for dinner to work the next day for lunch. It is harder to gauge portion sizes at restaurants. I also ask for a to-go box before I get my meal so that I can put half in the box and not be tempted to pick at it while waiting on the bill.

Does anyone struggle with eating more while with friends? When my husband and I go out to dinner I usually don't have a problem but when I'm having lunch or dinner with my girlfriends and we get to talking, I don't even realize how much I'm eating. That's something I need to work on.