I was brought up to finish the food on my plate, even if it meant stuffing myself. To waste food was a sin - think of those who don't have enough food!

Now I have another perspective. To overeat now will lay the foundation of my overeating in the future. Therefore if I leave some food on my plate that my body does not need I am actually WASTING LESS FOOD in the long run because I will then eat less at future meals. Plus I will be saving on fabric (smaller clothes!) medicine (obesity-related illnesses) etc, all to the good of the rest of the world! :hippy:

So refusing food your body does not need should not be wasteful in the long term.

I've found this way of thinking very helpful. I still get nasty glares from my mother when I don't finish all the food on my plate though! :)

I was also brought up to "make my plate happy." I'm a charter member of the "clean plate club." But of course penguin is absolutely right, we are better off pitching the leftovers rather than eating them. Let the garbage can have all those calories.

And penguin can tell her mother that I am glaring at her in penguin's behalf all the way from Wyoming.

A very interesting prospective on the clean the plate phobia. I am afraid that I still suffer from this and may be passing it on to my sons, even though none of them are overweight . It is a very hard lesson to learn and I congratulate you Penquin.

I have a game I play with myself to try to get away from the Clean Plate Club. I *try* to leave food on my plate at restaurants and at dinner, and in spite of my frugal instincts, I make myself NOT ask for a to go box, and if it's not enough for a real serving the following day, I bin it.

It's actually kind of empowering to say, look...I tossed away my food and I feel fine...

I am a card carrying member of the Clean Plate Club as well. My mother had to support me and my 2 sisters by herself, so things were really tight growing up, and we had to savior the food we had. I have had a hard time getting over that, but I am well on my way!

During the last few days I haven't been finishing my plate, leaving a at least two bites of everything. Over the weekend we went out to eat (my husbands treat.. a rare thing.. we have been married a little over a year.. and i think just possibly my "hubby training" is finally working... ) anyway.. I only ate half of my plate, boxed it up and my daughter had it for lunch today. Actually she couldn't even finish it all. We get such large portions these days that it really makes three meals.