How to stop eating when food tastes delicious

In my Healthy Body Coaching sessions, I teach my clients how to get the body they want while eating the foods they enjoy. Cutting out the fun and traditional food you enjoy goes against my mantra of keeping food simple, sustainable, and kind. Part of the work involved in keeping these foods in your life is learning how to stop eating when you are full and when the food tastes delicious. 

Why do we overeat delicious food?

It is helpful first to examine why we want to overeat tasty food. I blame the diet industry. Even if you have never tried a diet, you are still exposed to all the marketing that supports this diet culture's way of thinking. Diet culture tells us that to be healthy and achieve our goal weight, we must deprive ourselves of good food. This tactic works in the short term. We go on restrictive diets and we lose weight.  The problem is that we then have no idea how to eat when we are in a situation where we are around “bad”  or “unhealthy” food. We overeat these foods, even if they are planned treats because our mind tells us that we will not get them again. This cycle of deprivation and overindulging disconnects us from our bodies and causes weight gain and distrust in ourselves. 

Three tips to stop eating when food tastes delicious

1. Pause: When you are halfway done eating, pause for a couple of minutes. Put the fork down, take a sip of water, and ask yourself where you are  on the fullness scale. If you are full, stop eating. If you are still hungry, keep going. This skill takes practice, so don’t be hard on yourself if you eat past full. 
2. Look to the future: While you are in your pause, think about how the you in 15 minutes, tomorrow,  or next week would like to feel. Decide whether or not that extra bite or helping will bring you closer to or farther away from how you want to feel. If you know that you will feel overstuffed, bloated, and full of shame if you keep eating, do your future self a solid and stop. 
3. Leave food on your plate: Plan to leave a couple of bites on your plate. No rule says you have to finish everything on your plate. Tell yourself ahead of time that you will leave one or two bites on your plate. This will get you to examine your portions and check in with your body. Question this and see if this is what your body needs.

Keep practicing these tactics. This is how you can learn to eat all the food you want and still feel great.