Need Help Stopping When You're Full?

Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you're full. And love yourself. That was my vision for all my readers when I started this website five years ago. Pretty simple stuff, yet extraordinarily complicated for anyone who has spent time restricting food, eating emotionally or teaching themselves how NOT to listen to their bodies.

So I thought I'd share one little technique that I find useful to help me remember to stop eating when I'm full. Yes, I even need reminders sometimes too. A setting where I need some help is at one of my favorite burger joints: The Stand. Eating just half a burger usually leaves me feeling a bit hungry, and yet eating a whole burger generally leaves me feeling too full.

So when I'm really mindful while eating a meal at The Stand, I will cut my burger in half, eat the first half, and then cut the second half in half again. Doing so reminds me midway through the second half to put my fork (or burger) down and check in with my fullness signals. Unless I've arrived at the restaurant absolutely ravenous, I generally find that 3/4 of the burger is just right for me. I'm no longer hungry, yet not too full. I feel just about right.

I'm not sure why cutting the burger helps me out in this setting, but it does. Somehow it just forces me to check in with myself so I don't mindlessly eat that last 1/4 of the burger just because it's there. PLEASE NOTE: this technique is all about helping me stop eating when I'm comfortably full. It's not a diet-y mechanism (please, I hope you know that about me by now), but rather a way to help me end my meal at just the right spot.

When we were at The Stand a few weeks ago, I took this picture to show you what I left on the table at the end of the meal. It was just right, and I was so glad I cut that second half in half.