This may sound super stupid but I just had a realization I thought I'd share:
I was just in my kitchen thinking about this post from earlier today (tl;dr her boyfriend wanted her to eat something he didn't finish so it wouldn't "go to waste") and a lot of the comments were about things I struggle with like feeling guilty for not finishing my plate, enjoying the food I'm eating so not wanting to "waste it." I will say I'm pretty good about leftovers, especially putting food away right after I made it but my problem has been with not putting down or putting away something I'm already eating (something already on my plate) when I feel full or done. For example I'll be eating some chips and I'll see the perfect looking chip and decide I have to eat that one too even though I decided I didn't want anymore, or I'll keep eating a plate of potatoes because those potatoes are cooked just right and I want to eat all the best ones. I was thinking this is an odd behavior when I suddenly realized I've been resource guarding.
Resource guarding is a behavior commonly seen in dogs. For those of you don't know: resource guarding I remember growing up my dad taking food off my plate because "he thought I wasn't going to eat it" or "thought I didn't like that part" (to be fair to my dad I was kind of a picky eater as a kid and would sometimes pick food I didn't like off of my meal, but I'd usually prefer to offer it to him or have him ask first) or my brother devouring every leftover/food item in the fridge. I remember once my brother woke me several times up to tell me he'd eaten the leftover pizza I'd bought (with my money for myself). Being tired and annoyed and figuring it was too late to do any thing I brushed him off and the next day he told me each time he'd woken me he'd only eaten another slice of pizza but he wanted to see if I'd be mad if he ate it all (which he eventually did that night). I was really annoyed because I had made an effort to not overeat the night before and remind myself I'd have leftovers just to have him eat them. Then when I got older I lived with roommates who would eat my food all the time without asking and yes they would often replace it but fake replace it. Once my roommate ate a whole box of my crackers (around $3 but told me he'd buy new ones and bought me a cheap bag of tea biscuits (around $0.50). He even dated a girl for a while who would go into our refrigerator and take my leftovers and eat them (again without asking) or reheat large amounts of (my) food and throw most of it away. He'd occasionally replace food with less delicious or less expensive food items.
I'd also feel guilty for not finishing my plate (my parents would always tell me "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" as a variation on shaming me to finish my plate). I've gotten over that guilt somewhat with trying to be more conscious of how much I put on my plate to begin with and trying to encourage myself to have leftovers. I guess I also got it into my head at some point if I didn't finish eating what I was enjoying now my leftovers would be gone when I wanted them. I didn't realize I was doing it. I'd just look at a food item and think "yeah but that quesadilla is just how I like it so I better eat it now" not "it will still be how I like tomorrow so I can put it away because I'm full." I live with different (better) people (for lots of reasons unrelated to this) who don't steal my food EVER.
I know it sounds dumb and I'm sorry for such a long post but this was a huge realization for me that I will have to keep in mind when eating and storing food for later. I need to remember no one is going to go into our refrigerator in the middle of the night and steal what I am saving for later. I don't know if this is just a "me" problem or if other people have is problem too but I guess I just wanted to put it out there in case other people were subconsciously doing the same thing.
Submitted May 19, 2017 at 02:21AM by nonsenseimsure http://ift.tt/2qwV8a7 loseit
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