“I’m Cleaning My Plate Because Children Are Starving in Africa…”and Other Terrible Excuses to Overeat

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

After weight loss surgery, eating right involves fighting a lot of temptations. You pay constant attention to make sure you choose nutritious, low-calorie foods and don’t eat too much. You probably manage to eat right most days, but for many weight loss surgery patients, you slip up occasionally. Often, it’s for an unnecessary reason, such as letting your guard down and forgetting to monitor your portion size, or feeling pressure from someone else to overeat.

Following are some of the common reasons why people overeat. Each is a bad reason to overeat, yet you might catch yourself using it as an excuse. Thinking about these reasons can help you recognize when you’re about to use them as an excuse to overeat, and hopefully help you resist.

“Children are starving in Africa.”

Yes, they are. There are also starving children in Asia, and in South America. It is extremely sad that hundreds of millions of children are starving. Do you know how many of them you will help if you clean your plate instead of throwing the extra food away? Zero.

When you serve yourself extra food, you have three choices for the extras.

1. Throw them away.
   
2. Use your body as a trash can, and eat them.
   
3. Store them in the fridge and eat them later.
   

None of these options helps to feed starving kids, and you hurt yourself if you choose the option to use your body as a trash can. What’s the point? If you’re really so eager to be in the “Clean Plate Club,” serve yourself less to begin with. And if you want to help starving children in Africa, make a donation using the money you save by not eating as much.

“I only get to eat this once a year.”

Everyone has a few annual favorites. Maybe your aunt makes a Thanksgiving pecan pie from your great-grandmother’s secret recipe, your mom has baked you the same triple chocolate fudge cake for your birthday since you were five years old, or your annual trip to the coast wouldn’t be complete without a crab sandwich from a family restaurant that’s been in business for decades.

That’s great! There’s no reason not to enjoy your special treat unless, of course, it gives you dumping syndrome or threatens to stick in your band. But you don’t need 10 servings. One serving is enough. Even if you only get the chance to eat the dish once a year, you’re not going to make it last any longer by cramming in more servings. Plus, the guilt from eating too much just isn’t worth it.

Serve yourself one small portion, and savor every bite. Think about the taste of the food, how it feels in your mouth, and what memories it brings to mind. Then think about how good it feels to be in control of yourself and able to enjoy the single serving instead of planning how soon you can go and serve yourself more without people noticing.

“I made it just for you!”

You invite your parents over for dinner, and your mother-in-law brings a container of freshly baked red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. You loved it when she brought these cupcakes over, until you got weight loss surgery a few months ago and told everyone that you just can’t eat these kinds of Desserts anymore.

Everyone has situations like this, whether it’s a loving parent who shows his love by feeding you, or a friend who brings you a box of gourmet chocolates from a vacation in Belgium. You can tell them a million times that you don’t eat that way, but they just don’t seem to get it.

You can feel trapped when you’re faced with your old, high-calorie favorite foods. What can you say and do without offending anyone and without letting yourself down?

These are a few options.

• “Thanks, but I can’t eat that anymore. The sugar could make me sick, and I’d rather stay healthy and get to spend the afternoon with you instead of in bed.”
  
• “Thanks, but I can’t eat that. My doctor told me I can’t have doughy foods because they can cause problems with my lap-band.”
  
• “That was so kind of you to bring me this candy from your trip! You know how much I love this kind, but I can’t eat it right now. It’s so sugary that I could end up feeling sick. Thank you, though!”
  
• “Thanks, but I’m not hungry right now. It sure looks good, though. You really put a lot of effort into making it!”
  

If you’ve tried your best to make people understand that you don’t want their high-calorie treats but they keep pressuring you to indulge, you can tell a little white lie. You can tell them that maybe you’ll have some later even if you don’t intend to.

Sticking to your diet takes a lot of thought and caution. As soon as you stop being so careful, you’re likely to overeat. If you’ve been using these absurd excuses as a reason to eat food you know you shouldn’t, it’s time to admit it and figure out how to overcome temptation.

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

Great article. My dog loves my band almost as much as I do.

[Beni 1,484]

I saved a great number of children in Ethiopia by finishing my meals. I recall a particularly gnarly incident were I had to sit at the table, for what seemed like hours, to finish a plate my grandmother had filled to the brim at some family gathering at her house. My tummy hurt but I HAD to finish it.

[thesuse2000 698]

Can you imagine if people in communities suffering from starvation/malnutrition said to their children - Don't eat all of that! There are obese children in America!

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

My sister-in-law is Chinese and she had to clean her plate, too.

[WL WARRIOR 690]

I am guilty of using my body as a trash can. My problem with obesity started with the birth of my son 9 years ago. He has always been a very picky eater, which is quite the opposite of myself because I love almost all types of food. The rule in our home is that he has to take at least one bite when presented with new and different types of food. Only 20% of the time will he keep eating past that first bite. There would be times that I put the rest of it in the fridge for leftovers, however, sometimes it gave me an excuse to have a 2nd helping and overeat. I was raised to think that dumping perfectly good food in the trash was some kind of character flaw. Even though I grew up and realized it wasn't true, I still had a hard time doing it.

Just this week, I gave my son a Cereal bar to eat and he didn't like it after taking one bite. I had my sleeve Oct. 6 and have stayed on track throughout my pre op and post op liquid diet. I've even lost 30 pounds already.

When he handed back the uneaten Cereal bar, I almost had a knee jerk reaction to start munching on it. I realized that I needed to throw it away immediately. I tossed it on top of the pile in the trash can and realized that I might as well push it further down the pile into the coffee grounds so that there would be no way of recovering it. It was then when my hands were deep down in the trash that I had a moment of deja vu. I actually did the same thing 13 years ago with prescription Vicodin that I had become addicted to after 14 months of use. It made me realize that I am now overcoming an addiction just like I did 13 years ago. I did it then and I an do it again. I just have to make my next addiction a healthy one.

[☠carolinagirl☠ 18,721]

alex i cleaned my plate because i wanted too

and went back for 3rds, 4ths until it was all gone..GLUTTON

that is the truth...now my WLS wont allow me to do that

so now since i cant do that (clean a plate eat a lot (which is what i did)

you dont get up to a BMI of 62 by eating a small side salad btw

i make sure i eat good things for me (lean Proteins, veggies/fruit)...i do not deprive

but let my WLS of choice say when i am done...(*it tells you if you listen*)

great post my friend

[MsUjima 109]

Don'r forget the starving children in the United States.