Food For Thought

Before I begin, a gentle note:

If you have a history of disordered eating or a difficult relationship with food or your body, this article may not be for you.

For those who genuinely enjoy food (I’m one of them), consider this gentle food for thought .

Oversized Portions Have Become Normalized

Oversized portions are now deeply embedded in our culture.

It’s entirely possible to buy a week’s worth of calories—small enough to fit in your pocket—for under $10 while standing in line at a dollar store.

Portion sizes have steadily increased since the 1970s. Dinner plates, for example, have grown from roughly 9 inches in the 1950s to about 12 inches today.

In general, we simply eat more food than our bodies need.

Reconnecting With Satiety

“Mindful eating” is a term that gets tossed around a lot, but at its core, it simply means checking in with your body during meals to notice fullness.

Knowing when you’ve had enough requires tuning in—and that takes practice.

For me, satiety shows up as a very subtle sensation of pressure just below my sternum. If I’m distracted or eating quickly, I miss it entirely.

Repeated dieting, restricting, and ignoring hunger cues weakens the mind–body connection. The good news? That connection can be rebuilt.

Aiming for “Just Enough”

A helpful target for many people is eating until you’re about 80% full.

Digestion requires a surprising amount of energy. Consistently overeating taxes the body and can leave you feeling sluggish rather than nourished.

Simple Practices That Support Portion Control Without Dieting

Small, intentional habits can make a big difference:

Pausing between bites
Chewing thoroughly
Setting utensils down while eating
Avoiding distractions like driving, screens, or TV
Practicing gratitude for your food and the effort it took to prepare it
Limiting highly processed foods engineered to be hyper-palatable and addictive

These practices help you listen to your body instead of eating based on taste, habit, or conditioning.

Satiety is a quiet whisper—easy to override. Hunger, on the other hand, is a roar.

The “Clean Plate Club”

Speaking of conditioning—are you part of the clean plate club?

I was (and still catch myself sometimes).

Do you feel compelled to finish everything on your plate in the name of “not wasting food”?

Cleaning your plate—and everyone else’s—has never solved world hunger. Learning to stop when you’ve had enough takes awareness and practice.

A Note on Skipping Meals

I am not advocating skipping meals—ladies, I’m talking to you.

Skipping meals, particularly breakfast, is one of the most common patterns clients report when they come to me with weight gain or low energy.

Skipping breakfast often leads to overeating later in the day and perpetuates the cycle of feeling out of control around food.

And to be very clear: mindful portion awareness is not the same as undereating or restriction. If you are anywhere on the spectrum of disordered eating, this distinction matters.

Why Tracking Makes a Difference

Whatever small changes you decide to experiment with, track them.

Whenever we shift habits, the pull to return to old patterns is strong. Tracking makes progress visible.

Many clients make meaningful changes—but because progress happens gradually, they don’t notice it and give up too soon. Tracking helps reinforce that your efforts are paying off.