CYE Episode 5 : Get Comfortable Wasting Food

Many of us have been programmed from an early age, that it’s not good to waste the food on our plate. On episode 5 this week, I discuss why we should get comfortable wasting food if we want to change our eating habits.

Today, I’d like to share a powerful tool that may really, really help you change your eating habits. That tool is getting comfortable wasting food.

It really helps us in two particular scenarios. One is when you have a full plate of food in front of you and learning to stop at that volume where you feel the best one hour after eating, next day, which typically a palm size of food. And the second scenario is when you’re actually craving some food. You’re seeing something and you bring it home. You want to get comfortable wasting that food after you have enjoyed it.

When I share a tool like this, what I like you to do is go home and try it two to three times and see how it works for you because there’s not one diet that fits all. There’s not one tool that’s going to work for everybody. But this is a very powerful tool that I’ve learned from experience.

Whenever you have tried it a few times, you actually will realize that the subconscious brain really starts doing the work for you, that you begin to really find it easy to eat this portion of food or have what your brain wants, but feel comfortable getting rid of it not coming back to the food and eating it over and over and over.

The first scenario is when you have a plate of food. It’s all delicious and you’re in that one, “This is so good. Let me have one more bite.” But you have realized from self-experimenting, the volume of food that you can eat, which is roughly a palm size for most people, the volume of food that you can eat and really feel optimal one hour after eating.

So you have to have that awareness of that volume that works. But you also have to get comfortable wasting really good food and saying, “I’ve eaten enough. Here, waiter. You can take this plate of food away. Just throw it away.” Do not even worry about taking leftovers home for later.

Once you’ve gotten comfortable wasting food and realized that nothing changes other than how you’re going to feel one hour after you’re eating because the plate of food cost the same, no one’s life improved because you cleaned your plate versus stopping into smaller volume, once you realize that the only thing it really changes is how you feel one hour after eating, you get comfortable just letting them take that plate of food and go throw it in the trash. It will be a big game-changer for you.

The second scenario is when you’re actually craving some food. Often, that would be at the grocery store. Maybe you’re a little bit hungry when it happens.
I’ll show a personal experience because I’ve gotten pretty comfortable wasting food.
I was at the grocery store and I carried some high-end homemade products. There was this amazing apple pie, a big one and it costs $35. I was really craving the apple pie. I knew I didn’t need to eat an entire apple pie, but I wanted it, so I bought it. I took it home. I ate one big piece and then I took the rest and threw it in the trash.

And then an amazing thing happened. Because I’ve tried this many times, I felt really good because I knew at that point that I wasn’t going to go back later that evening and have another piece of pie, maybe the next day, a couple of more pieces of pie – within the few days, eating the whole pie, in which case I would have not felt as good. My body would not be responding in an optimal manner because I ate all that pie.

But by eating one piece, I fully enjoyed. I enjoyed every bit of it, one piece of pie. It wasn’t going to hurt me because our body in our planet tolerates limited pollution very well. Sustained day after day pollution, our body doesn’t handle very well. I was able to do this because I became comfortable wasting food.

I recommend that you try it. Buy one of your favorite foods, bring it home, have one significant serving and throw it in the trash. Try it three times. And then see, next time you’re at the store and you see it and you want it, see if your subconscious brain has made that so much easier to say, “Not today.”

So until another podcast, I’d like you to remember, if you want to feel better today, eat better today.