It's ok to not finish it....

I got an email from my Mom this week that said:

"I made an apple cake today because the picture on the recipe looked so wonderful, but it wasn't that great. I thought of you and thought Jenny would tell me it's not worth it, so I threw it away. Thank you!!!!!"

This was one of the hardest things for me to learn, how to not finish my plate. I was raised to clean my plate, in fact we would always be pushed to finish all the food in the serving dishes "so the sun will shine tomorrow!", one of my Mom's favorite sayings. It wasn't until recently that I figured out you don't have to eat things you don't want, this includes foods that aren't as good tasting as they look, as well as things that just aren't your favorites. And you don't have to eat it all. You don't even have to take the rest home. You can skip things you don't like, and you CAN waste food.

I can go out to eat now and not eat something if it's not that great. I can leave the fries on my plate and skip the chips altogether. I can not eat the bread or the appetizer. I can order something I do enjoy and then only eat some of it. And then pay for it and leave. I don't take doggie bags, and I don't freeze a bunch of unhealthy left overs for later. I keep most unhealthy foods out of my house. This philosophy has helped me become a healthier person.

Everyone has a favorite food. Brad's is potato chips and jelly belly's. He also loves bread. My favorites are peanut butter and icing. I can take a pass on most restaurant foods. I don't crave pizza or pasta. I could care a less about burgers and fries. So what I have found to work for me is to eat healthy most of the time, and then splurge occasionally on what I really love. This means for my birthday I didn't go out to dinner. Instead Brad bought me my favorite Price Club white cake with white icing with the giant icing roses, and that was my breakfast lunch and dinner on my birthday. And it was perfect. I ate giant pieces and then we threw the rest away at the end of the day. Every year at Christmas I look forward to my stocking stuffer - one jar of peanut butter. I immediately take out the long iced tea spoon and open the jar. I eat it directly from the jar, and I eat the whole jar typically in one or two days. :0)

It would be better for me if I could learn how to not eat a whole jar of peanut butter or a giant piece of cake. And one day I will. But for now, what has worked for me is to stand my ground on not eating a bunch of unhealthy food that I really don't like. It's still hard for me to buy a cupcake and throw it away if it's no good. But I'm getting better. Each day I figure new things out that work for me, and slowly one day at a time I am finding my way to healthy happiness. Until then I look forward to giant pieces of cake and jars of peanut butter a few times a year, and that keeps me on track eating good and working out most days of the week.

Now, if I could only figure out how to make peanut butter icing........