OP can you ask your spouse to help?

For example after you cook, can you ask him to clear the table and put away or throw away the leftover food? It’s helpful if you don’t have to do that — at least in the beginning.

After I had kids I had to train myself to stop finishing their leftovers, so I get it. My rule was that I was only allowed to eat the food on my plate. Pretty soon I started making the kids smaller plates and giving them more if they were still hungry.

I also have an avoidance of food waste. We put ours in reusable containers and eat them for lunch or dinner later. All of us enjoy eating leftovers.

Anonymous wrote:I'm op, thank you to all who posted kind wishes. It helped me to type this out and see anonymous perspectives.

I like the CBT tip. Whatever cooking/meal strategy I do and as I lose the weight, I will forever hate the food waste. We still have a lot of it now in my opinion.

You need to buy less food.

OP, what food do you consider not conducive to leftovers? Almost anything can be reused somehow. I totally understand your difficulty because I used to try to finish a meal if what was left when I was full was “not enough to be worth saving” which was not good for my weight. I’ve tried to get more creative about what I do with my leftovers so I can reuse almost everything. Eg: leftover bacon -> quiche Lorraine; French toast -> bread pudding; fried eggs -> fried rice. (I’m using breakfast food because you mentioned ended up with unwanted breakfast in the OP.)

Do you have an area, such as a basement or garage where you can keep a secondary refrigerator? That is a good place for the tupperware with extra food, so you are not faced with it until clean-out time or when you specifically think of it. It will not be so in-your-face every time you need to do meal prep in the kitchen.

I'm op, thank you to all who posted kind wishes. It helped me to type this out and see anonymous perspectives.

I like the CBT tip. Whatever cooking/meal strategy I do and as I lose the weight, I will forever hate the food waste. We still have a lot of it now in my opinion.

Anonymous wrote:The food is just as “wasted” if you’re eating it when you don’t need nutrition and it’s harming your health. In that case, it’s better off in the trash. You eating it is not “using” it.

This is my mindset. It ends up as “waste” anyway but if I don’t eat it at least it doesn’t deposit extra weight on me before it ends up down the toilet. Just skip the middle step (your body) and throw it away immediately.

I just eat the leftovers the next day for breakfast. No need to eat it right away.

Sounds like you maybe need to cook smaller amounts. If it's too little, people can fend for themselves. Also, you should ask your family to support your weight loss. Is there no other adult that could have cooked that large breakfast?

I also hate food waste. My workaround is to eat after the kids, so if I’ve had a bunch of their sandwich crusts or whatever I just make myself less lunch.

Don’t eat off other people’s plates. Ever. Period.

The food is just as “wasted” if you’re eating it when you don’t need nutrition and it’s harming your health. In that case, it’s better off in the trash. You eating it is not “using” it.

Cbt could help.

I put everything in tupperware to save and then don't eat it, but the immediate impulse to consume is delayed. Once it's been in the frig 3 days I no longer want that half whatever.

Also, our dog is a good wastebasket.

I feel you.

My weight is right now in the mid-24 BMI range, so hovering just under 25 which would be technically overweight.

I am tall and my ideal weight has been about 30 lb lower than the weight I am now. I was on medication that is known to cause weight gain and did, but now a lower dose and I should be able to control the weight.

I am big on exercise, it's the food unfortunately.

I sometimes eat out of boredom or because food tastes good, but another big issue is that I abhor food waste, probably based on formative life experiences. I am good at incorporating leftovers to avoid food waste, but not every food is conducive to this. This ends up as a big issue for me.

This morning I ate well and stopped early. Then the rest of my family wanted me to cook a big breakfast for them and I ended up eating what they didn't end up eating, which I wouldn't have done if I lived alone. This is my problem.

Anyone been there? Just wanted to get that out.