Never clean your plate

Now I know that it's not the way that I grew up. I grew up on a farm in Missouri and we were told always to clean our plate. And as my brother and I were both big strapping farm boys we were prone to eating huge portions and taking 2nds and 3rds as well. To which my father always reminded us, "Take all you want. But eat all you take." The idea being that we shouldn't let our eyes commit us to things our stomachs weren't able to live up to. (And just for the record - our stomachs never had a problem).

Now - some years later - I'm no longer 16 and even though I think I can eat like a horse I don't burn through the food near as fast - and that means that I gain weight. There are many aspects to this phenomenon - but one of them is definitely the "clean plate" mantra.

When eating out at a restaurant - and this is all the more true in the US - the portions can be huge. This shows up in everything from super-sized fries to bottomless cups of coffee and deserts with names like Death-By-Chocolate (a personal favorite of mine from Benigans)... the list goes on. Every plate mounded, piled and heaped to the absolute brim.

And what would I do? I'd eat it all. And sometimes I still do. And when I eat it all it makes me feel bloated and over full and genearally unwell. But that didn't stop me of course. Because I must clean my plate and eat all I take.

John was a fat kid - but he lost the weight...

My brother John was a fat kid for years. It seemed that there was nothing that he could do to lose the weight. And at the same time there was nothing that he wouldn't eat. If John got a plate of food he always cleaned his plate. Until one day when it dawned on him, "You don't have to eat it all."

"I don't?! I don't have to eat it all. I can stop when I'm full."

But how do I know when I'm full?

Stopping when he was full. This was a concept that John had never experienced before. Full. Hrmm... What did it mean to be full? How did that feel? How would he know when he was full? And what would he do about the general mandate to clean your plate.

John had an idea. Starting today he would leave at least one bite of every dish on his plate... just one bite. Starting today he would never again clean his plate. And if he always had something left on his plate then maybe - just maybe - he would start paying attention to how hungry he was and not whether or not the plate was clean.

Dirty plates -- Ewwwwwww

Ok - so that's what we get in restaurants. Wasted food and lots of people sitting around saying "Tsk Tsk" - but hold on a minute - I didn't serve up these portions. And if I'm eating at home I go back to Dad's old mantra, "Take all you want but eat all you take." -- and I'm working harder than ever never to let my eyes commit me to something my stomach (or at the very least my belt) can't live up to.

So many of the things that I learned as kid are great lessons that served a purpose when I was a kid. And now that I'm no longer 12 I need to re-evaluate these lessons. Do they still apply. Do I need to adjust them for my life today? Are there some I need to discard? Maybe this posting isn't about cleaning my plate at all - maybe it's more about challenging all those things that John and I learned growing up.

The next time you find yourself reciting some old addage or mantra from your childhood - take a moment and ask yourself does it still make sense for me today? Should I still always clean my plate?


Until next time - be well,


Troy