One of the main struggles I've had with intuitive eating is grappling with the challenge of satiety verses greed. Not only is there an issue with my past (and sometimes present) unhealthy relationship with food, there is also the fact that sometimes I'm just downright greedy.
No emotions involved. No eating disorder getting in the way. No struggle with binge or starve. Just plain, old, simple greed: "I love the taste of this food, so I'm going to eat more, regardless of the fact that I'm no longer hungry."
It is easy to kid yourself that you are not yet full, and therefore want to eat more, because you actually are just being greedy. But it is hard to accept this less desirable trait in ourselves (and sometimes, for me, easier to blame it on something like 'emotional eating').
Linda Moran, author of 'How to Survive your Diet', in her recent blog post Finding Fullness says "Try asking yourself toward the end of a meal, "Am I about eighty percent full?" Eighty percent is a good place to stop. Then do your human best to find approximately 80 percent, and stop eating.
If numbers don't work for you, then ask yourself, "Will this next bite be hunger or greed?" You'll know what to do after that."
This morning I am happy to say that I did leave a full half of my breakfast, because if I'd continued, it would have been entirely out of greed. I hadn't cooked it and I have to admit, I'd have probably cooked half the amount (and would have eaten it all), but I'm glad I didn't carry on regardless.
But this is truly a place that I get stuck at, because I enjoy the taste of food so much and find it very, very difficult to just stop eating very wonderful food.
I'm Andrea, and am obsessed with creating fabulous food. After I managed to ditch dieting, the reason Chocolate and Beyond was born, it seemed natural to evolve my site into a foodie blog. More so since I also ditched animal produce to be vegan. Now, I love showing how inventive cruelty-free cooking can be. And sometimes I like to rant, too. I wouldn't be myself otherwise :) x 
This is a very difficult area - and particularly so for someone who has ever suffered from anorexia and/or bulimia! Sometimes it is obvious when the next bite is going to be from greed - but sometimes the "shoulds" kick in - you start to think "should" I have stopped being hungry by now...will the next bite be greed?... when in fact you know you are still hungry! I suppose the thing is to tune in even more to how your body is feeling - maybe even experiment with pushing the boundaries too far at one meal so you can see what it is like to have been greedy and be feeling a bit sick as a result?
Posted by: Sally Roberts | February 19, 2008 at 12:10 PM
That's a really good point Sally, especially in regard to eating disorders. You highlight the other side of the coin with this - when you know you should eat more and don't do it out of fear.
Posted by: Andrea Wren | February 21, 2008 at 09:27 AM