I think many of us were in the “you have to eat everything on your plate” club. I still eat everything, though I’ve learned to take less and go back if I’m still hungry.
I have found that almost all vegetables are better when roasted. Maybe cucumbers wouldn’t do well with a roast, but most everything else does.
I always ate whatever I liked (but I liked almost everything). And the stupid boring chicken every Sunday but I went vegetarian due to that… And try to tell no to breakfast to your Mom half-asleep when you are a young kid so I had and hated breakfast too in my early times. Mom simply cooked food I ate, there wasn’t ever a pressure. It must be totally awful and oppressive to have that 
And unhealthy, definitely mentally and quite possible physically as well.
I felt spoiled when Mom simply stopped cooking meat when I went vegetarian. She never did the same but her occasional meat eating dropped even more. But we always ate mostly vegetarian food even before, proper meat (well not really, just chicken) was for Sunday.
I lost that maybe on carnivore…? That makes most sense. Until then, I always could eat a ton after getting satiated and clearing my plate was a strong habit. I never would force myself but I didn’t need that. Then meat (without plant carbs) came with its occasional stop sign… Wow. It was something new! Even when it doesn’t happen, it’s another world, stopping is easier and more clear when to do it.
I wouldn’t ever waste food, I don’t plan that to change, I would eat almost any food before I would throw it out (or feed it to my SO. maybe the cats but that’s carni food and I probably can eat that 
but if it’s really bad food, I stop consider it food. I just don’t buy such things). But I don’t need to clear my plate at home for that so it’s no issue. Anyway, I can handle not wasting stuff through not getting too much. It works with food too but I guess normal people can get satiated more suddenly even without carnivore… Still, at home you just put it into the fridge. Or the freezer though that doesn’t work with everything. But if it’s a must, well, unnecessary, harmful, unhealthy eating is a waste of food too, just with extra negative effects… (I STILL would have a big problem with throwing out food. I couldn’t even throw out a half-rotten unripe pear and indeed, it’s very much edible, my SO handles it, I just put it into a jar and pressure can it. Yeah, that’s a good idea for fruit, thankfully, I have a fruit garden and some trees have these intense times…)
I ate brussel sprouts a few times in my life. It’s green and has no special saving grace, I mildly dislike it. I tasted spinach once and hated it so Mom never made it again… We had sorrel (lovely stuff, you sow it once and have it forever and if you never eat any of it, still good. I eat a few leaves per year).
Carnivore made me dislike almost all of my old super big veggie favs so I mostly just think about vegs now. But I still like sorrel as it’s sour and I eat so little sour now… I don’t have dishes to put vinegar into them and I don’t even need much mustard nowadays. I can’t even do much with lemon…
I fried nearly everything 
That does great to most vegs. Some are perfect raw, of course (as long as one doesn’t make a salad from them, I always disliked salads. I loved raw vegs to bits but strongly disliked salads. with a few rare exceptions).
But it had to be some insanely great veg to pull off being tempting when boiled. That was super bland to me even if I liked the simple raw version. But here many vegs (and some other things) are cooked with roux, it’s a major part of our cuisine, I liked those as long as the roux wasn’t too much and a ton of sour cream was used. And vinegar and potentially sugar, depends on the veg. It’s so weird to think about my childhood dishes now. Veg dish with sugar, how insane is that?! But it was tasty back then.
And of course, many vegs can be made into a stew (the normal Hungarian one, fat, onion, paprika, salt and the main ingredient(s). other items are possible but I consider them optional and leave them out personally. except for egg stew, that needs something wet. like tomato puree or sour cream). It’s very common for green peas but cauliflower, cucchini and surely zillion others is a thing too. I never ate those, just the pea one. I fried disks using almost anything Hard to translate to English, I don’t even try. It’s the same as meatballs just with vegs instead of meat. So highly different but the recipe is very similar and we call them similarly to the meaty counterpart as it doesn’t have “meat” in its name here. We just add the name of the veg and all is clear. As it involves frying (and eggs), it’s a tasty option too. Though it depends on the used vegs and the taste of the one in question.
I was taught that you must eat even if you’re not hungry (which caused me to eat when I was bored or for emotional relief) because when I was younger I was really thin and tall, so it frightened my grandmother at the thought I was underweight (I wasn’t, haha). So I was told to eat multiple meals and finish those meals. I’m not shocked that others were taught the same.
But thankfully we can change our taught habits over time if we’re dedicated enough. I still have issues with not finishing my plate because of that and bouts of poverty in my youth which caused food scarcity. I am learning now that feeling satiated and pulling away from the table is okay. But it’s a process for me. Also, I’m feeling much better than before, both mentally and physically.
The last time I wasn’t chubby was maybe when I was 1 year old… I had a good appetite and with carbs, hunger too, no one told me to eat more (except some of my family members. Hungary is big in hospitality and grandmas are famous about wanting or at least preferring their grandkids to eat A TON and more. But any guest works, really. I ate insanely much for my needs but it wasn’t always enough). I overate all by myself, thank you very much. I still do but not all the time.
I am stubborn and a hedonist too so I always had a strong inclination to eat whatever and whenever I fancied. We had money for food, I could cook, Mom was tolerant… At least I had that. I still didn’t learn healthy eating, anything about nutrition and I got used to overeating and sweets at the end of nearly all meals (at least mostly the homemade, nutritious kind, it could have been way worse)… The latter took AGES to get rid of. Now I have desserts in the end of nearly every meal… Coffee with milk or cream works, not always though.
It is a super lucky, rare situation when one has the right dietary environment right from the beginning. Thankfully we can change and learn.
But why is it bad to eat the food a bit later when it will be important? Wouldn’t it make more sense than eating up the precious food unnecessarily…? Of course, that’s for food at home that you can just put into the fridge but in many cases, it works.
There are weirder things than finishing a plate… Once I met a girl who was taught NEVER finishing the plate. She felt compelled to leave 25% of the food, no matter how much she may wanted to eat it. We went to eat pancakes and they were wonderful and somewhat expensive and everyone ate it all up… Except her. We other kids couldn’t wrap our heads around it. It felt highly wasteful and anti-hedonistic to me.
I never tried not to finish my plate as it makes perfect sense for me. If I can eat the food, it’s usually a good idea to do so. Bigger meals keep me satiated longer. I don’t like forcefully stuff myself so I very rarely do so (sometimes on OMAD) but it helps a lot in minimizing my energy intake, something I really, really need. It’s most important for lunch OMAD if I happen to try to do such an unlikely thing…
But normally I can overeat with zero force, it is my normal behaviour even when I try not to, it doesn’t seem to change though it’s way better on the right woe. And a single plate is little food under normal circumstances (just one or two courses of a meal, I typically need more than that), it was almost always easy to finish. Sometimes I wonder how people can eat only one plate of food, I never ate like that. I guess it’s partly cultural differences, partly way smaller amounts per ideal meal, I blame my need for variety too… But some people surely use a big plate full with dense food, I could do that but I can’t put all my 5-6-whatever courses on the same plate easily.
What the precise cause of cardiovascular disease is is still debatable, but what is clearly beyond debate (though people still try to maintain the hypothesis) is that it’s not our cholesterol levels. The best that can be said for cholesterol levels is that they are a marker for problems, much as a thermometer can confirm that you have a fever. However, lowering one’s cholesterol as a means of improving heart health is very much like dipping your thermometer in ice water to make your fever go away!
So congratulations on your gut healing, and don’t worry. Or as we say around here, keep calm and keto on!
Well, eating vegetables is good . . .
. . . well, not maybe for the produce growers, so much, but definitely for the food wholesalers and for Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland!
Our parents’ generation was deeply affected by the Depression. Mom said once, that if they had not been able to grow their own food, they would have starved to death. She was great about not taking large portions, but you did have to eat whatever you took, and that notion still affects me. Wasting food is a sin, right up there with murder, adultery, and taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Even putting it back in the fridge for later seems “wrong,” lol! (Though I’m a lot more sensible than I used to be, and eating a keto/carnivore diet to satiety helps greatly.)
What a concept!
My niece has real trouble with that idea, because she feels deprived at the thought of taking smaller portions, even though her appetite is small. She just can’t see her way past that deprivation to the idea that she can always have more later, if she wants it. The amount of food waste in this house is saddening.
But I understand, because during the decades I was trying to cut back on sugar in my coffee, there were many years when I simply had to take that second dip of the spoon into the sugar bowl, even if that second “spoonful” was only a few grains. By cutting back on the amount in the first spoonful and reducing the second spoonful to a minute amount, I eventually succeeded in re-training myself, but it was not an easy process. I guess that sometimes we have to work with our psychology, rather than trying to contravene it.
I’m still in the clean your plate club, I find it sort of offensive when people take big piles of things and throw them away, unless the food turns out to be an unpleasant surprise (hmm, this chicken is still pink, for example.) In my mind there’s a big difference between taking loads and enjoying every bite, and taking loads just because it’s there and someone else might eat it. I guess it is in part a psychological hurdle and not just selfishness, but it bothers me. Sorry. 
nods For me, totally. (Unnecessary forcing it into ourselves sounds wasting to me too.)
WHAT. It’s perfect! Freedom without wasting food! What is wrong with people thinking THAT! I never heard about this!
This is odd to me. I had times when I got 6 (small) bowls of food per meal (and it was just one course, I always had several (but at least multiple) course meals) and the knowledge of having more food to eat if I need it was enough… It’s even nicer when I don’t know how much I would want to eat… But people are different. I am fine with people putting a lot of food into their plates - as long as they don’t throw it out. That’s painful and I can’t help wishing some harder times on those people, to learn appreciating food… I almost never had hard times food wise, I just hate wasting food, energy, even human resources sometimes… Optimizing is my game, I was a hypermiler when I could afford a vehicle (and that was a motorbike. very few bikers do it and I rode mine purely for fun… but hypermiling is fun. if we don’t overdo it).
I actually tend to waste food but it’s through eating it. I don’t need that much.
Very true. We all need our own mind games to ease the journey (or in some cases, make it possible).
Ouch that’s a special horrid case of food wasting
I don’t tend to take more food than what I can eat but it’s easy for me as I can eat quite a lot. Still, I prefer taking some and going back later if needed. Especially when I am unsure if I will like it.
Just wanted to clarify, I don’t think it’s about someone intentionally thinking about other people and wanting to deprive them, more a case of just not thinking beyond oneself - “I might want more of this and it might be gone so I’ll take an extra three pieces just in case.”
That issue springs up at buffets all the time. When I was a kid, my mother told me that at a buffet you shouldn’t worry about the food disappearing and not being refilled, so take your time and only take what you know you can consume. But I used to see people take massive amounts of food and put it on their plates without leaving anything for the next person in line. And remember the idiom, “Eyes are bigger than our stomachs.”
Still has a nasty too selfish part… I usually think about leaving some for others (not always, it depends on the circumstances) and I am quite selfish as one should be… (Actually, leaving for others is an act of selfishness too, it’s very hard to do something not selfish, normal people do things they like. Or the result. Or the feeling.)
Some people act way too selfish when it comes to food. Once I was left hungry because people with a “normal” diet ate up all the little vegetarian food that was my only option… The thing was ordered specifically for the vegetarians, there wasn’t much of it. That wasn’t nice. But I went home later and it’s not like I couldn’t easily fast for some more hours, it was more like feeling miffed about the selfish people who ate my food when they had their own multiple options and I hadn’t.
I’m not a carnivore, I do standard Keto - but - I OFTEN eat meals without any vegetables. 
It’s actually a lot easier and stress free! Tasty too. There is no way eating only meat at a meal and on a regular basis is going to affect your cholesterol in a way that puts you at any risk. Most carnivores don’t eat vegetables with their meals. Besides, how does the presence of vegetables change the impact of the meat?
This will be a myth you need to overcome. It’s hard at first, recognizing the train of logic stuck in our brains that instinctively impact how we think about something, and then debunk it. Well they all have been properly debunked by science already, but we need to reprogram our own minds. We think like we do because we trusted them (government, medical institutions, schools, doctors,) and let them program how we thought using their propaganda.
Whenever I catch a thought in my head leading me to feel or act in a specific way, I always ask myself what proof do I have to back up what I am thinking. Usually it always leads to “that’s what I’ve been taught or told”. That’s when I research for myself before continuing to think that way. You’ll have a LOT of that over the next year. Eventually it gets easier.