Eat When You're Hungry?

"Eat when you're hungry?" Olivia asks as she reads over my shoulder.

"Yeah," I say. "Is that when you eat?"

"Well, yes!" she says.

"And when do you stop eating?" I ask.

"When you're full," she responds.

"Do you ever just eat because you like to taste food?" I inquire.

"Well, yeah, I guess. But if you're full you can't keep eating because you get a tummy ache," she reasons.

This is the difference between her and me. I eat when I'm long past full. Or, more accurately, I don't even really know what "full" is because it happens so rarely.

I started thinking about this last night as we were preparing the cheese tray for a party tomorrow. I was cutting ... Muenster, Colby-Jack, Cheddar, Brick ... and they were stacking it all on the platter. I was tossing all the not-so-perfect pieces in my mouth much too frequently. And they didn't sample a single piece, even though I offered.

I wasn't hungry. Just wanted to taste the yummy cheese. (And truth be told, I'd like to go get some right now out of the fridge.)

You've heard all the tricks. Drink a full glass of water before you eat. Eat slowly so your brain starts to register "full" before you have time to shove a whole bunch of food in your face. Can't say any of those things work for me.

So I have a few other strategies:
1. Get up from the table and get away from the food. Throw any nibbly leftovers in the garbage right away.
2. Do something else immediately ... get busy.
3. Eat a lot ... just make sure it's carrots or something similar.
4. Don't keep "snackables" in the house. If they're not here, I can't eat them.
5. If I must snack, I make it a time-consuming production. Count 50 raisins into a little dish. Close up the raisin bag and put it back in the pantry. Carry the dish to the couch. Eat the raisins one by one. If  I want more, I have to do the whole thing again.

Sure would be easier if I could just not eat when I'm not hungry.