Clean your plate
Did you get told that there were starving kids in Africa that would love the food on your plate??? (I wonder if younger generations are told another country? I would love to hear what country you were told)
I was too scared of my parents to talk back to them, but I have heard plenty of stories of audacious children who suggested to their parents that the starving kids could have the food!! It is probable that these children have grown into adults that don’t feel the need to eat everything in front of them, but for the rest of us, we have been well and truly taught that it is wasteful to not eat everything on your plate.
Then the programing was further instilled when we were promised dessert if we finished all the main course. If we didn’t finish it all then, there was no dessert.
Or maybe you were programed by your siblings. There was only so much food at dinner and if you didn’t get your portion quickly then there wasn’t much left. And if you were slow to eat, they were eyeing off your portion.
Or it might be that you really didn’t have much food at times and so when there was food available you made sure you ate your fill and more.
And then we were raised by parents or grandparents who had experienced things like the depression and WW2 and they had been well trained to not waste anything and so taught us the same message. My grandmother would save every piece of paper that came into the house. When we were cleaning her house out after she died, there were exercise books from my younger school days that she had saved for the paper!!! She saved everything from old containers to milk bottle tops. And food was never wasted – EVER!!
Each of these scenarios and I am sure there are others too, taught you to eat everything that was on your plate and to not waste anything. And we are still obeying our parents. No matter how full we are we must finish everything on our plate.
I have even eaten things that I don’t like the taste of, because I couldn’t throw it away.
I am sure there were times in history when this was the way things were. Plenty of stories from the past talk about people eating things that are mouldy, drinking water that was muddy or unpleasant to taste, and we even hear stories of people looking for food in waste bins.
But this is not us. We have the opposite problem.
There is an abundance of food everywhere. Our fridge is full. Our pantry is overflowing, and when we go out to a restaurant, the serving sizes are twice the size we need.
But the programing is there.
We can’t be wasteful.
You might never get this yummy food again.
If you don’t eat this, someone else will.
You never know when you will need the food in the cupboard.
You want to make sure you have enough in the cupboard, in case you get visitors.
How can you break this programing?
First step is to become aware of the internal programs.
Can you remember what was said to you when you were a child?
Can you remember what your grandparents said about their lives?
What thoughts and feelings do you get when you throw out food?
Can you leave some of your dinner on your plate?
Do you stop eating when you are just a little bit full, before you are stuffed?
Second step is to feel the feelings around eating less.
A good experiment:
Cook your favourite food, and enjoy ½ of it, and then throw away the other ½
What feelings come up?
Are you mad at me for even suggesting it?
Go deeper and hear what the voices inside you are saying.
Can you hear your parents and grandparents?
Can you hear society telling you to not waste?
I do not enjoy cooking so for me it is about wasting all that time and energy as well as the money. I have a strong program about wasting time. I hate to sit around waiting for things to happen. I hate to do anything I think is a waste of time. And this is all tied up with the belief that you have to work hard. Lazy is not acceptable. You need to always be doing and achieving. Again, a program from my grandmother who had a very strong impact on my life.
Learning how to balance my life with relaxation and enjoyment has been a big challenge.
Learning to sit and enjoy food and relax around meals has been a learning process.
Once you have identified your thought patterns and beliefs and your feelings around this, then time to tap on those thoughts.
For me this would be tapping on the belief that I have to work hard all the time. That I can’t waste anything. That I am allowed to enjoy food and enjoy time eating. I am allowed to go out to eat. I am allowed to spend money on things that I could easily make at home.
For me, one of the valuable tapping techniques is thanking my grandmother for how well she looked after me. For recognizing her successes and the sacrifices she made for me. She did work hard. She did sacrifice. She was very frugal with everything. I can recognize that she did this out of love for me and her desire to have stability in her life when she had started life with so little.
As we recognize the sacrifices and thank her for this, we are healing her wounds, and in the process, we will heal ours. It is very powerful.
This intergenerational healing can be done around food, work, health, money, and relationships.
Give it a try in your life and if you would like to discuss how to do this in your life, book in a free call with me here: https://kaybayly.as.me/askmeanthing