How to stop eating the kids leftovers!

[NopeNopeNopeNot]

I've been trying Paul McKenna's Stopping Emotional Eating which has been a partial success. One of my realisations is that I eat because I am tired/bored and to avoid the feelings that come up later in the day as I'm trying to get my two picky eaters to try their dinner, while starting to feel hungry myself.

When I worked this time of the day was no problem because I was so busy eating wasn't an option. However now I'm exhausted and just tired of trying to entertain and feed the kids when they are at their most tetchy. It's at this point that I tend to just eat their rejected food as it seems a shame to waste it, particularly something like scrambled egg or toast which doesn't reheat well at all and just ends up going in the bin. My mind starts justifying it and my overriding feeling is "I just want to feel better for the next five minutes". It doesn't help that sometimes the only way to get kids to to try a food is to look as though you are eating at yourself. In an ideal world we would do what all the nutrition experts say and eat the same food together as a family but due to food sensory issues with my oldest and the hours DH works that's just not going to happen. I'm also a vegetarian but want the kids to get the meat so cook them a separate dinner.

Worse, I then start on the biscuits because I've been up since 5am, I'm being whinged at continuously and so surely I just deserve to have something to make me feel better. Paul McKenna would have me carry out a meditation technique but I'd love to see him find time to do this amongst the dinner, bath and bedtime routine as I can't remember the last time I went to the toilet with the door closed, let alone closed my eyes for any length of time before they're asleep.

I do also have problems around food waste and eating things to avoid them being thrown away, which is a related issue (sigh). Before I had kids I remember reading in one of Nigella cookbooks that she squeezed washing up liquid over the leftover fish fingers so she didn't eat them herself which sounded nuts at the time but now makes perfect sense.

Does anyone have any insight on how to manage this issue? Has anyone experienced it themselves? All thoughts gratefully received.

You said it yourself - you're starting to feel hungry. You should eat when you're hungry. Fix yourself a little healthy snack of something at the same time as the children are eating their dinner. Put the food compost bin out by the table and when they're finished scrape their leftovers straight into the bin.

this may not be too helpful in these tough times…but I stopped seeing their untouched food as food and put it in the bin with no regrets! I dish out a portion each, including myself even if I will eat it later. Then I say to myself that kids portion is a gonner, it’s either in their tummies or the bin, it’s not there for taking. This approach works for me most of the time x

I used to do this when the dc were younger and I was tired due to them being crap sleepers, I'd eat it without thinking. I'd agree with having a healthy snack yourself when they are eating and stick their left overs straight in the bin/cover in washing up liquid

Put straight in the bin or squirt washing up liquid over then chuck it. It’s as wasteful to over eat as to throw food away.

Do like Nigella 😂

I hate leftovers too, I get the urge to not waste them. There is two things I do now, I plan to eat with the kids so I make my own snack/mini meal or just straight up eat with them if I'm hungry that early, and then with the leftovers I save theirs even if it's soggy scrambled egg or whatever. 9 times out of 10 I bin the leftovers the next day, but it helps me feel like it's less wasteful at the time. Illogical I know but I am playing mind tricks on myself!

I also find cleaning it up ASAP helps. Because once I've scraped the leftovers into the bin and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher there is no temptation anymore. Out of sight out of mind. I think leftovers on plates look like unfinished business, whereas once I've done a quick clear up it looks like the perfect time for a nice cold drink and a moment of peace before they start squabbling over the TV remote