My eyes are officially bigger than my stomach

My grandfather used to use the phrase "eyes bigger than your stomach" when we'd go to a buffet and people would pile their plates high with more than they could ever eat. I think this has been an issue for me all my life but especially now and I need to figure out what to do about it.

I'm finding that I have a really hard time, once something is on my plate, leaving it or throwing it away. I have a lot of "but it's wasteful" language running through my head - as well as - "if I don't finish my plate I'll just be hungry in a few minutes and if I throw it away I won't have it." I need to get over this - NOW. Today is my last day with no fluid in my band and I can get away with hell. I can get away with eating way more than I need to be actually satisfied either because I'm not thinking and just finish it automatically or because I intentionally don't want to throw the food out due to the above mentioned thoughts.

I hate wasting things, money especially. And when you buy high quality food, food is money. I also hate the "eat now, hungry in 5 minutes" life that I've lead mostly up to this point. I need to find a balance between having ample healthy snack opportunities (fruit, yogurt, cheese, nuts, note to self: buy these!) and not packing so much food that I feel compelled to overeat to finish it all. I've found the best luck with single serving packets of things like yogurt cups and cheese wedges. And the least luck with stuff I cook at home and bring leftovers of to work. For example, I made tortilla soup a couple of nights ago. It's basically beans, corn, and some shredded beef. It's REALLY good and low calorie and fat, so a perfect meal. But I ran out of small, what I'd call single serving, containers to store it in so I put the rest of the pot into a large tupperware. This morning my eyes were way bigger than my stomach and I brought the whole thing (to be fair, it did fit into a bowl I found in the kitchen even though it seemed like a lot more than should have fit into any bowl...) But I reheated and ate the whole thing for lunch. I probably could have been just as happy with half as much but because I had it, I felt I had to heat it and eat it. It's fine for today but starting tomorrow, with fluid in the band, overeating can be detrimental.

I don't want to have to learn the hard way, by vomiting or otherwise expelling food that I've managed to eat too much of or too fast. The good thing is I'll be on liquids tomorrow and Saturday while the swelling from the saline fill subsides. That won't allow me to overdo it. And if I'm lucky, I'll go back to that major sense of NOT HUNGRY that I felt a few days after my surgery. Wow, that was nice, I hope I'm going back there soon and staying there.