Half portions

Ordering the half portion feels like the responsible move. Same dish, smaller plate, take the win.

It does help with some things. Less food means fewer calories and less saturated fat. But it rarely fixes sodium. Half of a very salty dish is still a salty dish, and sodium is the number I was trying to fix in the first place.

So I stopped using the size of the plate as my fix. I choose the dish instead. A plain protein with vegetables and the sauce on the side beats half of something swimming in it.

The bonus: once the right dish is in front of me, I can eat all of it. No guilt, no doggy bag, no doing maths at the table.

And if I'm still hungry after a sensible plate, that's not a failure. Eating enough matters too, and I learned that one the hard way as well.