I cut the crusts off my kids' sandwiches and I keep eating them

This is the cousin of the “one bite while cooking” thread lol. Pating mine first helped me too.

Cafe owner here, and the standing-up bites are my nemesis. I used to call it “quality control” at work and “not wasting food” at home.

What finally clicked: I put a tiny bowl next to the cutting board and all crusts/leftover bits go in it. If I want them, I sit down with that bowl.

Usually seeing a bowl of cold crusts kills the urge. If not, I eat them, but they’re on the log.

Do you think it’s the crusts themselves or the 5:45 chaos that gets you? For me it’s 100% the chaos.

Ah, the crust tax. There was a long thread on here a while back about “standing calories,” and it changed how I handle this: I keep a tiny bowl on the counter, and anything I eat while serving goes in it, then I log it after dinner.

If it doesn’t fit in the bowl, it goes straight in the bin. Boring, but it killed the 9pm cupboard amnesia for me.

Question: now that your own bowl is on the table beforehand, are you actually sitting down to eat it, or still nibbling through the kids’ meal and eating yours cold later? That was the real switch for me.

Not dismissing the crust thing, but have you actually weighed or logged the standing-up bites for 2–3 days? I did that after swearing cold macaroni “didn’t count,” and kid leftovers plus crusts plus a few crackers was often 250–350 calories. It made the after-bedtime cupboard feel less mysterious.

What helped me was a physical barrier: scrape plates straight into the bin before sitting down, then eat my own bowl at the table. If you’re up for specifics, what’s your 5:45pm fallback when you’re too tired to make yourself a separate meal?

Standing up is a cheat code the ledger always audits anyway.

the standing-up loophole is the biggest lie I tell myself too 😅

The standing-up loophole is so real. I started photographing my plate before I eat, and if I’m nibbling while prepping, I put a few of those bites on the plate too—just to see them. It was humbling: three crusts + cold macaroni was basically a snack.

Not saying track every bite forever, but it helped me separate “I’m hungry” from “I’m in motion.” Gentle question: when you put your bowl down first, do you actually get to eat warm food, or do you end up up/down anyway? If so, maybe the issue is pacing, not willpower.

Hi! Also new here and guilty of the crust tax — you're not alone 😅

oof, the standing-up loophole. I did that with grilled cheese edges and leftover peas for years. One thing that helped: I kept a tiny notebook on the counter and just tallied every bite I took while prepping or serving.

Didn’t change anything at first, but seeing “Tuesday: 11 bites before I sat down” was humbling. Then I started chewing gum while I cut crusts—not noble, just enough to break the hand-to-mouth autopilot.

Curious: when you put your bowl down first, did you actually sit and eat it, or did the crusts still win? I’m back after regaining too, so no lecture, just comparing notes.

I did the crust-and-cold-macaroni thing for years. What finally helped wasn’t tracking every bite—it was changing the setup.

Now, when I’m packing lunches, I keep a little bowl of cucumber or grapes at my spot and a compost bowl for the crusts. If I’m going to nibble, it’s a real portion, sitting down, not a standing tax.

Empty nest now, but I still catch myself “cleaning up” the counter. Do you eat your own dinner at the table with them, or after?

That timing was everything for me.

I feel this so hard. My weird trick was a “garbage bowl” on the counter—any bite I sneak while cooking or clearing goes in there first. If I still want it after the kids are seated, it goes on my plate and I log it. Most nights I don’t

ngl night shift here. The crusts aren't the problem.

It's the no-plate, no-memory eating. I started making a small plate for myself at the same time as theirs—same food, plus protein—and eat it standing at the counter if I have to. Still counts.

Log it before I sit down or I forget. Then I brush my teeth right after their bedtime. Kills the cupboard wander.

Sharp question: when you eat the crusts, are you hungry or just touched-out and overstimulated? For me it was mostly the second one. Track which it is for a week.

Pre-plating your own bowl is the right variable to isolate. What fixed it for me: make plate-up a separate task from kid-feeding.

Crusts get cut at 4:30, before anyone's hangry, and go straight into a lidded container that isn't mine. If I'm still nibbling during the 5:45 chaos, that's not hunger, it's hand-motion residue — so I swith to a seltzer or gum until my bowl is physically in front of me.

A standing bite isn't a moral failure, it's just untracked data. Question: does the pre-plate version survive the nights dinner runs late, or does it collapse the second the schedule slips?

I call it the toddler tax and my brain still rounds it to zero 😅

Empty-nester here, so not the same circus, but I had a standing-up habit with cooking scraps. The one thing that helped: a designated “trash bowl” on the counter.

Crusts and cold mac go straight there before I sit; if it’s not on my plate, it’s not a bite. I also plate my own small portion first now.

Does the pre-plated bowl actually get you to sit, or do you still bounce up for refills?

Budget student here, so my “kids” are my roommate’s abandoned pizza crusts and whatever the dining hall left out. I started keeping a tiny pre-dinner bowl—cottage cheese + hot sauce, or microwave lentils—on the table before I touch anyone else’s food.

If I’m standing, it’s water only. Sounds stupid, but it turned the crusts back into cardboard.

Is it the crusts themselves, or the ten minutes of chaos where you never get to sit down? Because for me it was 100% the chaos, and the crusts were just the closest thing to hold.

standing-up calories don't even make it to the app, they just go straight to the hips 😅

I did the crust math once out of spite. Four dinners, saved the cut-offs in a deli cup, weighed it: 118 g bread crust + 64 g cold mac = ~430 kcal for the week.

My trendline: when I logged that as “kitchen tax” instead of pretending it was zero, after-bedtime pantry trips dropped from 5/7 to 2/7. Not magic, just honesty. Sharp question: are you pre-plating your own food before you start serving them, or after?

Because if I wait until everyone’s seated, I’ve already eaten 100–150 kcal standing up and my spreadsheet lies to me.

I’m in a tiny town too, and the 5:45 scramble is real. What finally helped me was realizing I wanted the crunch, not the crust.

I keep a little dish of mini cucumbers and a few almonds on the counter where I make the sandwiches. If I’m going to nibble while prepping, it’s that.

The crusts go straight in the trash, not the compost, because I’ll dig them out. Sharp question: are you actually hungry then, or just overstimulated and needing something to do with your hands?

Naming that made the after-bedtime cupboard way less loud for me.