"Family" Hunger... What's up with this?

Why, oh why, do I alwasy overeat at family gatherings? We sit around the table in front of food more, portions are not a consideration and then we have desert and let it sit in front of us for 1/2 hour. I've got to figure out how to stop this! Last night was lovely, nice extended-family dinner (steaks, potatoes, salad, veggies) and desert (pie, wonderful pie).

At any rate, I didn't eat too much dinner. But then I had 2 fresh, yummy dinner buns AND TWO pieces of saskatoon berry & rhubarb pie. I don't even want to write it all down in my food journal - but I've promised myself to be honest even with 'binges' because I can't fix what I won't recognize. I'll have to chat with my dietitian about how to deal with this.

My idea would be to portion out the food, eat with the group then GET UP AND GO AWAY from the table. Have a cup of tea or something and just relax and visit away from the left-overs. I'm going to try it next time!

For some reason I don't have this problem at restaurants. When I'm done, I'm done and I cover my plate with a napkin and it doesn't taunt me or tempt me into eating anything more because I can't see it. But with family, I don't know... I guess I just let my guard down.

Other ideas anyone?