I'd like to thank LW#2 for feeding my anxiety* about people's perceptions of how little I eat. I've had gastric surgery, and between that and a few other issues, I often only eat a few bites of food at a sitting. Even in restaurants, I have to refrain from assuring servers that the food was delicious, I just wasn't very hungry. I know restaurant staff mostly don't care (although I have had a manager or owner stop by the table to ask if everything was okay a few times), but I'm stupidly self-conscious about it, especially in settings where I know someone has worked hard to make something tasty.

*Get it? Feeding my...everyone's a critic.