Setting Apart the Winners

As soon as I saw that Hilary had joined our Challenge, I knew I wanted to ask her to share a some of her expertise and knowledge with us! I knew she'd majored in nutrition in college and that her professional knowledge far exceeds my personal trial and error knowledge! 

I was even more stoked when she said she wanted to post on portions, and I LOVE her attitude and approach! This is an awesome post! I'm excited to be sharing it with you guys today! Thanks Hil!!

Hi guys! I am actually so excited to be posting on this subject. In my opinion, portion control is what sets the winners apart from the losers as far as weight loss and maintenance are concerned. Once you can grasp portion control, “dieting” becomes soooooo much easier. You no longer feel restricted and you realize that you really CAN have ice cream, cake and brownies…..just not every day. ☺

One important note on portion control is that while we all know there is a limit to how much sugary deliciousness we should be eating, there should also be a limit to some of the healthy foods we eat as well. For example, almonds are great for you, but not the whole bag. Steak can be an excellent source of iron, Vitamin B, protein, magnesium, the good kind of cholesterol and calcium, but when it takes up your whole plate, it’s not a great choice. The only food that (in my opinion) you can NEVER have too much of is vegetables. Other than that, there is a limit and you need to know your limit in order to be successful. 

Here are a few printables that I feel explains portion sizes very well, and I like the visual they provide. I encourage you to print these out and leave them in your kitchen. Put them on your fridge so when you’re making your meals you have a visual as to how much you should be serving!

Once you see what a serving should be, you need to know how many servings of that item you should/can have each day. Again, I use a printable to keep this fresh in my mind. The MyPyramid tells you how many servings of grains, veggies, fruits, and protein you should be eating in one day. If you go to choosemyplate.org, you can get a custom MyPyramid that is set up for your goals, although the one I have added is pretty general and a good baseline.

Once you’ve got a good grasp on how big a portion is and how many you should be having you’re well on your way to practicing great portion control! Here are 6 quick tips that will help you exercise better portion control:

1. Measure- If you’ve been using MFP, then you’re used to this step, if not then start! Measuring your food seems tedious at the beginning, but once you get used to it, you’ll become a natural at judging what 1 cup of veggies is, or how ½ cup of brown rice looks on your dinner plate. 
2. Use smaller dishes- Our eyes are tricky little things. If you use a smaller plate, you are bound to eat less (genius, right). Try thinking opposite. Use your salad plates for your main dish, and your dinner plates for you salads. Same with dessert. Use smaller bowls for ice cream, puddings and creamy soups and the bigger bowls for fruit, and broth based soups.
3. Measure out your servings- If you’re planning on eating something from a bag, like chips, measure out one serving and put them in a bowl. DO NOT EAT FROM THE BAG. You’ll eat WAY more than one serving, I promise.
4. Pack up Leftovers- Once you’ve made dinner, dish out servings for your family and then pack up the leftovers BEFORE you sit down and eat. Once it’s away, you’re much less likely to keep eating. If this seems too extreme for you, then I would suggest to keep all the food in the kitchen, don’t put the dishes out on the table. If it’s right out in front of you then you’re much more likely to eat seconds. Out of sight out of mind.
5. Stay on Schedule- Eating on a regular schedule will help keep you from getting too hungry between meals. You’re much more likely to overeat and disregard portion sizes when you’re starving. 
6. Portion size vs serving size- I think we all know the difference between portion size and serving size. The serving size is listed in the nutrition facts on foods and lets you know that is the size they used to obtain their nutrient count. That does not mean this is a good portion size. Knowing the difference can help you stick with the correct portion size and help you cut down on useless calorie consumption. 

One last thing, when I was studying nutrition in school, we used a website that I still use ALL THE TIME. Eatright.org is the website used and regualted by registered dietitians and has some great information about health and nutrition. They have articles about everything you could ever think of or wonder about regarding health. To earn an extra point this week go to the website and find an article that interests you. Read it, and then post about what you learned/appreciated from the article on our facebook page. You could even link the article to share with everyone. 

There you have it! Hopefully this has been helpful. Good luck this week focusing on portion control!