If You Want a Little Behind, You Need to Leave a Little Behind

When you pour your morning cereal in the mornings, do you give yourself a portion or a serving? How about when you pour your orange juice? Are you scratching your head on this one? What's the difference between a portion and a serving anyway? Aren't they the same? Well, for you, a portion and serving might be the same, and then again, it might not. A portion of your morning cereal is however much you pour into your bowl, and a serving is the measurement listed on the box. If the label on your cereal box says ¾ cup equals 100 calories and you "free pour" your cereal into a large soup bowl, you have a portion, not a serving. You might have 3 or 4 servings in that bowl. A serving in a large bowl might not look like much because it doesn't fill the bowl up. If you use a smaller bowl you can have a full bowl of cereal, if that bowl is just large enough for one serving. It's the same amount, but it looks like more. With a little imagination you can figure out a way to make your portion size equal a portion size.

In order for us to get a handle on serving sizes, we need to know what serving sizes are and stick to them. All too often we sabotage ourselves by eating portions of food rather than servings of food. Can you gain weight by eating healthy food? You sure can! If your portion size is 2 or 3 times larger than a serving size, you certainly can gain weight in a hurry. If your orange juice says 4 ounces equals 50 calories, if you drink a 20 ounce glass of it, you have consumed 5 servings of orange juice in one portion.

Accountability for portion and serving sizes

To be successful in our weight loss journey we need to get the portion right before we take the first bite of food. If you want a serving of potato chips, how will you know the serving size to calculate the calories you will consume? Well, on the potato chip bag it might say 37 grams equal 200 calories. It may also say that 37 grams is about 17 chips. What if some of the chips are broken? How will you be able to know just how many calories you are consuming when you eat potato chips? Do you just open a big bag of chips and eat them all in one setting? It's not hard to do. If you ate half a bag of chips, or even the whole bag you ate a portion of chips, not a serving. Have you ever eaten a whole bag as your portion and then counted the calories for one serving? Who hasn't? We need to be accountable to ourselves.

How to keep servings and portions in check when eating out

What if you go out to a restaurant, such as Zaxby's? Zaxby's is a wonderful chicken restaurant famous in the south. People in the northern states may not be familiar with this restaurant. Zaxby's gives you generous portions for your money. When you order, ask for a to-go box right then. Why? You should have your to-go box given to you when your food is served to you. If the food served on your plate looks like 2 or 3 serving sizes, then remove the extra servings from your plate before you eat it. The food you put in your to-go box could be two more meals. You could share that food with someone else in your family.

Remember when....

Are you old enough to remember when a portion was a serving size? Do you remember when a McDonald's hamburger was the size of a kid's burger? Now everything is supersized. These fast food restaurants give you biggie size and super size portions, depending on which one you go to. Somewhere along the way the line between portion size and serving size got blurred and we no longer recognize what a real serving is.

Can you still go to your favorite fast food restaurant? Yes you can if you have a plan. You can order a child's sized portion. For instance, at McDonald's you can order a Happy Meal, which is a small burger and a small order of fries. Can you go to your favorite pizza joint? Sure you can, but you need to have a plan. My plan is to know the serving size before I take the first bite. I look up the calories (I look up the Weight Watcher's point value) before I order. No food is off limits unless you have a medical condition that prevents you from eating it.

Food is neither good nor bad. Once you know what a serving size is for each food and beverage item, you won't have to stress out wondering if you consumed too many calories. You can eat with the assurance that you haven't eaten more than what your body needs for nutrition and weight loss.