Relearning How to Portion Your Food

Are your portions controlling you ... or are you consuming controlled portions?

What is an accurate portion? How do you know what "1 serving size" reallly is? There are some basic guidelines to consider:
1 serving of a piece of meat is the size of a deck of plaing cards
1 cup of a side dish (rice, pasta, potato, etc.) is the size of your closed fist
1 cookie should be half the size of a yo-yo
1 ounce of candy or nuts will fill -single layer- the palm of your hand

Are you kidding me?!? You want me to starve, don't you???? People don't eat like that ... anorexic models eat like that! Where's the rest of my meal? Hmmm, trying to save on the grocery budget, huh? I'm sorry ... you must have missed the part where I'm a FAT mom, not the 2-year old kid who needs to get full! Hello .... auditioning for Fantasia here (NOT ANYMORE!).

Yeah, Yeah, I've heard it all.

In the last month, I've revolutionized my diet. I switched to all natural food, grains, and very little meat or dairy. It wasn't so much an intentional change as it was keeping a food log and noting down not only what I ate, but how my body felt and how my energy level was affected by what I ate. I noticed certain foods left me full and energized me for my workouts or just for play with the kids (which the orginal purpose of getting fit!). Others, though, left me feeling full. I went on a date with DH at 7 last Friday night and still felt full Sunday morning. After not feeling like that for a month, it felt awful! After 3 1/2 weeks of learning to think "thin" and working my butt off to get that way, I felt like that FAT MOM again. EEK!!!! I even put on sweats Saturday morning when I got up! See how food affects so much?

Yes, yes, you eat till you get satisfied ... but full is a different thing altogether. For those of you who have been pregnant, this is the best way I can think to describe it. In my second trimester, there was most definitely a baby in evidence. I could feel her, I could see my belly, I felt satisfied and "full". Now, the last weeks, especially before she dropped, I was full. I mean full. It was hard to take a deep breath, I had to situate myself just so to be able to breath well, and although I loved being pregnant it was a little uncomfortable. We are meant to eat until satisfied, not uncomfortably full.

I used to let my portions have control. If it was on my plate, I was going to eat it. Heck, if it was in the kitchen the chances were good I was going to eat it! (Honestly, really honestly ... if it was in a drive thru window within 2 miles of house...) Now, I portion everything. Snacks, meals, everything! DH's and the kids' snacks, my snacks ... everything. Go ahead, laugh if you want ... but I'm the mom doing what was "impossible" for the last ten years and dropping a pant size in a month and chipping away at a hundred pounds. Disney's a little miffed since they have to re-cast the part of the hippo in Fantasia ... and *poor me* I have to go buy pants that aren't falling off my slimming hips ... but you can laugh ;)

I buy little ziploc snack sized bags and regular sized sandwich ones. When we walk in from the grocery store, every bag gets opened and the food gets distributed. If I buy a bag of low-fat tortilla chips, it gets opened and distributed into 1-serving size portions and baggied up. I even do it with leftovers; I put them in the fridge with the appropriate side dish in small containers, appropriate for one decent meal. I have bigger containers for DH than I do for myself, since he actually needs to gain weight (yeah, I know, don't hate ... ). I even have little containers for dipping sauces, because those are sneaky little ways to add sugar and calories.

Now I'm controlling the portions. Let me tell you, it feels good to be in charge of something in the house!!! Really, it feels good now to stop when I know I am satisfied. It takes 20 minutes to register "full" after eating, so if I've eaten a meal and feel unsatisfied, I wait a full 20 minutes (haha, no pun intended!) and if I'm still hungry, I do let myself eat more. More lettuce, an orange, some 100% whole wheat toast. But, yeah, I'm in control now. It's freeing actually. Because that full feeling is one fat people lie and describe as satisfied. I don't ever want to feel like that again ... feeling fat makes me dress fat and schlep around in sweats ... and then I munch because I'm already fat, so why the heck not? ... and then I'm back to where I started. I'm worth more than that! I AM FABULOUS!!! And fabulous isn't overly full ... it's being in control!

P.S. Satisfaction is pushing the double chin out of the picture, making the boobs look more like a chest than an extra fat roll, slimming the waist (OMG, I actually have one now!!!), and more .... so not only is my hunger satisfied, I AM!