How many of us account for every calorie that goes into our mouths or consider the need for portion control? I doubt that a majority of us do since our society has been getting heavier on an average of 15 pounds over the last 20 years. We fail in this regard. We often don’t even realize how many calories we consume because it may be easier just to pop a convenience meal into the microwave, just eat out or nibble after being too tired to cook to give it much thought. Therefore, portion control is everything if you intend to prevent overeating and adding more weight every year.
An excellent place to start for this method to work is thinking about what you intend to put on your plate. What helps keep the calorie count down is dividing up what you are planning on eating for that particular meal. For instance, I found dividing my plate up into fourths definitely helps. One fourth is dedicated to the protein. Another is for the vegetables. A fourth is reserved for fruits (or more vegetables), and the final section for grains. This method stops you from piling on too much of one food such as a meat to gain better balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats, grains and fiber. The trick to this is after a while you become accustomed to recognizing what your average meal portions should look like instead of just piling on more mashed potatoes or too many burgers, etc.
Just as important for benefitting from this dieting technique is the size of your plate as well. The larger the plate, the larger the portion sizes. As a result, you will eat more. Thus, smaller plates can be your salvation to prevent overeating and drop pounds.
Apart from this, some people have a weakness for salt snacks while others want sweets. Another suggestion is measuring out the amount of cookies or candy you are going to eat. If you know an average chocolate chip cookie has 78 calories, then you may want to eat two for 156 calories or how many that you normally eat. Eat that portion size and then stop there. Otherwise, your eyes roam when those tempting cookies are just there for you to grab another.
Dining out is always a challenge, especially when eating Italian. The breads that always are served with it can be hard to resist. If bread is your weakness, you might not even have noticed how much of that basket you ate before your dinner is even served. A simpler solution is to avoid that temptation in the first place. Just tell the waitress or waiter that you don’t care for bread at your table.
This dieting method is also easier when you have less of the variety of your favorite foods within reach to place limits on your eating. Your excuse may be the candy bars are to please the kids, but you may really be the one that craves them. Instead, you may find it better to replace that choice with fruit.
Cookie jars and clear candy jars can be minefields for overeating and having control of what goes into your mouth. How many of us want what the eyes see before them? As a result, we often walk by and pop one into our mouths while that adds on extra calories through the day.
Overindulging without realizing it is so easy, but these portion control tricks can give you more control.
