Portion Potion

January 27, 2013

I was hungry.  I stopped into Randall’s to grab a quick breakfast because I am far too busy to think in advance about such a thing as a meal.  Anyhow, I found a nice little treat, a jalapeno bagel!  And how lucky am I … 2 for $1.00!  You know it just makes sense to buy in bulk (and get bulky) so I purchased the bargain, arrived at work, plopped down in front of this computer and devoured not only one but two jalapeno bagels!  Two, as in TOO many calories … yum or not.

The lesson in this story is for almost all of us at some time or another, portion control.  Diet and nutrition are a most critical part of getting healthy.  Certainly you have heard the slogan “you are what you eat.”  The fact is that our intake is important, but too much intake is just helping our bodies become FAT SAVING MACHINERY.

Go ahead, look around at all of the companies and plans to loose weight.  On Yahoo home page today is an article discussing the ‘Cost of weight loss per pound’ for the 3 most popular plans.  In summary, to shed those extra calories; a 5 week plan on Weight Watchers at $86, Nutrisystem at $120, and Jenny Craig helping you for a mere $163.  The common denominator of each plan is …. drum rolllllllll …. portion control.

Listed below are a few tricks of the trade to curb your portions and control your intake.  For most of us we just do not want to count points, calories, eat off of baby spoons, or spend free time in the kitchen.  For that person (most of us) local venues are very efficient at controlling portions for us.  F.I.T. Human Performance likes My FIT Foods because it is local to the area, has great service, tastes great and manages portions.

Here a a few nifty tricks to control your portions;

1. Break leftovers down to smaller portions or snacks.
2. Say yes to salads
3. Single out trigger foods (make tortilla chips into snack bags)
4. Master mini meals (small meals throughout the day)
5. Keep seconds out of sight
6. Make meat a side dish
7. Two-fer your meals (share an entrée or take half home)
8. Eat like a kid (order kid size portions)
9. Eyeball portions (3oz. meat = deck of cards or cup of carbs = tennis ball)
10. Treat yourself (once in a while, eat ‘forbidden’ foods as not to feel deprived)

What happens with portion control is not always easy when restaurants pile servings up to please our eyes and ‘value-factor’.  If you were to go back a few months you might find phrases like “a moment on the lips, mooooo” or “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, it is thinking like that helps to remind us that the foods our body really wants are healthy foods in moderate portions.

In good health,

BOB

In the 1964 edition of ‘The Joy of Cooking,’ a recipe for chocolate chip cookies listed the yield as 45 servings. In the 1997 edition the same recipe listed it as 36 servings.