I wish that the foods I really love, which are allowed - but only in small portions - came in a time release container with portion control. I need my sour cream, heavy whipping cream, cream cheese, cheeses, and nuts doled out to me. I am in Atkins pre-maintenance, so I have to learn to add things back in to my diet without binging on them. It is soooo hard.
I came up with a plan for the problem I have with nuts, though. I LOVE nuts and they are so very healthy. So now I buy them only IN THE SHELL. It forces me to slow down and relish them, rather than just shoveling them in. If I have to buy them shelled for a recipe, I buy a small bag and give my kids any extra.
I have found cream cheese at Smart and Final in portion controlled restaurant containers. It is an expensive way to purchase it, but ultimately it may be worth it to have portion controlled containers. There are too many in a case for me to use up by the expiry date though; can you freeze cream cheese? Would it burst the little container?
So, please post your portion control tips and favorite portion controlled products; where do you buy them? How do you control your portions on your most tempting (but allowed) foods?
Last edited by shr1nk1ngme; 12-27-2011 at 11:57 AM.
Instead of paying the extra bit for portion controlled items, I buy the mini sandwich bags and regular zip locks and portion my stuff out that way. Not much into sweets, but put a nice steak on my plate and oooooh man LOL. When I buy meat, I portion it out with my kitchen scale into 4-5oz servings then throw those into the freezer.
The mini zip lock bags might work well with your nuts. You can save money and portion them out in advance.
The darker the chocolate, the easier it is to stop after a small piece. Avoid chocolates which you know you find moreish. I've tried a couple of dark chocolates with ginger recently, and they were both far too moreish for it to be worth buying them again. 85% cocoa is fairly good for me.
If you make your own little snacks, for instance I make chocolate peanut butter balls, make them really really small.
Some foods are easier for portion control if you put them into a recipe rather than snacking on them. I can't think of the last time I snacked on almonds, for instance, but it's much easier to appreciate a small number of them when they're in a dish with lots of other interesting flavours and ingredients to make me feel satisfied.
Oh you speak the truth.... I also need my heavy cream, cream cheese, sour cream and nuts....
When I can, I measure out portions in snack bags as someone else suggested. I use my scale and measuring cups to weigh and measure what I eat. If I can, I calculate my calories in advance of meals. For example, if we're having tacos for dinner, I calculate my meat portion, sour cream portion, cheese, tortilla, etc. so when I actually sit down to eat, I know what my goal is in order to maintain my daily deficit. That helps me a lot! I won't have that extra dollop of sour cream and I'll actually measure it! I know that I can eat 2 tacos and proximately how much that will cost me, and what will happen if I eat 3.
I've been doing weighing and measuring so long, I think I've gotten pretty good at eyeballing. At a restaurant, I'll portion out my dinner if I need to, and put what I'm not going to eat in a to-go box right away. I look at the nutritional info on line if I can, so when I get there I already know what I'm going to get.
I have a hard time stopping at a reasonable amount. I go for seconds, I eat bigger portions than I should or need to and I can't pass the cookie tray or the candy bowl without grabbing one thing 200 times a day..... I find that the awareness of calories and keeping track of my calorie consumption offers me a sense of control, even when things aren't portioned out. I can't say it works all the time, but it has helped!
I don't know if this fits into Atikins or not, but I looooove having frozen grapes. I wash a bunch of them out and take them all off the stems, portion them out into ziplock bags and freeze them for at least 24 hours. Once they are hard, it takes a long time to eat them and they taste like candy. I portion them out into 100 calories and sometimes, I'll either have them for desert or I'll have them with string cheese for a snack. Yum!
I buy NON-SALTED nuts in bakery section or bulk food section/store; I'm less likely to overeat them (the salty ones give me trouble).
I also splurge and buy serving size yogurts, puddings, cheeze slices, cubes, babybells, sticks, etc.
I portion things out in baggies as well ...
I don't buy stuff that are a trigger food for me: favorite cookies are not allowed in my house ... I buy substitutes for them instead: ie whole grain soda crackers instead of ritz.
I limit how much I buy or make at one time ... at Christmas I made no-flour peanut butter balls, low-sugar choco-oat maroons, and L/S magic bars (no base; omitted it); and I only made 18-24 of each kind. Works for me ...
For meals, I've been using smaller plates, bowls, and utensils. I really believe that most stuff now is made far too big.
The plates that I use are anywhere from 5" (this one is a saucer from under a tea cup), 6" and 8". I always use the 6" one for things like pasta, noodles, etc. The bigger one is used for salads.
Bowls for me can get pretty small, the smallest I use is a little crystal one that has no more than half cup capacity.
I usually use this when I want some dessert or a small portion of something, otherwise, I'll use a normal sized bowl for soup or oats.
For utensils, I always choose the lightest, smallest stainless steel we have. I also have a baby spoon I use all the time. I love that spoon! It really helps me slow down when I'm eating.
I myself cant control my portions. I somehow need to feel full, otherwise it feels like I havent eaten. That is really my downfall.
This was my problem too. You can portion out sizes all you want, but if it's too easy to grab more food because you feel hungry, then portion sizes aren't going to help!
There are two things I do to feel full on less food/calories:
- drink a lot of water before and during my meal. This means pausing my eating often to drink water.
- adding in veggies which are filling/low-cal
If you like sandwiches/wraps like I do, then one thing I like to do is make the wraps the same size I always have, but take out some of the meat and cheese and substitute it with more lettuce and tomato. You'll still be eating the same amount of food (and therefore get full) and it'll still taste the same because you have SOME meat and cheese, but it will have less calories.
I used to buy tiny bits at a time. That really went out the window when I got married and had a child. Avoidance wasn't going to work. It took me almost 2 years to learn how to do this:
I cook heavily with butter/salt/cream etc. Lots of PB, avocado, full fat cheeses (and I lie where cheese is a religion, the amount available is shocking).
So I eat slow. VERY slow (as long as I can with a child, I let him out and continue eating when he's done). One tiny bite at a time (no more than a thumb size). Always at the table. Lots of water. NO snacking (for me, this works). 3 meals only. If it's not meal time, I can't eat.
This has helped tremendously and I've been allowed to eat everything I want, feel almost-full (I never feel on purpose).
I know some of us (most of us!) have claimed that we eat too much because "we love food" -> but I don't think that is true. If one loves food, they eat it slowly, enjoy small bites, enjoy flavour, TAKE THE TIME to enjoy and prepare.
All those times I wolfed down a bag of Lay's chips mindlessley in front of the TV or computer was not a "love of food" - it was a love of feeding/the taste of processed garbage/the love of multitasking. The food was simply the tool and my thighs were the garbage disposal.
I've maintained for 8 years, struggled with the last 10lbs after my baby and it's taken me a long time to come to grips with this.
Portion control has helped me greatly! So here are my personal portion control tips:
*big fork, small plate
*use a regular size cereal or soup bowl instead of a plate for things like spaghetti
*foods that have automatic portion sizes, such as one banana, one grapefruit, etc.
*100-calorie pack treats (I like Cheddar Mix and Fudge Stripe cookies!)
*try using a 1/3 plate, put meat in one small space, starch in one small space, and use the big part for veggies
*count your bites (5-6 bites of any one food)
*count your serving spoonfuls (regular size serving spoon of any one food (veggies, etc) should be only 3 - if it's a large serving spoon or ladle or whatever, then 1 or 1 1/2 will do)
*become familiar with what 6 oz & 8 oz glasses look like
*1 oz cheese equals two dice
*3-4 oz meat equals a deck of playing cards
*1 svg mac & cheese equals a baseball
*1 svg veggies equals a lightbulb (the old fashioned kind!)
Good luck!!!
Last edited by Beach Patrol; 01-03-2012 at 10:30 AM.
Great thread! Moving towards more reasonably sized portions is a critical for our society in general here in the US. Some ideas that work for me:
*Count on taking half a restaurant meal home. Get it in a to-go box right from the beginning if you don't think you'll be able to leave food on the plate.
*Don't eat anything that's not single serving from a container.
*Start with half of your usual portion. Eat it slowly and then consider whether you really want/need more.
*Look at your portion. Dish it out in a way that it looks the biggest (like spread out on a plate).
*Walk away. I take whatever I'm going to eat and walk away from the kitchen. It helps if you'd have to make a conscious effort to go back for more.
*Make conscious choices about food. Spend a minute thinking about whether you really want that (fill in the blank) before you go and get it.
*Avoid becoming super-hungry. Portion control tends to go out the window when someone's really hungry.
*Put things you struggle with in out of the way locations. You're less likely to eat something if it isn't as accessible. If I want a piece of chocolate I have reach up on top of my refrigerator to get it.
*If you don't buy it, you won't eat it. People with a history of binge-eating often find it neccessary to just stop stocking certain trigger foods in their homes.
"can you freeze cream cheese? Would it burst the little container?"
You can freeze it cream cheese but it does tend to seperate a little when you thaw it out. If you don't think you'll mind the texture then go for it :P
For portion control: When I eat meals, I'll grab a smaller plate or a wide but short bowl. So when I fill it up, i'm actually eating alot less then what I would have.
When I eat at a restaurant, I'll automatically seperate 1/2 the food and ask for a to go box so I won't be tempted to eat it all
I love icecream like no tomorrow. Recently I started buying these little individual servings, no more then a few bites. Helps me from eating a pint of the stuff xDD
The easiest way for me to eat portions is by making a full dish, separating it out into individual containers, and only eating one. Most of the time, I freeze the rest of the containers so I can pull out my meals during the week. This helps because while I would go take another spoonful of a casserole/dish, I will not heat up an entire new serving (and I'm certainly not eating it frozen ). I eat soup almost daily for lunch, so I just make big batches on weekends, freeze into 1-cup servings, and pull one every morning for my lunch at work.
If I'm making something to be eaten immediately, I measure it before I start eating. I always cook healthily with volume in mind. I bulk up almost every dish with a lot of low calorie vegetables and I use techniques to cut calories in every dish I make. Usually one serving of casserole is 1 cup, soup or chili is 1-1.5 cups, meat is 3-4 oz, rice is 1/2 cup cooked, pasta is 3/4 cup -1 cup cooked depending on the shape, veggies should take up half of my plate, etc. As long as you don't allow yourself to go back for seconds, it's all good. Sometimes I need to drink two glasses of water to fill me up while eating, but sometimes I can't even finish the amount of food I have.
I measure out everything and out the original carton away BEFORE finishing prepping the meal. So, if I want 2tablespoons of peanut butter, I put the PB on a plate, put the jar away and then use my single serving sitting on the counter.
My food scale is my best friend. I measure EVERYTHING no matter what.
I know how silly this sounds, but I also find it easier to keep my portions in check when I feel like my food looks delicious. I'm careful to make dinner look yummy, instead of just dropping food on the plate. They always say "you eat with your eyes first" and so, if things look nice, its a mental game to feel more satisfied.
Portion control tips
I buy substitutes for them instead: ie whole grain soda crackers instead of ritz.
