Battling The Portions
 

Ok, I'm REALLY Struggling with the portion control. :tantrum: Measuring my food just doesn't make sense to me....I just can't do it, and eye-balling it just doesn't work....I get so frustrated because I know I'm eating too much but don't know the other night, this is how bad it is...I had a nightmare about measuring my food....I was sitting in the kitchen at the table with a million different measuring cups, and all these pots of food, trying to measure them out....:yikes: It wasn't pretty people....I don't know what to do!!! Suggestions???

Food Scale??? I Know Its Hard To Measure But, Its What Ya Gotta Do?? It Will Be Worth It! Trust Me!!!

In the kindest possible way that I can think of, I can only say that either you account for what you take in, or your body will do that for you. I use measuring cups (messy and annoying), and also use a weigh scale (which I prefer). Hopefully you are able to do some food preparation, which makes things really easy! You can premeasure your food before you cook/combine it, and that makes dividing up the final meal that much easier (i.e. I need 1 cup of beans, and I used four cups of beans and four cups of tomatoes, therefore take 1/4 of the pot and I should be OK). Eyeballing it really doesn't work for me.
Something else you might think of is -- dish out what you think is reasonable, then remove 1/3 of it. Just watch out for portion creep.
I wish there was an easier way to do this, and I hope someone else will let us in on it!!!

If you really, really, really, hate measuring - don't measure anything! Just have half the amount of your usual portions of everything you eat.

I log every bite on Nutridiary, but I realize this is not for everyone. However, it's been the only method that works for me.

Maybe it's just cause I'm new to the whole thing, I've tried logging what I eat on Fitday, and always forget to do it...terrible I know...so portions and logging is a chore....and then I usually say "The heck with it!" and give up...even though I know I shouldn't...it just gets so frustrating!

This site makes it easier for me to understand a portion size:

http://www.checkyourhealth.org/nutri...pd_visuals.htm

http://www.checkyourhealth.org/nutri.../pd_movies.htm

Concentrate on eating healthy food. Picture your plate divided into 4 quarters. When you fill the plate, follow these guidelines:

1 quarter - lean protein (lean meat, eggs, fish, soy, low fat dairy)
1 quarter - complex carbohydrate (brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, sweet potatoes, corn, oats, beans, whole grain bread, whole wheat pitas, whole wheat tortillas)
2 quarters - veggies (wide variety of brightly colored vegetables and fruit)
minimal - healthy fats

I do have a little food scale. I mainly use it for measuring pasta since it always looks so small uncooked, I find it hard to cook with the right amount. I use 2 oz of pasta. I also carefully measure:

* Breakfast cereal, because a true serving small is so small, it's easy to eat too much.
* Nuts/trail mix - really good for you, but packs a calorie wallop. A serving is 1/4 cup (medium sized handful)

Here's a nice site from Body for Life:

http://www.bodyforlife.com/nutrition/createmeal.asp

Mickey, I know it's a pain but if you're serious about losing weight then you HAVE to measure food or weigh it. At first is going to be messy, annoying, time consuming, but the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Then you'll realize that some foods you can just tell how much it is just by looking at it. It takes time, practice, and a LOT of patience.

Buy yourself a scale, makes it easier. I'm a self-proclaimed scale freak. I weigh everything from bread to jelly. That's what works for me. If I'm making a recipe I write down the total of calories for the entire recipe, when I'm done I weigh the whole thing. Makes it easier to divide servings.

Come on, YOU CAN DO THIS!!! :D

i too use the messy scale/measuirng cup
 

method. if you are truly adverse, body for life uses the palm method
ie. a portion size piece of chicken would be the size of your palm (not including fingers), a serving of say rice would be about the size of your closed fist. frankly, i measure because i want exactly what is due me lol!
good luck.
tracyg

Thanks all for the encouragement! I guess I am just not into "the swing of things" yet. I don't think that "Visual" palm size protien thing is going to work for me...I have the smallest hands, it's smaller then a deck of cards! That just doesn't seem like enough to me! I'll keep going...just need to find an easier way of doing things, or more efficiant way of doing it. But can I say that I still hate it?? HAHA!!

I personally recommend that if you are at home and actual measuring tools are available-then USE them. I recommend using the "deck of cards" and other "guides" to watching your portions when you are at a restaurant, or at someone's home-and you are unable to measure your food accurately.

The reason why, is because if you overestimate a piece of steak or chicken slightly with the "deck of cards" guess...then you are over maybe 50-75 calories. That isn't a big deal if you are at a restaurant or having dinner with a friend once a week. If you are guestimating at every meal though...then over the course of a week if all of your meals/portions are slightly off...then you could really slow your progress.

You should see me when I'm baking. Mixing bowls and measuring cups are everywhere. :D

This is true- Even if I didn't measure (and believe me, I never measure) my body can logically tell me when its full. SOmetimes I eat more even if I am full (it has to be a good food though, like oatmeal) so if you do not want to measure, free yourself from the tablespoons and the cups!

Yup, I agree. Occasionally when I go do out to eat (once in a blue moon since I'm so poor) meat servings are usually larger than a deck of cards (which is what the food pyramid uses to estimate 3 oz of meat, one serving) Once, a waitress placed my plate in front of me and I accidently said outloud "wow, this must be like 4 decks of cards!" And she said "excuse me?" And none of my friends actually knew what I was referring to and they laugh at me. "Oh, you don't make sense!" :cool: hehehehe little do they know...

I lost the first 50 pounds without measuring or weighing anything, but I did a complete dietarty change, It can be done. Initially, I followed the SugarBusters plan, and cut all "white" food from my diet, all foods that contained more than 4 grams of added sugar, and virtually all processed foods. Instead of the hassle of weighing and measuring, the hassle was in the food prep and label-reading. My first couple of grocery runs took about 3 times as long as usual because it took forever to read the nutritional label of every brand of spaghetti sauce on the shelves to see which contained sugar, high fructose corn syrup or some other form of sugar.

Face it- to lose weight and keep it off you HAVE to limit your intake somehow. Weighing and measuring are one method, cutting calories by changing the caloric content of what you eat and eliminating certain foods (like I did ) is another.

If what you are doing is giving you nighmares, try something else!:hug:

Mel

Well, no nightmares last night!!! :carrot: So that's a good sign! Haha! I'm going to battle through this, and I thank you all for the suggestions and support. adjustments....they can suck....but I have to remember that the final product...me losing weight is much more worth it then not doing it.

I agree with the scale suggestion. I'd also suggest "serving size" dishes. I have the little bowls that were originally intended as salsa bowls (99 cents each), but I find they're the right size for half-cup servings! So I put my rice in there (brown rice, natch). Makes it look like a lot. I have little condiment cups (I believe they were 4 for a dollar) that hold just about an ounce of nuts. Again, makes it look like a lot, since the cup is full.

Lately, I've been making my own snack packs, too. I got some of those tiny, snack-size zipper bags, and when I have a few spare moments, I fill them with appropriately weighed/measured snacks.

For example, I like a half cup of the Kashi GoLean Crunch dry as a snack. Instead of getting out measuring cup EVERY time I want some, I take the entire box, and portion it out into the snack bags and put them back in the pantry. Then, when I'm ready for a snack, I just grab a snack bag and off we go.

It take s a bit of time to get it done initially, but the plus side is, I think it keeps the cereal fresher, because each bag is sealed and opened only once (when I'm ready to eat it).

I do the same with almonds or baby carrots, except I keep the carrots in the fridge, of course. Makes it easy to have snacks on the go.

I tend to cheat a bit with the weighing and measuring. I weight stuff that I know I get wrong, pasta, rice, etc. I buy my meat cuts already measured, so if I know I am shooting for 100g chicken breast, I buy two 100g chicken breasts, one for me and one for the dh. I don't buy any single portion of meat any bigger than what I would eat, because then you end up with wastage or over eating.

I don't use measuring cups, because I am Australian, and our cup sizes are different from English which are different again from US ones and I get confused!! :dizzy: Doesn't take much to confuse me :D

I don't measure veggies at all, to me they are "free" (apart from starchy ones like potatoes) And then, I use my "buy your portion size" method, and buy little new potatoes, no big ones where there might be wasatage, or overeating going on.

After a while you will find you own methods of "cheating" or making things easier for yourself.

I've had those sort of dreams too!!! It's a good sign, it means you care about what you are eating, and how you are approaching your lifestyle change!

I never thought about my dream that way...kind of weird! Those are great tips for snacks and such! I usually just take out the box, and go...ok I'll eat till I'm full, and before I know it I have eaten the entire box of crackers!!!!! Terrible I know! Good idea about using size appropriate bowls, plates, etc. Never thought of that either...I hate seeing room on my plate! Haha!

Yep, the veggies are free, but the dip isn't! :lol: And I can't eat the carrots without the dip. :dizzy: Sooooooo, I take the proper serving size of baby carrots and get out that aforementioned condiment cup for the dip (1 ounce) and off we go.

The neat thing is I often run out of carrots before I run out of dip! I still count the full "ounce of dip" calories in my Fitday, even though I really only ate about 75% of it. I figure I probably under-estimated by a few calories somewhere else, so it helps even things out.

Portioning out veggies is also helping me to visualize what a "serving" of whatever should look like. It's helping me learn moderation. After all, it's only a short hop from eating "all I want" of baby carrots to eating "all I want" of potato chips...

I never realized that my not weighing or measuring or even counting calories was not a total time saver. I do spend lots of time choosing ingredients and preparing food (most everything I make is from scratch). Time well spent.. but the reality is that every plan or change takes time .. and even more time in the adjustment phase. Thanks for pointing that out.

has anyone mentioned eating out of smaller plates and dishes?

Yep, Less of Lena did in her first post :)

I love my Weight Watchers serving spoons. I think they came in a set of four 1/8, 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 cup (There might have also been a 1 cup, but if so, I've lost it). They're not as messy to use as measuring cups, and you'd be using a spoon anyway.

Kitchen stores may sell something similar, or you should be able to walk into a WW Center and buy them without joining. I also love their food scale (I've seen similar at Walmart). It is digital, and you can put your plate on the scale, add your food to weigh it, and then reset it at 0 to add the next food.
They are pretty expensive at like $35 or so, but there is also a model that is not digital, that you can slide to 0 to reset (I bought the one I had before the digital scale at Walmart for about $9)

My Mom lost 65 lbs on WW, and has recently plateued. She was very depressed and couldn't understand why her weight wasn't budging. I spent two weeks in April with my parents, and could tell her eating habits had changed. The biggest change was she was no longer measuring. Now she is measuring again, and losing!

lol, oh my gosh, I don't mean to laugh, but the visual is hilarious :joker:

I weigh and measure everything. At first it seems a tedious task, but you get used to it, really you do. I even weigh packages of 1-2 serving vegetables. Because it will say "serving size 1/2 cup" and then number of servings "ABOUT 2.5."

So I dump them into my big measuring cup to see how many 1/2 cup servings there are for real.

I hate that "about" serving crap. I bought a bag of snacks that said, servings "about 6," but the weight listed on the bag, divided by the weight listed per serving came out to 7.2. Some pretty weird math to say over 7 is about equal to 6.