Weekly Meeting Topic: The Power of Portion Sizes

Ain't that the truth!

I have to admit, I didn't get to my meeting this week so this post is just going off the information presented on weightwatchers.com

Portions are a big part of weight loss. Learning what is an appropriate amount of food to be eating and, even more, learning to guesstimate when you are eating out and no where near your food scale will take you far on your weight loss journey.

I can't help but think of a scene from Forget Paris (one of my favorite romantic comedies) where one of the characters whips our her food scale at the restaurant. Her husband says, "I can't believe you're going to weigh your food at the table." She says "What! I'm doing weight watchers! I want to look good for her [the other character at the table] wedding!"  And then two minutes later: "I can't believe how much a lime weighs!"

As a WW member, that always makes me chuckle because there were times I would wish I'd had measuring cups or a scale when I first started out.

Now I've learned to make pretty good guesses about food, but that's mostly because I always weigh & measure my food at home so I've learned what 5 oz. of chicken looks like and I know what a 1/2 cup of rice or mashed potatoes looks like.

But it takes time and practice, and I still will round up just to be sure I counted the right number of PointsPlus.

I was also surprised to learn over time that I can, and usually do, feel satisfied with a smaller portion. And then sometimes I don't, so I've learned to bulk up meals with vegetables (and now fruits since they're free).

One other thing I've learned is that if you weigh your food rather than use a measuring cup, you usually get more bang for your buck! The portion feels a little bigger, and you feel good cause you feel like you're getting a deal. I don't know why, but it seems to help my morning cereal taste a little sweeter when feel like I'm getting a little extra in the bowl.

So, now that I'm on maintenance, I still weigh and measure just about everything. Why? Maybe I don't trust myself. I'll admit, if I didn't measure two tablespoons of peanut butter, I could see myself dishing out a bigger portion and saying "close enough!"  With something light, estimating isn't too bad - but estimating peanut butter? Those extra calories could add up fast!!!!! Plus, I do it for the sake of data and control.  I like to know exactly how much I'm eating. It keeps me accountable.

It's also important to remember that even healthy food has calories and weight loss is all about calories in vs. calories out. You really need to be aware how much you're consuming. Take all this free fruit. For the most part no one is going to eat hundreds of calories in fruit. But, fruits and vegetables do have calories and you have to be mindful of your portions. A banana may be zero points, but it's still about 130 calories. So I try not to eat more than one per day.

I have one other thing I want to talk about with this topic and that is hidden measuring devices. Items you can buy so that you can measure your food without breaking out the traditional measuring cups. I have measuring serving spoons that I bought from my WW meeting. They are really lovely and made from stainless steel, so they don't look like measuring spoons at all. And I have the awesome wine glasses from www.wine-trax.com - they have rings around the glass to indicate 4, 6 and 8 oz pours. And they are very beautiful glasses as well. Check 'em out:

And that's all I have to say about portions!