Having a healthy diet requires maintaining your portions. While tradition might tell you that three hearty meals a day is good for you, eating more, smaller portions is the best way to maintain your body weight. Choose smaller portions and you will begin to see a transformation in your body.
While it’s easy to say, eating more than three meals a day can be difficult to turn into a habit. Because you think you should eat a combo meal from fast food restaurants, it becomes a challenge to cut back. However, if you can train your body to eat smaller portions throughout the day, you’ll be impressed with the results.
The first step you should take to maintain a healthy diet is to limit what you eat. That’s exactly what portion control does. Instead of viewing an entire entrée from your favorite restaurant as dinner, consider the amount of calories your body needs to live. If you are overeating, your body is taking in too much food and you need to cut back. When you begin this new lifestyle of portion control, you have to measure your ingredients accurately. Don’t just “eyeball it” like Grandma used to do. Use a measuring cup or food scale to ensure that your measurements are going to meet the needs of your body, without going over or under.
To keep you accountable, switch out the dishware you once used for smaller plates, bowls, cups, and glassware. Instead of large bowls of sugar infused cereal, use a smaller bowl and eat healthier cereal with grains in it. Using your measuring devices, you might find that by estimating, you’ve been doubling your portions.
One of the most tempting aspects of eating is family style meals. Just as it allows you to remain at the table nibbling on food, eating family style meals is like staring at delicious temptation. Resist the temptation by serving food directly from the stove onto plates. This way, you eat exactly how much you should. If you want to go the extra mile, you can store any leftovers in the refrigerator before you begin your meal. To save you from the temptation of seconds, you can even re-portion your food. Instead of making enough to last the week, simple dump the contents of your meals, like pasta or rice, into bags.
Of course, these are all great tips when you have the time to sit down and plan out your meals. But there are certain days it is impossible to eat at home. For those days, use your smartphone or the Internet to locate the amount of calories in a particular meal. If that isn’t possible, you can safely bet that the calories you should consume during a meal are about half of what you receive. Split with a friend or save the leftovers for lunch.
Portion control gets easier with time. Your body adapts and you get used to taking time to measure. Stick with it and you will see positive results.
