Retrain Yourself on Food Portion Sizes - Part 2
This article is part 2 in a series. The first article is here: “Retrain Yourself on Food Portion Sizes - Part 1.” If you enjoy this series, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit or sharing it with others via Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, or your favorite social media tool. Thanks.
In case you haven’t been on speaking terms with your scale for a while, or you’ve been avoiding all forms of news and information in favor of continuing to blindly support that questionable Krispy Kreme investment, it may come as a surprise to you to learn that we Westerners have a bit of a problem with our weight.
(And yes, that last statement is my official entry for the Understimator of the Year Award, which I have a sneaking suspicion is somehow tied to the Darwin Awards.)
In the, “what the heck is wrong with what we’re eating” category of Almost Fit, today’s article is part 2 of the discussion of portion size. And I’m going to reveal the spoiler for this series, so look away if you don’t want to know the truth: The portion guidelines I’m going to list at the end of this series probably won’t work for you (at least not at first, if you’re anything like I was 6 months ago).
In my experience of 20+ years of dieting, quite honestly portion control was never really effective over the long haul. I’d do pretty well for a while, but ultimately I slipped back into my old ways. And it always left me feeling like, “Wow, what is wrong with me? Why do I lack the willpower to make this happen?”
While I take firm responsibility for my choices dietary and otherwise, it is a question worth careful consideration: Why couldn’t I do it over the long term? Was it just a character flaw that I should accept? I think that for me there were lots of internal and external factors, but one of the biggest reasons was this:
I was simply eating too much of the wrong, supposedly healthy things.
Specifically, my focus in portion control was to eat the exact prescribed portion sizes of everything BUT whole, real foods (with a few negligible fruit exceptions). Lots of low fat, low carb, low calorie products, shakes, diet soda, diet bars, and so forth, but next to no real, whole foods.
That, if you have been reading here at Almost Fit for a while now, has changed.
What I’m not doing now
Understanding what a real portion is at the center of changing the way I eat, and is one of the core principles of eating Real Food in Moderation. It is coupled directly with WHAT I’m eating. But more on that later. For now, here are the things that I’m NOT doing when it comes to portion size:
- I don’t weigh my food.
- I don’t use a ruler to measure the size of my food.
- I don’t use a calorimeter to measure the caloric density of my food.
- I don’t count calories!
- I especially do not count fat grams.
- I don’t measure my fluid intake (unless I’m exercising heavily).
What I am doing now
- I focus on eating as many fresh fruits and vegetables as I can eat, and I don’t worry about measuring those portions. I eat as much as I can, so long as I’m not bursting at the seams. So far, I can’t get enough.
- I do not treat what I eat like a chemistry experiment, focusing on the measurements of micro components of the food as a basis for my decisions. I keep my vision at a macro level, looking at the overall picture of what I’m eating. I focus on enjoying food for the sensual experience of eating, not the “fuel” factor.
- I do not consume measured amounts of supplements at this point. I have not been diagnosed with any major vitamin or mineral deficiencies, so thus far I’m finding the nutrients I need in the foods I’m eating; the effect of taking in nutrients as part of a whole food has been demonstrated to be substantially greater than consuming supplements that contain the extracted parts of those foods. As Michael Pollan points out in his book In Defense of Food, we don’t even know the science behind how the components of whole foods are symbiotic, and so far we’ve often gotten it wrong.
- I use several basic rules of thumb to “recalibrate” what I expect a portion size to be (I’ll be describing those very soon).
- I use smaller bowls and plates - not to trick myself. Or maybe I am. I’m not sure - my diversion is so effective that even I can’t tell when it’s working.
- I am retraining myself to identify when I’m starting to feel full, and then I stop.
- I eat smaller bites.
- I eat a small portion of ice cream, the real stuff, nightly. Yes, after 8PM. Yes, full fat Haggen Daas.
- I weigh myself generally every day, but measure my progress by the month. I’m in it for the long haul.
My focus now is on eating the best I can afford, just less of it. What does this imply? The biggest surprise to most “dieters” is I’m eating lots of naturally occurring fats from natural sources, and I’m losing weight doing it. It means no more processed chemically fortified blue skim milk; I drink real, whole milk (raw if I can get it), just less of it (you need less because its richer). That includes real, whole milk cheeses from grass-fed cows. Crackling fresh artisan breads. Decadent chocolate. Cream in my coffee. Ice Cream, with real sugar, fat, and whatever else that beautiful cold comfort confectionary wizard can imagine.
And the result? My weight is down nearly 23 lbs. this year, without significant exercise yet (I’m working on that); my blood pressure is lower (I checked it today, and my high and low pressures have dropped into the “middle” ranges, as has my pulse rate); my cholesterol is fine; heartburn is gone; and I am enjoying food.
No, I am LOVING food. And getting thinner for it.
So how is this possible? Although I’m eating great food, it definitely requires some retraining. Before we get to the actual techniques for estimating a reasonable portion size for just about everything, the next part is going to discuss some prerequisites to making this work. Nothing complicated really; no supplements, products, hacks, or surgeries – just rethinking what makes you feel good when you eat.
No related posts.
Taking responsibility for portion size - Part 1 | AlmostFit.com Says: 11.04.08 at 1:30 am
[…] Part 2 discusses what I’m doing now, every day, to determine the amount of food I’m eating - and so far I’ve lost 23 lbs doing it. Here’s the link: Retrain Yourself on Food Portion Sizes - Part 2. […]
healthranker.com Says: 11.04.08 at 1:39 am
Retrain Yourself on Food Portion Sizes - Part 2 | AlmostFit.com…
This article is part 2 of the series. It covers a handful of practical guidelines on how eating real food in moderation virtually eliminates the need for food measurement….
You know, the more I read your blog the more I realise we have the same approach to eating.
Yeah, it certainly seems that way to me as well. I must confess I just spent the last 1/2 hr (so far) clicking through the links you have listed on your blog, to find other blogs that are similar because I think we’re heading in the same direction. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but when we went to NZ a few years ago it was with the purpose of evaluating whether we could immigrate. . .In the end, it was too far away from family, but we loved it.
And I may have had a curly fry or two as well.
I think most people who want to get healthier end up going this way. NZ is really nice. I’ve lived here 15 years now and have made it my home.
I agree that real whole foods are better in the long run, but there is just no way I could handle whole milk. I wouldn’t need any of it, because it is so gross. I really like milk to, so giving it up just isn’t an option for me. I also use parkay butter spray, because I rarely use butter and I extremely rarely eat ice cream. But I have said for a long time that the change from eating whole foods with out loads of industrial preservatives and dyes is a major factor in all the health problems we face today. Not just diabetes, stroke, but also things like autism, down syndrome, depression, etc. Alot of the things we are born with now are probably increased by years of chemical damage to the genes we pass on. If God doesn’t bring this world to an end, we would kill ourselves anyway.
@Joshua: Thanks for the comment - and yep, you are not the first person to express a distaste for whole milk. In fact I did for many years as well (raised on 2% then a skim convert in my late teens and twenties). I purposely made the choice to “develop” a taste for it, and for me it worked, but I have friends who simply don’t care for it. And I’m good with that. I think we all have to make choices that fit our current circumstances, and if your taste (or health) doesn’t dictate a change, then you should stick with what works for you.
I think in the long run we all choose the path we want to take - and thank goodness we have that choice. I know for me my feeling is as long as the dietary balance ultimately falls in favor of whole foods and such, I will be better off.
Three cheers for whole foods! I’m in total agreement!
One thing I’ve been grateful for is the stoneware pattern I chose when I got married. The plates are pretty standard, i.e. large… but that’s OK, I don’t mind seeing some “white space”, whether it’s on my plate, or emphasizing the printed/typed word, LOL! But what I love, is that I’ve got salad plates, tea plates, big bowls for soups, smaller bowls for desserts, ramekins for little servings of intense goodies or dips, etc… I just choose the size that fits! Calorie dense foods don’t go on the larger dishes.
I don’t measure veggies either. As far as I am concerned, the more the better! And if I fill my plate with salad… no biggie! Too many folks don’t get enough veggies… me, I’d rather eat than take a bunch of pills to get my vitamins! I do measure protein, but that’s more to be sure I’m getting enough to support my body through the exercise I do.
I really love your tactic of weighing yourself every day, but monitoring your weight loss progress by the month. I too often fall into the trap of letting the number on the scale in the morning affect my whole day.
Thanks!
Julie, I’m an every day weigh person… but I don’t put a lot of stock in the number I see. Yet, I used to get upset by it. Now, though, it’s just a data point! Anyone looking at my weigh page on my blog can easily see that I have major swings up and down. And I keep it public, because those kinds of swings are perfectly normal water weight swings and I want people to see that it IS normal! No one should be worrying over water weight.
It’s week to week and more importantly, the month to month trends that count. Same thing for body fat readings.
@Cynthia: It’s funny when it comes to sets of dishes - if you marry young, often times this is a gift that is given and I know quite a few folks (myself included) who really didn’t “get it” at the time. I didn’t understand the value of long-lasting, high quality items like stoneware. Now, on the other hand, I seek out the highest quality (though not the most expensive) that I can afford, particularly with cookware. I have a few more “disposable” items like a less expensive set of nonstick pans, but I am a Le Cruset junkie, particularly when they are selling factory seconds at Ross or Tuesday Morning…;) And I love that idea of calorically dense foods not going on the large plate - great rule of thumb.
@Julie: It does seem to generally work for me, but it has been a long time in coming in the sense that it has been a huge uphill battle to get out of the instant gratification mindset - starving yourself yesterday to see results today. It is my biggest mental challenge actually, because I am inclined to really “go for it” and get my calories down to a crazy minimum just to please the scale “god”. But this method seems to work; as long as I keep my head in check, I’m fine.
I may have to give in and buy a Le Cruset piece some time. I keep hearing good things about them, but I’m not sure if they really fit my slap dash style of cooking. I married later in life than the norm, that might be why I went with practical, instead of fancy china, LOL! Mostly, I promised my husband-to-be that whatever pattern I picked would contain “man bowls”, LOL! And it does, but it also has the nice smaller bowls that I love!
I also hear you on the starving to get results fast… but don’t do it. I did that years ago, my first try at serious dieting and it was more of a struggle to lose, not less. Losing slower, especially without much exercise, makes it more likely your losses are fat, than muscle mass.
I must say they really are excellent. It has made a big difference for us - they cook much more evenly in our experience, and maintain their temperature better.
On the results fast idea, I totally agree. I have done that too many times, only to wind up much worse off than I was when I started!