Portion Perception

First of all, I want to thank each of you that are here reading the blog.  Being publicly accountable for my weight is very liberating.  Putting it all out there for everyone to see removes much of the self-inflicted shame and guilt I often harbor about the way I look.  Your positive words of encouragement, either on posted blog comments, on Facebook, or to me privately are really helping stay focused and motivated.

I’m down to 256 lbs!  (Well, actually 256.2  For the purposes of this blog I will always round up or down to the nearest pound.  I split hairs all day at work.  My personal life is allowed a little fudging.  Mmmmm….fudge!  Anyways…) 

256 pounds!  Isn’t that fun?  While I don’t visually notice much change in my body, I can zip up my jacket again!  I haven’t been able to do that for a while.  Win!  Love it when clothes start to fit better!

I guess I decided to get (more) serious about this weight loss thing last week.  I’ve been sitting at 260 for far too long.  I think it helped that I had a fairly calm work week and could maintain motivation to make good food choices and fit in my workouts.  Did I do everything I “should” have done this week to stay on track?  Of course not.  I ate a half sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints.  In one sitting.  By myself.  And relished every bite!  But I did a lot of things right.  For instance, I:

• Left work by 5:30 pm each day and went straight to the gym four days last work week. 
• Took my road bike out of the garage, tuned it up, installed new tubes, and went on some lovely rides Saturday and Sunday. Oh how I have missed biking over the winter months!
• Tried to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night.  Usually I get 5-6 hours.
• Paid attention to my portion sizes. 

Yay!  All good steps for success! 

I want to go into more about portion sizes.  The mental game is alive and well when trying to lose weight.  I need every trick I can get to make myself think I’m not being robbed of precious food.

One of my most trusted tricks is choosing a smaller serving dish on which to serve my meals.  When I give myself a reasonable portion of food on a large plate I always seem to want to add more and more food to it.  Visually I don’t like empty space on my plate.  When I put the same amount of food on a smaller plate then my eyes tell my mind that I’m getting a lot more food than I really am.

 Here’s a better example.  I placed 1 cup shredded carrots on a standard plate.  My mind says that I need to add more carrots to fill up my plate.  (I don’t really like carrots.  Why do I buy them?) For illustrative purposes carrots will suffice.  But if this were Chicken Enchiladas I would go to town and pile them on that plate!  Now insert your fav food here.  Don’t tell me you couldn’t fill that plate with something you really love!

Here is that same cup of carrots on a smaller plate.  It completely fills the space.  My mind says that there is no way I need to add more food to that plate.  But at the same time it says that I could eat twice as much that is on that plate (and we all know I have done just that in the past!)  But once I eat that portion of food, I try to listen to my stomach.  If I’m still hungry, I’ll reach for an apple or banana or big glass of water.  Then I check with my stomach again.  By the time I’ve supplemented my smaller portion of food with a piece of fruit or water, nine out of 10 times my stomach will say “I’m done” and I’ll go on my merry little way.  No more food babies for me!  

If anyone knows me well, then you know I love, love, LOVE cold cereal.  But much of the time those are filled with empty calories.  Plus, cereal bowls are so big!  Most are just perfect for fitting in at least two servings in one bowl!  

Let’s use my portion control trick again.  1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch.  Big bowl.  It looks lonely.  I should add more so the bowl looks full, right?

1 cup Kashi in a ramekin.  Whoa!  That’s too much!  A half cup will suffice in this tiny bowl, thank you very much.

Ta dah!  Portion control via choosing a smaller sized serving dish.  It’s an easy way to cut the amount of food you are putting into your body.  Give it a try!