Let's Talk About Portion Size...

Let's be honest:  we all eat wayyyyyyyyy too much.  


One of the biggest things I have to work on with this diet is portion control.  I will sit down with a bowl of cereal that is 2 or 3 serving sizes, or I will have two servings of pasta or chicken.  I love bread and I love cheese and could sit down and eat one piece of cheese after another.  Another issue is also listening to my body and KNOWING when I'm full.  Yesterday was good because as I was eating I would put my fork down after each bite, take a drink, and just sit for at least a minute.  I did not make an effort to clear my plate, and I tried my best to eat slowly and wait for my body to tell me when I was full.  It worked really well.  I prepared meals that were based on the food items' serving size and didn't eat too much of that.


So, for the rest of you out there, if you're dieting or not, here are some visual guides for serving size, to help you whenever you're preparing food at home or when you go out to eat.  Hopefully you can picture these items and see how much of the food item you should be eating.  These portion size images come from Food Network's Healthy Month 2010 website and can be found at this link.

One serving of meat is 3 ounces, and is about the size of a deck of cards.

One serving of pasta or rice is 1 cup and is the size of a tennis ball.

(PS:  Whole grain pastas and rice will fill you up faster and are healthier!)

One serving of peanut butter is 2 tablespoons, or about the size of a ping pong ball.

While you can eat a lot more veggies than one serving, the size you should eat to count as at least one serving is 1/2 cup, which is about the size of a baseball.

A baked potato can be a great choice for a meal, when it's not loaded with butter and sour cream.  When are picking a potato, the perfect size is about the size of a computer mouse.

Cheese cubes or fruit can also be a great snack.  The serving size for cheese cubes and fruit is about 6 ounces, which you can visualize as 6 dice.

I hope these tips help you all!  They have really helped me over the past couple of days and I am sure they will be useful in the future!

Until Next Time...

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-Tyler