Healthy Living: Controlling food portions to keep your weight in check

I don’t know why people look at me and have this notion in their minds that I eat extra food more than what other people eat, just because I am a bootylicious African woman – well to be honest good genes have everything to do with my size and not food. As much as I love good food, does not mean that I eat more than other people. What goes into my mouth matters a lot to me, rarely would you find me combing the restaurants in town looking for food at lunch hours, most of the time I wait to go and eat at home, where I can comfortably control the portions on my plate. A weekend ago I went out with my friends and they ordered lots of meat and drinks. It was while we were eating that one of them commented on the portion of the food I served. He kept on insisting that I add more food to my plate, but I declined politely. For me portion is everything when it comes to eating. Most of us tend to underestimate the amount of food we eat and tend to overestimate the recommended portion sizes for many foods. Almost everyone underestimates the amount of calories they consume, and people who weigh more do so to a greater degree than others. In fact many people do not know that it’s not always what you eat, but how much you eat, the size of your servings that really counts! You can imagine one person eating a whole kilo and a half of meat alone in one seating, calling that an outing! Then from there you hear the same person complaining the way they have tried to cut their weight but in vain. Today food portion control using limited food serving is promoted widely as a way to lose weight effectively. Over the years, our perception of what a serving size should be has been increasing. Everywhere we go, we are served huge serving sizes and therefore we have a distorted idea of how much we can eat and stay within our daily calorie target. As we tend to finish all the food that is put in front of us, the bigger the portion, the more we eat. So, it is critical that we learn how to cut down on serving sizes and get into the habit of controlling portions in order to lose weight. There are many ways to cut down on super-size servings and practice portion control. The first thing is to train yourself to identify what a serving size should look like. An easy guide to follow is to use your hand as point of reference. For example, when deciding how much protein to have in your meal, such as a piece of steak or chicken, use the size of your palm. The amount of meat should be no bigger than palm size, and the thickness of the meat should be the same as the thickness of your hand. With carbohydrates, such as rice or macaroni, this should be the size of your closed fist. Also during meal time, it is recommended that we fill up half of the plate with salads or vegetables first, and then divide the remaining half into protein and carbohydrate, once one is in sync with controlling the portion size of their foods, the healthier you will start showing immediately and the results will be amazing, both in and out. kayitesius@yahoo.com

Lifestyle

Healthy Living: Controlling food portions to keep your weight in check