A Portion-ary Tale

So you've started on your path to a healthy eating plan. You have the 3 meals and 2 snacks down, but you can't seem to lose any weight. Either the scale is the same or it might even be tipping upward. What's going on??? Instead of looking at what you are eating, try looking at how much you are eating. Twenty years ago a bagel was only 3-inches in diameter and 140 calories. Today, a typical bagel is twice that size and 2-1/2 times the calories. Let's face it, portions aren't what they used to be. Just because a food may be considered "healthy" does not give you carte blanche to eat it in mass quantities. No matter how you slice it, a calorie is a calorie: 1 gram of carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein each equal 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Obviously, 1 slice of pizza is better than devouring the entire pie, or 1 scoop of ice cream is a wiser choice than a whole pint. That's easy. But I'll bet my money that most likely you have no idea what a actual serving size is, for example, what a ½ cup really looks like just by eyeing it. I remember taking a cooking class recently. The instructor asked me to measure a teaspoon of salt in my hand. I was completely surprised to find that it was way more than I had thought (about the size of a dime in my palm). It also works in the reverse. How much cereal are you actually pouring into your morning breakfast bowl? While it might be easy at home to grab a measuring cup or spoon, having a good visual in your mind is a great way to help you navigate when you are out. Next time you are at the salad bar or eating in a restaurant having that visual guide will help you to see how much you are really eating.

Here are some helpful tips for you to use as a GUIDE. It seems overwhelming, but I think if you try this method you'll find you will be actually cutting calories without even realizing it. These are approximate healthful portion sizes for when you don't have any tools handy:

• A teaspoon of butter/margarine is the size of the tip of your thumb to the first joint
• 3-4 ounces of lean meat, chicken, pork, is the size of a deck of cards or your palm (without the fingers!)
• 2-3 ounces of sandwich meat (turkey, roast beef, etc) is equivalent to of the size of  2-3 CD's (that's about 2-3 slices)
• 3 ounces of grilled/baked fish is the size of a checkbook
• 1/2 cup of cooked pasta or rice is the size of a tennis ball (or ½ baseball)
• 1 cup dry cereal or salad greens is the size of a baseball or your fist
• 1/2 of a medium bagel is the size of a hockey puck
• 1.5 oz. of cheese is the size of three dominoes or ~4 stacked dice
• 2 level tablespoons of peanut butter are the size of a ping pong ball
• 1/2 cup of vegetables is the size of a light bulb
• ¼ cup of raisins or 1 oz of nuts is the size 1 large egg. For you golfers that's about 1 golf ball
• 1 medium potato is the size of a computer mouse.
• Use a rounded handful for ~1 oz of pretzels

When you are trying to shed some pounds it's not about giving up what you love, but eating in moderation. The easiest way to find out what you are doing is to keep a food diary for a few days. That way you can see where exactly you can make a few changes. Another tip is to read food labels carefully. These numbers are based on per serving, and that information acts as your guide regarding how many calories and nutrients you consume.  It takes a little calculating at first, but you'll get the hang of it. The number of servings for each food group depends upon your individual daily caloric intake. To figure out how many servings you should be eating check out www.mypyramid.gov.

As a side note, there's a fun quiz from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute you can take called "Portion Distortion" to see how today's portion sizes measure up: http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/

Enjoy!