Portion Control

Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor, nurse, or nutritionist.  I am just posting what has worked for me.  Any changes you choose to make to your diet and/or exercise should be done in consultation with your physician.


In my last post, I said the thing I needed to work on most with breakfast was portion control.  Does that mean I’m going to start weighing and measuring everything I eat?  Thank you…no.  I could do that for maybe a couple of days and then I’d throw up my hands and quit.  Let’s face it…that’s one reason  most of us hate “diets” in the first place.

What I did start doing was looking at the food label for stuff I was eating for breakfast.   Now I’m pretty sure I’m the only one  in the world who does this, but what I usually do when choosing food is look at the “calories per serving” part on the label and ignore the “serving size” part, preferring to decide for myself what the serving size should be.  Unfortunately, the majority of the time (as was the case with my breakfast choices) my idea of a serving size is far larger than the manufacturer’s idea of a serving size.

In these first few days of self-discovery, I’ve discovered:

1)      My cereal bowl holds two cups of cereal, not 2/3 of a cup
2)      That same bowl can hold three cups of yogurt when piled high
3)      My handful of mixed nuts holds way more than 15 nuts

So, what I’ve decided to do for the time being is measure foods once, to get an eye picture of what a serving size should be.  That way, when I dump the cereal in the bowl or reach in for a handful of nuts, I’ll have a better idea what I should be going for.

How are you doing with your breakfast choices?  I hope you are taking baby steps to wean yourself away from high fat, high sugar choices to healthier ones.  And for those of you who are not breakfast people, I hope you'll give it a try.  Google and you'll find lots of ideas for healthy, easy, inexpensive choices.