Losing weight involves a lot of skills but the one that gets almost everyone is portion control.
How many times do you find yourself enjoying what you are eating, and then before you know it, you have gone back for more and more or consumed the entire bag of chips or cookies?
When I first started on my journey to lose over 130 lbs., Jackie Keller, my coach, told me I was eating with mindless abandonment. She was right. I would start eating and would not stop until I was really full.
Understanding Portion Sizes
Setting boundaries on my eating, learning what was a normal portion, and then measuring and sticking to it, was a key to my success.
Where can you find out what right amount is? On most packages of food there is a serving size. For example, on the Grape Nuts that I eat for breakfast, a portion is half cup. Use your search engine and put “portion size for fruits,” or “portion size for vegetables.”
Essential Tools for Measuring Portions
- Measuring Equipment:
- Measuring cups and spoons.
- Food scales (e.g., Weight Watchers scale for ounces/grams).
- Ice cream scoops in portion-specific sizes (¼ cup, ½ cup).
- Containers for Meal Prep:
- Zip lock sandwich bags (e.g., from Costco).
- Plastic containers with lids (variety of sizes).
- Small plastic cups (e.g., from restaurant supply stores like Gygi’s).
Here are some of the portion sizes that I use and the food that I measure ahead:
- Lean meats (4 oz. portions before cooking).
- No-fat yogurt (1 cup portions).
- No-fat cottage cheese (½ cup portions).
- Cooked butternut squash (1 cup portions).
- Blueberries (1 cup portions).
