Saturday, February 26, 2011

If you bite it...measure it

At the Weight Watcher's meeting this week the topic was portion control and knowing what a REAL portion is, looks like and consuming that instead of two, three even four times the suggested serving size amount.  Do you know what a serving of chips is?  How about cookies or ice cream or even broccoli?  If you're on the journey to lose weight and/or become healthier in your eating habits it greatly behooves you to know.

If you are using the Weight Watcher's PointsPlus program to achieve your weight loss goal you absolutely must pay attention to servings. Otherwise you will be counting too few points for the amount of food you are eating and wondering on weigh in day why you've gained instead of lost.  A can of soup...even the little ones that come in the "bowl" packaging that go in the microwave, are TWO servings.  So if you quickly look at the NI and figure the points for it assuming because it APPEARS to be a single serving item, well, you know the rest.

Good measuring tools are essential to proper portion control.  Not only for the obvious reason, which is um...measuring, but having them handy and easily accessible greatly increases the chances that you will indeed measure that peanut butter before spreading it on your bread.  So my advice (and something I am doing more and more as I go) is to always have them handy when possible.  Meaning at home or even at someone else's home.  I realize you can't exactly whip out a measuring cup and spoon set in Macaroni Grill though so there are other ways you can keep an eye on your portion sizes.  **Be wary that most restaurants are serving you anywhere between 2 and 20 servings on that plate.  ;0)

In the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t296wOYA6is) I show you in my Weight Watcher's pocket guide how to "eyeball" a portion of meat, cheese, potato etc.  Everything from a cup size to 1 teaspoon and all using your hands.  Granted it's not exact but it's close enough that it greatly improves your chances of not over eating and counting too little points/fat/calories for the food items.  From the bottom of the palm of your hand to the base of your fingers (the inside of your hand) is approximately 3 ounces of meat/seafood. Which actually resembles a deck of cards or a cassette tape (if you know what that looks like..lol)

When you cup your hand it's approximately 1-2 ounces of nuts or pretzels.  Your fist is about 1 cup of pasta, rice, mashed potatoes etc.  Or envision this as the approximate size of a 1 cup portion:

Your thumb, from tip to base, is about 1 ounce of meat or cheese.  Your thumb, from tip to first joint, is about 1 tablespoon (which is the size of three dice because three teaspoons equals one tablespoon) and from the tip to the first joint of your index fingers measures approximately 1 teaspoon.
Imagine one of these as one teaspoon:

This comes in VERY handy when eating out or somewhere you don't have the ability to measure your own food.  Might I also suggest asking how a dish is prepared.  IE. is it fried in butter or oil, do the vegetables have butter on them, is there milk in the mashed potatoes and if so what type...very handy in figuring out what you are actually ingesting and how many points/calories etc.

The Weight Watcher's spoons I showed in the video are $19.99 (where I live at least) and can be purchased at any Weight Watcher's meeting place, you do not have to be a member to purchase products.  VERY cool!

And the Pampered Chef spoon I showed you (as well as the one I describe in the description box under the video on YouTube) can be purchased through any consultant.  Just go to www.pamperedchef.com and click "Find a Consultant" located at the top middle of the main page.  I love Pampered Chef products because they DO what they CLAIM, they last a very long time and the company backs their products %100.  LOVE.

They also have a double ended measuring spoon, one end a tablespoon, the other a teaspoon and it clips onto things such as a package of food etc making it very handy!

Well I hope that was useful to you and if you have any questions, comments or tips to share with us please feel free to leave me a comment below or on the YouTube video.  And have a great, healthy week where you lose a little of yourself.  But not the good parts!

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