The dreaded Portion Distortion

Now how many times have you gone out to a restaurant and finished everything on your plate? I know I use to do this all the time. Unless your eating a plate of salad with no dressing, you could be taking in thousands of calories, and definitely atleast 2-3 portion sizes. This is not your fault, as the restaurant is not going to say, 'hey, here is your food, but there is enough food on this plate to feed your whole family.' No, you are going to get a plate of food and be expected to finish the whole thing. Before you know it, you are ridiculously stuffed and have eaten way more than you should have! Yes, we have all fallen victim to portion distortion at one point or another. Here are a few key points to remember when trying to figure out a portion size: 3 oz of meat = deck of cards 3 oz of fish = checkbook, not the checks but a checkBOOK 1 oz of cheese = 4 dice 1 tsp. of butter or margarine = postage stamp (the standard size guys, let not get crazy here) 1/4 Cup of mixed nuts, dried fruits, granola = size of golf ball 2 tablespoons of peanut butter = size of ping pong ball 1 cup of pasta or cereal = size of baseball 2 tablespoons of salad dressing = one full shot glass Another trick that can help you with portion distortion is use smaller plates. Try not to put your food on big dinner plates, but use salad plates. You eat with your eyes first, and you'll realize that food fills up on the salad plate when you are using the correct portions! Another eating out tip: When ordering your food, ask the waiter/waitress to pack half of the meal away in a doggie bag. This way you know you cannot over eat because the food will not be in front of you! I hope this was helpful to everyone!!

Question of the day...How do you measure your fruit? Like how would you measure apple, pear, etc.

This is a good question, considering many apples, oranges, banana's are of different sizes. Fruits like apples and oranges, I usually measure as the size of a baseball. A grapefruit I measure as a size of a softball. The trickiest fruit I think is the banana. I see huge banana's in the grocery store! I will take the smallest banana bunch I can find, and make each banana one serving size. Anything larger, I add about 1 WW pt. I find pears are usually around the same size, and still count each pear as 1 WW pt. Grapes, I'll usually measure them out in an eight ounce cup to get an exact portion.

****New Tool: Pasta Measurer****

Hi Guys,

I know I always make pasta dishes made with Whole Wheat Rigatoni or Penne, however I do like to use good old fashioned spaghetti, angel hair or linguinie -only if it's whole grain or multigrain though :-P How do I measure out perfect pasta portions? I use the thingamabobber on the left! Google pasta measurer and you'll see Amazon and Crate and Barrel selling them! This tool comes in handy so you do not OD on the pasta portion sizes!

Helpful Hint for Pasta Portion Sizes

Hi Guys, I thought I'd share a helpful hint on how I portion out my pasta. This tip can be used for any type of pasta, except for long pastas such as Spaghetti and Angel Hair. This tip is great for pastas like Penne, Spirals, Shells..etc. So, on the side of the box, under Nutrition Facts, you should see 'Servings Per Container'. In my case, my Penne has 7 servings, which are 2 oz. Since I have a hard time of knowing what 2 oz. of pasta looks like -seriously, can you really tell? Here's my tip: I take my muffin tin, which makes 12 muffins. I then start to fill up 7 of the muffin tins with pasta. Once they are EVENLY filled, I know I have my portion sizes. I then individually wrap these servings in a small ziploc bag, and put the bags back in the pasta box. And there you have it, when you want pasta, you have a perfect portion to take out of your box. This way it's quick and you know you're not over eating!! Hope this helps!!

Portion Distortion

Now how many times have you gone out to a restaurant and finished everything on your plate? I know I use to do this all the time. Unless your eating a plate of salad with no dressing, you could be taking in thousands of calories, and definitely atleast 2-3 portion sizes. This is not your fault, as the restaurant is not going to say, 'hey, here is your food, but there is enough food on this plate to feed your whole family.' No, you are going to get a plate of food and be expected to finish the whole thing. Before you know it, you are ridiculously stuffed and have eaten way more than you should have! Yes, we have all fallen victim to portion distortion at one point or another. Here are a few key points to remember when trying to figure out a portion size:

• 3 oz of meat = deck of cards
• 3 oz of fish = checkbook, not the checks but a checkBOOK
• 1 oz of cheese = 4 dice
• 1 tsp. of butter or margarine = postage stamp (the standard size guys, let not get crazy here)
• 1/4 Cup of mixed nuts, dried fruits, granola = size of golf ball
• 2 tablespoons of peanut butter = size of ping pong ball
• 1 cup of pasta or cereal = size of baseball
• 2 tablespoons of salad dressing = one full shot glass

Guys, a lot of this I already knew, but I did learn most of these from prevention.com(another great site!). Another trick that can help you with portion distortion is use smaller plates. Try not to put your food on big dinner plates, but use salad plates. You eat with your eyes first, and you'll realize that food fills up on the salad plate when you are using the correct portions! I hope this was helpful to everyone!!