So you have been journaling your diet for a week now and, as we start week two, I want you to really pay attention to the piece you are doing in acknowledging your serving size amounts in the portions you are consuming.
I find that my biggest issue with fat loss comes from overestimating the serving size of my snacks and meals. Although I admit that sometimes I purposefully choose to eat way more than a serving. Why would I do this? Well, for one, I love food!
I am a fresh off the boat third generation Italian girl. My love of food has been taught to me throughout my youth. I love the way food tastes, smells, looks, and feels! I especially love the adventure of cooking food - taking some ingredients and making a delicious and beautiful concoction out of them makes me so happy!
Then there are those times when I have not ate anything for awhile, I feel so incredibly hungry, so I load my plate up to full and, because I love food, I eat every last bite! Even though I am typically feeling satiated and full way before I get to the end of the plate.
These are hard habits to break. More importantly they are even harder habits to discover and admit too. Especially when I find myself slipping right back into them from time to time.
Yet, as classic G.I. Joe cartoons will tell you, "knowing is half the battle!"
It truly is, being aware helps me to curb these habits. I can tell myself, "don't load your plate, you are just feeling hungry RIGHT NOW, but if you put ALL of this on your plate you are going to regret it and feel stuffed in just a few."
This is the point where understanding what serving size your portions actually equate to helps! Knowing what a serving is truly aids me in filling my plate correctly and helps me to enjoy eating what I want without worrying about the habits that got me into trouble taking over again.
What is a Serving
A serving is the amount of food "experts" recommend you eat of a particular food type. Whereas a portion is the amount of food you actually eat.
For example I love avocados! When I eat an avocado I can't help but eat the WHOLE thing! So my portion is one whole avocado, however, the recommended serving is 1/4 of an avocado. That means I am eating 4 servings of avocado in one portion.
Learning what the recommended serving size is can be so much easier when you can equate it to physical objects you are familiar with. Below are a few charts I found on SparkPeople.com that I thought might help others in analyzing their portions as well.
Fruits and Veggies:
Dairy:
Fats & Oils:
Now, I listed what the recommended serving sizes are but I did not give you the recommended daily servings. You may be wondering why, and no, it is not because I am opposed to those "expert" recommended guidelines like so many other fat loss guru's seem to be.
I did not share them simply because they are not necessarily right for each person. Finding out what is right for you is exactly what we are trying to do here. There is no "average" here. Just you, discovering how you can eat the way you like and get healthier, leaner, and, (for so many of us), more confident with who you are and how you care for yourself!
The first step in doing this is working on getting your portions under control. Eventually we will try making our portions equate to a serving of whatever items we are having for our meals and snacks. Getting this part down is way harder than it sounds and, as we will learn, does not always equate to failure if you go under or over those "expert" recommendations.
For now though, just keep writing what you eat - but this time with more accuracy as to WHAT servings are in the portions you are eating. Do not try adjusting anything just yet. This is still just a learning process, go with it and find your bottom line before you try and adjust how your bottom looks!
Examining Me
Speaking of bottom lines ... here it is, as promised, my Food Journal for week one.
On average I have about 5 "meals" a day. Of these 5 meals I go over in my servings about 2 times per day and under maybe 2 times a week.
When you look at your portions and the servings within them do not let your overages scare you too much yet. We are still in that learning phase. Still trying to figure out what our diet is and right now, we are just trying to become familar with our typical portions and what a serving looks like within them.
Next week we will start trying to make some adjustments to our diets and most likely see just how hard it really is to change these habits we have formed!
WE CAN DO IT THOUGH!
~TigressSky~
I find that my biggest issue with fat loss comes from overestimating the serving size of my snacks and meals. Although I admit that sometimes I purposefully choose to eat way more than a serving. Why would I do this? Well, for one, I love food!
I am a fresh off the boat third generation Italian girl. My love of food has been taught to me throughout my youth. I love the way food tastes, smells, looks, and feels! I especially love the adventure of cooking food - taking some ingredients and making a delicious and beautiful concoction out of them makes me so happy!
Then there are those times when I have not ate anything for awhile, I feel so incredibly hungry, so I load my plate up to full and, because I love food, I eat every last bite! Even though I am typically feeling satiated and full way before I get to the end of the plate.
These are hard habits to break. More importantly they are even harder habits to discover and admit too. Especially when I find myself slipping right back into them from time to time.Yet, as classic G.I. Joe cartoons will tell you, "knowing is half the battle!"
It truly is, being aware helps me to curb these habits. I can tell myself, "don't load your plate, you are just feeling hungry RIGHT NOW, but if you put ALL of this on your plate you are going to regret it and feel stuffed in just a few."
This is the point where understanding what serving size your portions actually equate to helps! Knowing what a serving is truly aids me in filling my plate correctly and helps me to enjoy eating what I want without worrying about the habits that got me into trouble taking over again.
What is a Serving
A serving is the amount of food "experts" recommend you eat of a particular food type. Whereas a portion is the amount of food you actually eat.
For example I love avocados! When I eat an avocado I can't help but eat the WHOLE thing! So my portion is one whole avocado, however, the recommended serving is 1/4 of an avocado. That means I am eating 4 servings of avocado in one portion.
Learning what the recommended serving size is can be so much easier when you can equate it to physical objects you are familiar with. Below are a few charts I found on SparkPeople.com that I thought might help others in analyzing their portions as well.
Fruits and Veggies:
Meats, Legumes, and Proteins: 
Grains:
Dairy:
Fats & Oils:
Now, I listed what the recommended serving sizes are but I did not give you the recommended daily servings. You may be wondering why, and no, it is not because I am opposed to those "expert" recommended guidelines like so many other fat loss guru's seem to be.
I did not share them simply because they are not necessarily right for each person. Finding out what is right for you is exactly what we are trying to do here. There is no "average" here. Just you, discovering how you can eat the way you like and get healthier, leaner, and, (for so many of us), more confident with who you are and how you care for yourself!
For now though, just keep writing what you eat - but this time with more accuracy as to WHAT servings are in the portions you are eating. Do not try adjusting anything just yet. This is still just a learning process, go with it and find your bottom line before you try and adjust how your bottom looks!
Examining Me
Speaking of bottom lines ... here it is, as promised, my Food Journal for week one.
On average I have about 5 "meals" a day. Of these 5 meals I go over in my servings about 2 times per day and under maybe 2 times a week.
When you look at your portions and the servings within them do not let your overages scare you too much yet. We are still in that learning phase. Still trying to figure out what our diet is and right now, we are just trying to become familar with our typical portions and what a serving looks like within them.
Next week we will start trying to make some adjustments to our diets and most likely see just how hard it really is to change these habits we have formed!
WE CAN DO IT THOUGH!
~TigressSky~
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