Portion Frustration!

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farmers_daughter
farmers_daughter Posts: 1,632 Member
in Food and Nutrition
This is a semi rant, and semi cry for help/suggestions.

It's down to portions, I've made healthy switches, I do more chicken, venison, vegetables, yogurt etc etc, I know I eat out way too much for lunch but I just don't fix leftovers, I'll eat them. I'll pull the cold whatever it is out of the fridge and eat it before the next day, yes I'm sad, moving on.

For the most part I eyeball what I can't fit in a measuring cup, (I'm almost a pro at measuring 1 exact cup!) and the rest based on the pictures they show you like a deck of cards, a checkbook cover etc, I size up meat, bread and whatever else won't fit in the cup.

Someone on here said something about putting a half teaspoon of honey in something....a half of a teaspoon!! Tha't's just nuts.

My biggest beef right now is peanut butter. 2 tbsp (which is the bigger spoon - and leveled off, hard to do with the crunchy pb sometimes) is 190 calories. we are talking peanut butter here.

I know I'm trying to break something that took me 30 years to learn...(maybe a little less but you get my point) If you are like me and you know your portions are out of whack, what did it take for you to get them in whack.
I eat off of my childrens Disney plates, or the animal paperplates for the most part.
I measure to the extent that I can.
But part of it is breaking that voice "I'm still hungry"
Ugh.

Replies

  • jody664
    jody664 Posts: 397 Member
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    I didn't know my portions were out of whack until I started using a digital scale to measure everything. Six ounces of chicken is WAY less than I thought it was. I never eyeball anymore because even though I *thought* I was pretty good at measuring one cup of something, it would always be more like 1.5 cups.

    As for peanut butter, just as an experiment I tried using a tablespoon. The jar says 32g (or 2 TBSP) for 190 calories. I used my tablespoon and spooned out two tablespoons, leveled off and weighed it. It came to 50g.

    FWIW, my digital scal was $19.99 at Walmart and totally worth every penny.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    a set of spoons that includes 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoons and a digital scale that reads to 0.1g worked for me.

    Many recipes are fine if you're cooking for 4, 6 or more but when there's two of you it's tempting to eat two people's worth each.
  • FitCanuckChick
    FitCanuckChick Posts: 240 Member
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    The digital scale was a life saver for me as well. It really helps me with portion sizes also. If you were to weigh (for example) a 1/4 cup of sliced almonds and a 1/4 cup of whole almonds, the "weighing" approach would be WAY more accurate.
  • AMC4x4
    AMC4x4 Posts: 37 Member
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    I hear you. Part of my afternoon "snack" is pistachios and almonds (eaten with an apple). I'm getting to the point where it's just too many calories to be eaten for a snack. Trying to figure out what else to do. The peanut butter is probably the worst offender. There's no "light" peanut butter, is there? :)
  • lee91356
    lee91356 Posts: 330 Member
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    buying measuring cups/ spoons is the best way to go about for certain items and a food scale is better for other just read the label and make the best choice.

    A tablespoon can be surprising a lot for something and small for others.

    If pb is the biggest offender then try the pb2/ powdered peanut butter (its not exactly the same since its WAY less calories and fat, but you get the peanut buttery flavor) or eat it by the teaspoon (which is 1/3 of a tbls and 1/3 of the calories)

    But yes it is frustrating - ex: one portion of shredded cheese at 1 ounce/ 30grams is not always the same amount as a 1/4 cup even though BOTH are the serving size

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