Portion Control

Higher protein foods do leave you feeling less hungry than an equal Calories of Carbs. But you can not go completely carb free your brain will stop working. I am in the same boat, I have a huge hunger and it is hard to satisfy. It is important for me to eat bulky and low cal. foods, lettuce, celery, nuts, berries etc...

Proteins will help. I have to plan beforehand what I'm going to eat, and then stick with it. I try to eat 6 small meals every day, sometimes that helps when you can eat every 3 hours, and you are feeling hungry. For some It might be better to go with a little bit bigger meals, and space them further apart. Find out what works for you. Some people say load up on veggies, You can eat a lot of them, and still stay in your calorie range, they seem to make me hungrier when I eat them though, Maybe I'm not eating big enough servings on veggies. Drink lots of water, that helps too. Especially if you like to eat out of boredom. Good luck.

Well 1st I want to say to you to deffinetly add more protein it tends to be a filler upper, which should make u less urging the lovers of your life... Pasta and breads... LOL But I can honestly say those are my 2 weaknesses also. Just eat them in portions of 1 serving no more than 2 and you should see a difference. So great luck to you and I'd like to encourage you to do better, taking control of your portions and not allow them to control you... You'll do fine...

Since breads and pasta are your weak spot let's look at those. If you replace the standard white pasta with whole grain pasta you will be able to eat less and feel full longer. The same goes with the bread, find the highest grain breads you can and use those instead of white or over-processed wheat bread. You will see a huge difference in how much you eat to feel full. I use a 21-grain bread (Dave's Killer Bread) as a snack most days as it is a very filling bread even for one slice (110 calories). With both bread and pasta you have to watch what you put on them too. Simple sugars in pasta sauces can make you crave more carbs, it can be a vicious downward (or upward in the case of our weight) spiral.

You can also tray adding larger veggie side dishes when you have pasta. So the pasta becomes more of a sidedish than the main course. Good luck in the battle!

Keep it up this program is pretty easy and works well, the weight comes off a little slow but I think that is ok and you will keep it off longer.

I've gotten to the point that I almost never eat pasta, because I LOVE it and have a hard time stopping at one serving. I also don't eat toast. I'll have bread on a sandwich, but that's it. Even at that, I'm still getting enough carbs easily because I switched to fruits and veggies. More nutrition, good fiber, more filling, fewer cals. And still the carbs you need.

My best success with keeping my portions down and not feeling hungry is INSISTING on a filling breakfast and at least two snacks EVERY day. If I skip that snack, or if I skimp on breakfast, I have a hard time getting full at my next meal. I also try to eat slowly, but that's not usually a problem for me because I have two kids. Every other bite I'm telling somebody to get their feet off the table or stop showing everyone their "see-food." :laugh:

I was a pasta-holic before I started dieting in January. I never thought I could live without pasta. I would eat huge amounts of it frequently. Now, I don't eat it at all. As I backed off from eating it, a little at a time, it just got easier. I guess it is from eating healthy foods. I cooked bulgur wheat tonight and it tasted like pasta to me, but it is the consistency of couscous. I also eat quinoa now instead of pasta or rice. There are still about 30 carbs in each of them for a serving (which is 2/3-3/4 cup), but they are full of fiber because they are a whole grain. They are very filling. A cup of pasta would never fill me up, but less than a cup of bulgur wheat or quinoa fills me up fast. I even turned down an invitation to Olive Garden on Valentine's day...which I never thought I could do! Once you start backing off from "empty carbs" like pasta, rice, white bread, refined sugar, most cereals...you just stop craving them so much. I have replaced those carbs with "good carbs", like dried beans (black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans), fruit (frozen blueberries are a favorite and a cup only has 15 carbs), and bread made from sprouted grains (like Ezekiel bread). I am diabetic and I know when my blood sugar use to stay high it made me crave carbs really bad. Have you had your A1C checked lately?

For portion control...I have a basket sitting on my counter with measuring cups for both liquid and dry foods and measuring spoons. My son and I are doing this together and it is much easier when I keep those tools right where it is easy to use them. We also put our meals on a small saucer instead of a large plate. Most people seem to always want to fill up their plate. When you eat with a smaller plate you are filling it up and eating less at the same time.

I hope this gives you some ideas! Feel free to message me or add me as a friend. Also, my food diary is public.

Ex pasta-holic,

Angela:laugh:

Hi Tom! The most useful thing I did for portion control was to buy myself a food scale. A decent one runs between $20-$30. It may sound a little over the top but I weigh or measure everything I eat. Pasta - I only cook the 2 oz. portion, that's all that goes on my plate. It's a learning place - by seeing that much food only, you begin to understand you actually ARE satisfied with a "normal" portion. When I have days when I'm hungrier, I make myself wait 10-15 minutes after my meal and if I still want something, then I have a banana or something similar (I always have a plan of what extra I will eat so I will make good choices). If I am still hungry, again I wait 10-15 minutes before I eat something else. Often it's just the necessary time for your body to realize it's full. I hope this helps.

I have a major pasta weakness. I only cook one serving of it otherwise I know I'll eat too much. I use a food scale to measure out the dry pasta before I cook it. My other fav trick is using Ronzoni Healthy Harvest extra wide noodles. The way they cook up makes one serving look like a whole lot of food so it tricks my brain