Portion Control

Hey all,
First, I just want to say hi and thanks to everyone here. I just joined a couple days ago, and while my weight loss goal isn't too terribly much, everyone here is so supportive and helpful. I've been reading and smiling and nodding in agreement. You guys rock! Keep up the hard work and helpful words.
Now, on to my topic...

As I said, I've only been reading for a couple days, but I don't see much about portion control.
I see lots of people asking about tips and tricks and I've found that portion control is usually my biggest "trick".

I'm sure everyone has heard that after eating it takes your brain about 20 minutes to register that you are full. My advice is to work WITH your brain, not against it.
Here's what I do: (using dinner as an example because this works best for dinner)
First of all, once dinner is prepared, I leave the food in the kitchen. I do not bring it to the dinner table to serve myself there. I prepare my plate there in the kitchen and then go out to the table (or wherever) to eat.
When I'm preparing my plate, I place the food on my plate and look at it. What is my first thought? Do I look at it and think, "I'm pretty hungry, I don't think that's going to be enough."? If so, I walk away at that point. I do NOT keep adding food to my plate until I think it's enough. I WANT to think it won't be enough.
Then, when I eat, I try to eat slowly. There are many things you can do to aid this: chew your food 25 times, put down your fork between bites, cut bites off the steak as you eat them rather than cutting it all up at once and then eating.
I try to occasionally check with my stomach as I eat. Do I feel full yet? But to be honest, I usually end up eating everything on my plate because I didn't put that much there to begin with.
The key is this: once I am done eating that serving I set my plate down. I continue the conversation with my boyfriend or focus entirely on the movie we're watching. I distract myself. Then, if I realize I'm still hungry, I can go back for a little more (key word: little). But since I've started doing this, I have yet to go back for more. I don't need it!
My body has time to realize I'm full, or at least satisfied and I don't ever go back for seconds. And because the food is in the kitchen, it makes it more of an effort to get up and go get the second helping rather than having it right there within reach.

I'm sure everyone has heard of this or something similar (a popular method is to use smaller plates), but in this day and age of extreme surgeries and bogus diet pills and crazy fad diets, I thought something this simple deserved to be pointed out (again) as a healthy option.
Eat what you want! Just limit how much of it you eat. Give your body time to register that you've eaten it before you consider getting more.

*shrugs* It works for me because I tend to eat fast and I'd eat way more than I needed before my body told me I was full.
Anyway, I'll shut up now.
Take care, and keep up the hard work. You're worth it!