Share your portion control tricks.....

I love my digital scale a bit too much for an inanimate object.

For snacks, I simply ziploc a few servings to have on hand to grab when I'm in a hurry. Otherwise I just use my scale to portion out food during meals. My mother sometimes sighs impatiently when I'm fixing myself a plate and weighing each and every morsel on my plate.

Put away the leftovers ASAP. One way is to only make enough food so that there ARE no leftovers, but that can be expensive and inefficient.

When I make casserole, big all-in-one pot, etc., I usually put away the excess of the calorie-dense part even before we sit down to eat. I divide it up into (estimated) 400-500 calorie portions (basically, one meal) and put it away in containers.

The veggies and salad stay out as long as necessary--that's where you go back for "seconds".

It also helps to control portions the next day, because you just grab a container and that's it. It's a poor man's NutriSystem.

In the beginning, I measured everything, so I knew exactly what 300 calories looked like, or 400, or 500. That way I was able to define the total number of calories on the plate and say "that's it".

One of the most frustrating things for me is cooking rice or pasta. Most of the lables and databases list the serving portion as the "uncooked" weight. Sometimes I just cook one or two servings, but more often I cook the whole box and save the remainder for quick leftovers (pasta primavera is a great "refrigerator cleaner" at the end of the week). So, after I cook up the box, before serving any of the cooked pasta, I take the whole amount and weigh it, divide by the total servings on the package, and I have my cooked portion size.

But for serving food, the answer is, I think, you just measure everything. If it is a new dish, I use MFP to calculate all the components, come up with a total serving size and calorie amount, and then measure everything. Now I don't do it as much because I have a good visual memory and am consistent in my portions, but for the first couple of months, I used my measuring cups, spoons, and digital scale non stop--nothing went into my mouth unless it had been accounted for! It's very educational.

I measure everything, sometimes annoying but mostly not.

I have a ton of measuring cups and spoons, so I know exactly how much I am eating. I also serve meals on the smaller salad plates, we hardley ever use our huge dinner plates. I pretty much never go back for seconds. I serve our meals on the plates then we sit down. The food is not left on the table for us to keep digging into. I try to make just enough so that there aren't any leftovers like Azdak but then I worry about having unexpected guests, which happens. Usually I give the leftovers to my husband to take for lunch for the next day.

Demetria

As soon as I finish cooking, I quickly clean up and put everything away (leaving the dishes for later, I don't want my food to get too cold!) That way, if i feel like I might want more, I have to then drag everything out again and redo everything and reclean it all! Sometimes laziness is a cure for when you think you're hungry! :laugh:

Aside from that, measuring every little thing is they key. Scales, measuring cups, I use all of that constantly. And being honest when you log your food, that'll keep your portions in check too, when you see it right there in black & white!

I have a new outlook on leftovers:
Throw them out unless they fit into my meal plans for the next few days! :bigsmile:
I figure that tossing a "dab" of something is much better than licking the bowls myself - which is what I would usually do. I put the pans in the sink & run soapy water asap.
I know it's a little wasteful, but what is it we always say? "I'm worth it."
I save money other ways, & it isn't that much anyhow - it's just more than I need.

I bought the 1/2 cup Glad bowls and love them!!
When I put my 1 oz of cheese in a baggie, it looks so small and lonely
In the cup it looks like a serving.

If I take a few candies or something out of the bag, I log them on MFP before eating them. That way if I wanted to go have more, I'd have to do change the logging again, and even tht little extra trouble can be enough to tip the scales so to speak...

I love my digital scale a bit too much for an inanimate object.

For snacks, I simply ziploc a few servings to have on hand to grab when I'm in a hurry. Otherwise I just use my scale to portion out food during meals. My mother sometimes sighs impatiently when I'm fixing myself a plate and weighing each and every morsel on my plate.

Exactly. I love my digital scale. I do the same thing. I weigh everything, put snacks in the small snack size baggies or the 1/2 cup Gladware (perfect for 1 portion of cottage cheese), and then they are easy to grab and go. I *never* just eat something out of the box or can. I weigh my cereal, nuts, chicken breast, everything!! :bigsmile:

Don't leave food sitting out. Like said above, make your dinner and put away the rest. I cook extra things like chicken breasts, then I weigh them into 3 or 4oz portions and put them in baggies in the fridge. Then for a quick lunch, it's already ready to add to a salad, wrap, etc.

Use the smaller size plates for regular meals - makes it look like so much more - I usually try to cook twice as much of the "good" stuff that's going with supper

Anytime you can make your food "look" like you have more than you really do its a plus!!

I make myself eat twice the amount of veggies as I do 'unhealthy' sides.
For example, a 1/4c of mac n cheese results in at least 1/2c of green beans on my plate.
For seconds, I must follow that rule too. Helps me to fill up on veggies instead of mac n cheese.

I definitely agree with this. I make sure the green is taking up the majority of my plate and I eat most of it before I eat anything else. It really helps me fill up for fewer calories.

Before I started 2 weeks ago, we rarely had any green veggies at all with our entrees. What a difference vegetables make. Losing weight and being healthy feels so much easier this time than when I tried 4 years ago. I've lost over 10 pounds in 2 weeks while totally stuffing my face almost every day. :laugh: Lots of veggies + exercise = weight loss for me.

With my leftovers, I just portion them. I cook at home a lot and I calculate the total calories in every entree I make, then divide by # of servings. I weigh and measure everything that goes into the dish but when it's time to eat, I just split it into servings by sight. I figure my boyfriend & I are the only ones eating, so if there are 8 servings and we each have 4 servings in a week, those servings are going to average out. Even if one serving was 320 calories and another was 360, they average to 340 so if that's what I'm logging each time I eat a serving, that's just fine. I have a lot of weight to lose, so possibly being 40 calories over one day and 40 calories under the next isn't going to really make a difference for me.

I measure my veggies because it's easy. I use my digital scale to weigh fruit and other snacks.