Lose Weight With These Easy Portion Control Tips

March 21, 2013March 20, 2013

Did you know that the average restaurant meal is now four times larger than a meal in the 1950’s? It’s no wonder that the average adult is 26 pounds heavier than sixty years ago!

You can lose weight with portion control. That’s one of the most important secrets behind weight loss. When you cut back on portion sizes and take a balanced approach to healthy eating, you will see your weight drop.

Unlike restrictive diets which can lead to binging, portion control teaches you how to eat the foods you like in moderation. You may be asking how to control portion sizes without scales and various other measuring tools, or what to do when you eat out. Great questions!

Five Simple Tips for Portion Control:

1) Read the fine print! Yes! The labels will tell you how many calories, but make sure you read how many servings are in that bag of chips, energy drink, soda, box of crackers, etc. Most snack size bags are actually two servings — not one!

2) Are your plates super sized? Over the years it’s become fashionable to have large plates. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to get new dishes! However, a plate that is smaller will appear fuller and may satisfy you more.

If you feel like you need the extra visual help, you can purchase plates that have the portion sizes built into them. Everything from plastic to china. Another way I combat the empty looking plate is to use bowls. They appear fuller and I am able to scoop out the proper portion sizes with a ladle.

3) Develop a simple visual system. Not all plates are created equal. so it’s helpful to know what a proper serving is. Here are some visual cues/examples to help you with portion size:

Vegetables or fruit: about the size of your fist.
Carbohydrates like pasta, rice, and starchy vegetables: A single serving is 1/2 cup or the size of a cupcake wrapper.
Meat, fish, or poultry: the size of a deck of cards or the size of your palm (minus the fingers).
Snacks such as pretzels and chips: about the size of a cupped handful.
Apple: the size of a baseball.
Potato: the size of a computer mouse.
Bagel: the size of a hockey puck.
Pancakes or lunch meat: the size of a compact disc.
Cheese: the size of a pair of dice or the size of your whole thumb (from the tip to the base).
A tablespoon of food such as peanut butter, salad dressing, hummus: The size of your whole thumb.

4) It’s okay to go back for seconds! Try serving from the kitchen counter to avoid reaching mindlessly for a second helping. If after 20 minutes you are still hungry, then go back and load up on veggies or a 1/4 to 1/2 second serving.

Eating out? No problem. Ask your server about the portion sizes. Start with one or two dishes and then decide if you want more. The kitchen will still be there!

5) You do not have to finish everything on your plate! Many of us were raised not to waste. This was a really important thing to teach us as children, and I am grateful for that up-bringing. Unfortunately, this has been linked to overeating in adults.

I give you full permission to leave food on your plate. You will not be sent to your room! That may sound silly. However, so much of our childhood training affects the way we look at food. If you are like me and really dislike wasting food, then simply place whatever is left in a small container. You can have it as a snack or combine it with your lunch.

So there you go! These strategies can be implemented right away to help you with weight loss. Portion control is one of the best ways to begin cutting back on unnecessary calories without depriving yourself.

Have questions or tricks to share? I’d love to hear from you below!

Blessings to you and yours!

Jennifer

How to Get Enough Water, Even If You Hate Water

February 4, 2013February 3, 2013

Everyone tells you to drink more water– and it’s life threatening if you don’t get enough.

But what if you really hate to drink water?

First of all, I get it. Some people really don’t like drinking water. It’s normally not because they “hate” the taste of water. It’s usually because water doesn’t have any taste at all. Simply put, water by itself can be boring!

However, not only is it important to stay hydrated for health reasons, being properly hydrated also helps you lose weight.

Let me explain.

Water does help you lose weight! Here’s how:

Two glasses of water prior to a meal helped middle aged and older adults feel full longer, research studies found.
Water cuts out a ton of calories when you replace your regular beverage with water!
Guess what? A hydrated body looks leaner. Why? Because when you’re dehydrated, you retain water. Yikes!
I bet the magazine rack has at least one headline screaming “Rev up your metabolism with this one trick!” Well, here’s a good one. Just drink enough and your body will be able to metabolize properly. When you’re dehydrated, your metabolism may slow down. We all know what that means for weight loss!

So how much water should you be drinking?

It depends. The suggested guidelines for water consumption used to be sixty-four ounces per day. While it is still a good amount of water for some, others may need more. Here are some guidelines to help you decide:

Drink more fluids when you are in situations where your body loses water:

in warmer climates,
during more intense exercise,
at high altitudes.

Try to be more aware of your water intake:

if you’re the type of person who usually doesn’t notice thirst; or
when you are very busy and likely to forget to drink.
If you talk for a living. Water is lost though saliva.

Five tips to increase your fluid intake:

1) Try naturally flavored waters. Flavored water and various other “hydrating” drinks usually have some type of sugar in them, pay attention to the calories on the label.

An alternative to buying flavored waters would be making your own. The possibilities are endless. Cucumber, mint, ginger, lemon, lime, strawberries, and raspberries are all examples of natural foods and herbs you can flavor your water with.

2) Eat food that’s mostly water. Choose foods high in water like oranges, watermelon, yoghurt, grapefruit, pineapples, and broth-based soups.

(3) Replace still water with sparkling water. If you discover sparkling water works for you, consider getting an in home soda machine. They take up very little counter space. You also save money and there are less bottles to recycle. This helped my husband Matthew go from not liking water to drinking plenty of it!

4) Coffe and tea can help. Coffee and tea count as fluids, but the caffeine is a diuretic which can leave you dehydrated if you don’t follow up with other non-caffeinated beverages. Choosing naturally caffeine free herbal teas and decaf coffees will help you get the fluids without losing as much water.

5) Have a hydrating beverage with every meal. Tacking a new goal on to an established habit is usually less daunting than trying to develop a new habit on it’s own. For example setting a goal of drinking a glass of sparkling water at dinner seems more manageable than a goal to drink 64 oz. of water every day.

How do you know when you’re getting enough water?

The best way to tell if you are hydrated is the color of your urine. Clear to pale yellow is ideal. Yellow to dark yellow means you need water, and if it looks like tea or beer you are dehydrated! Supplements can also cause urine to be dark yellow. So keep that in consideration.

Avoid allowing yourself to get “thirsty”. If you are getting a thirst signal then the body is already too low on water!

At first it may seem like you have to go to the bathroom a lot. This is normal when you up your water consumption. It is not uncommon to have to use the restroom every hour.

If you sit at a desk, this will encourage you to get up and move every hour. It also allows you to monitor your progress!

Here is a fun recipe for Raspberry water courtesy of Face Magic in Albany, CA.

Raspberry Water

1 Pitcher of Water
1 bag of Frozen Organic Raspberries
Place the raspberries in the water and allow it to turn the water a pinkish red color. Pour in nice glasses and enjoy!

Have a question or a comment? Leave a note for me below. I love to hear from you!

Blessings!

Jennifer Ledford

If I Skip Meals Will I Lose Weight?

January 17, 2013January 15, 2013

Does your new year’s resolution have you tempted to skip meals to lose weight? If so, you’re not alone. It’s very common for people to experiment by skipping meals to accelerate their weight loss — especially in January after the holiday festivities!

It’s no secret that you must cut and/0r burn calories to lose weight. And, while skipping meals may produce quick weight loss in the beginning, the reality is, the long term results of a “starvation” type diet can be devastating.

Four Reasons not to skip meals!

1) Slows down your metabolism. When you skip meals, your body goes into “starvation” mode. This causes the body to slow the metabolism for survival and use less calories throughout the day. That’s the last thing you want when you are trying to lose weight!

2) Unsustainable! Skipping meals to lose weight does not create habits that will help maintain your weight loss for good. It actually does the opposite. Once you’ve lost the weight and begin eating normally again, you will most likely gain all of the weight back. In many cases more than you started with!

3) Harmful to your health! Skipping meals deprives your body of the fuel it needs to operate properly. It affects your blood sugar, which will cloud your thinking and cause fatigue. People who skip meals are usually robbing their body of essential nutrients and can experience a weakened immune system as well as other negative side effects.

4) Causes Overeating! When you allow yourself to get overly hungry, you are more likely to overeat and/or binge. This will cause you to consume more calories than you normally would in one sitting, sabotaging all of your efforts to cut back.

Lose weight the smart way!

1) Knowledge is key! Start by figuring out how many calories you need to cut out in order to reach your goal. Use an app like loseit to calculate what you consume versus how much you burn. Once you determine the deficit, you can decide each day what changes you want to make.

2) Make a plan! The best way to lose weight permanently is to create a healthy eating plan and an exercise routine you can stick to.

A healthy (balanced) eating plan is usually a combination of three larger meals (aka breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with two snacks in between. Depending on what time you eat dinner, an evening snack may be needed as well. Don’t go to bed hungry!

Here’s an example of a balanced approach to a healthy eating plan:

Breakfast 400 calories

Snack 200 calories

Lunch 400 calories

Snack 200 calories

Dinner 400 calories

Total calories 1600.

This is for sample purposes. You’ll want to calculate your own total. You may discover you need more than 1600 calories depending on how active you are or how much exercise you plan on doing.

Skipping meals may seen enticing in the beginning, but long term success comes from a more balanced approach. Besides, a balanced approach should sound a whole lot more fun and realistic to you than being hungry all the time.

Please let me know if you have any questions by commenting below! I am here to help you succeed!