MY UNSOLICITED OPINION ON A HOT TOPIC IN OUR HOUSEHOLD AT THE MOMENT....

Again, I’m probably going with a “boring” topic, but this is a major issue in our household at the moment so I’m going to throw my opinion out there.

Portion Control.

It’s about as mundane and ordinary a topic in the health and wellness space as you’ll ever find.

And it might be the KEY to unlocking your nutrition difficulties.

Here’s why.

In our current society, portions are MASSIVE. And massively out of control. We live in the era of super-sized EVERYTHING – drinks, sides, main dishes, all of it. Giant cookies. Enormous muffins. King-sized candy bars.

And unfortunately, eating at home can be just as bad. Filling a large plate with huge scoops of whatever you’ve made for dinner. Going back for second or third helpings.

Maybe you were taught as a kid to clean your plate. Maybe you suffered from food insecurity at some point in your life and learned to eat what you could, when you could, because you might have to wait a long time before you were able to eat again.

Or even in my husband’s case, he was diagnosed with a chronic disease and his medication made him sick. Like, VERY sick. The nausea was so intense that he literally threw up everything he ate with the exception of cucumbers and baked potatoes. Once his medication was leveled out and the nausea eased up, he ate much more than normal because he could FINALLY eat without being sick from it.

Illness and medication can tremendously affect how much food you’re really eating.

More than likely, you don’t even know you’re overeating because you don’t know what an appropriate portion size IS. Without actually weighing out or using measuring cups, do you know what 4 oz of grilled chicken looks like? Do you know what a 1 oz serving of cheese is? How much of your plate is filled with 1 cup of cooked vegetables, or 1/2 cup of cooked pasta?

And do you actually KNOW the correct servings? That a serving of lean protein is 3-4 oz? That a serving of vegetables is 1-2 cups, depending on the vegetable? That a serving of cooked whole grains is ½ cup?

For all of these reasons, and I’m sure there are plenty more I haven’t mentioned, it can be very difficult to accurately track your food intake. Are you eating too much? How MUCH too much?

This is why portion control is the underrated hero in your nutrition game. Because my guess is as busy moms, we’re just slapping food on a plate – even if it’s incredibly healthy for us – and going about our business. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to sit down peacefully with your family and enjoy a leisurely meal, then I salute you! Well done, mom!

But if you’re anything like me, you’re throwing something together (as healthy as you can) before you’re headed out to the next THING your family has going on, and you’re not tracking how big a portion that chicken wrap was, how much chicken was actually on it, how many servings of vegetables were in it (if any), was the dressing in it the right serving size or too much, etc.

There are two things you can start doing almost immediately to take back control of your portion sizes: 

Before you eat, look up what the correct amount of food is in a serving. How many strawberries are considered a serving? How much chicken? How much spaghetti? Honestly, a quick Google search will pop the answer up in seconds. Or anything that comes in a package with a food label should have the correct serving size marked on it. If not, Google.

The second thing you can do is actually measure out a correct portion. If you look up that a serving of spaghetti is ½ cup, take out your measuring cup and fill it with noodles. Then dump those noodles on a luncheon plate or in a bowl. That’s what a correct serving looks like. How many meatballs are in a serving? How much sauce? Once you’ve found the correct serving size for everything, put it on a plate or in a bowl and get a good VISUAL of what it looks like.

That’s the amount of food you should be eating.

And if you want to get SUPER accurate, order a food scale and start measuring out all your cooked food on the scale to be even more on point with what you’re eating.

But these are quick and easy ways to get your portions back into the appropriate ranges. With the huge differences in serving sizes out there in the real world, it’s hard to tell anymore what’s accurate and what’s not. However, if you can figure out what the correct servings actually ARE, then you will be better prepared the next time you walk into a Chipotle or Qdoba and order the street tacos instead of a burrito because….serving sizes. Or eat half of your meal in a sit-down restaurant and then take the rest home in a to-go box for the next day.

Once you know what you’re really supposed to be eating – and how much you’re NOT supposed to be eating – it becomes much easier to eat healthy amounts of food. And you will start to notice the benefits right away: better digestion from not overeating, regulated blood sugar levels, more energy, weight loss, saving money.

For a busy mom, portion control might be one of the easiest things you can do for a healthy lifestyle. With nothing more than a measuring cup and Google, you can change the trajectory of your health journey and make a lot of headway towards your health, nutrition, and wellness goals.

And if you would like a hand to help you meet your health and nutrition goals, Book a FREE Consultation Call with me to see how health and nutrition coaching can benefit you.