Day 31: Portion Control

I've been on vacation in Tennessee for the past couple of days and vacation time usually means a lot of eating out which can spell diet disaster!
I've been trying really hard to make good choices when I eat out...choices such as ordering healthier options from the menu (rice instead of fries), splitting my meal in half and taking home the rest, and ordering water instead of soda.

All of these techniques help, but sometimes we just have to realize that restaurant portions are so huge. The typical restaurant meal is probably enough for two, so I always like to save at least half of my meal for the next day.

But how do we know exactly how much we're getting? Sometimes I'm lazy and I try to just eyeball it. I think that has probably caused me to eat more than I actually should because I can't trust my eyes to tell me what 1/2 cup of something looks like. I think I know, but I'm probably way off. And I think the more I try to eyeball things, over time my portions gradually increase until they're huge or I just stop worrying about portions all together.

As a guide, my Weight Watcher's book provided some basic ideas on what actual portion sizes should be. If you're out and about and you don't have measuring cups or a scale with you, use these simple guidelines to determine how much you should be eating.

A fist is equal to about 1 cup.
Your entire thumb is about the size of 1 ounce of meat or cheese.
The tip of your thumb (from the tip to your first knuckle) is about 1 Tablespoon.
The tip of your index finger is about 1 teaspoon.
The middle part of your index finger (from the first to the second joint) is about 1 inch.
A cupped hand will hold about 1 to 2 ounces of nuts or pretzels.
Your palm is about the size of 3 ounces of meat, fish or poultry.

I have some more visual tricks for determining the correct portion size of some common foods. But I'll save those for another day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Good Friday!