September Week 4: Shifting Out of Portion Distortion

As we continue re-focusing ourselves on our weight mastery structure this September, I want to look at something that is crucial to weight release: the concept of portions and getting clear on what a portion looks like.

Over the years, our culture has re-adapted our eyes to what a serving size is. What used to be a dinner for 4 is now presented to you on a plate at a restaurant as a single serving and we now believe unconsciously that it is a single serving. We have adapted the outside world’s idea of what a portion is into our own beliefs and often forget what a real single serving looks like.

Since we use our eyes more than our stomach as the judge of how much we should eat, one of the ways we can manage our perceptions is to re-train our eyes. Our eyes are helpful, but they tend to misjudge the size of a true portion.  I know personally that I have to get out my food scale and measuring cup to remind myself of what 3 oz of chicken looks like or how much cantaloupe actually fits into a cup container because my eyes are often off!

Often my best estimate is off by enough that if I thought the serving was 50 calories, the actual calories would be 80 calories. That might seems like very little, but if I added up all the inaccuracies, by the end of the day, I may be off as much as 400 calories or more. If I am trying to release a pound a week and I think I am burning 500 calories a day to reach that goal when I am actually only burning 100 calories, you can see how this portion distortion will lead to maintaining when you think you should be losing and ultimately FRUSTRATION!!!

Let’s take a moment to retrain out eyes:

EYEBALL TRAINING

There are two ways to train your eyeballs to know true serving amounts. I invite you to use both methods this week as we bring ourselves back to the structure of knowing true portion sizes.

1. Use a food scale and measuring cups to see actual portion sizes
2. Use everyday objects to estimate how the size of a serving

USE A FOOD SCALE, MEASURING CUPS AND SPOONS

When you are starting out, it helps to weigh and measure foods so that your eyeballs can see what an appropriate portion size looks like.

The key to weighing on a scale is precision. Many people may think they know how much 3 oz of fish looks like but may be over or underestimating. Like I said, even after years of shifting, I still put my food on a scale to retrain my eyeballs at least once a month.

Our eyeballs and brains forget and need constant reminding. As many of you know, when I run Shift Weight Mastery Seminars, I often will bring my scale and show people how easy it is to be off in our visual estimates. My Kitrics™ scale is great because it allows you to put the food item on it and punch in a code number for the food. The scale will then tell you exactly how many calories are in the food on the scale. I will take a small, medium and large apple and weigh each, asking the crowd for calorie estimates before I weigh them.  They are often amazed and amused at the difference in calories between a small and large apple.

How many times have you picked up a big apple and said to yourself, "it’s an apple, it’s around 80 calories." Well folks, 80 calories is how  many calories are in a small apple and that big apple you just ate could be more like 230 calories, I kid you not! Yikes! There goes your calorie deficit for the day without your even knowing! See what I mean about distortion?

USE EVERYDAY OBJECTS TO ESTIMATE THE SIZE OF A SERVING

If you don’t have your scale handy, which sometimes you don’t, you can eyeball portions. Here are some ideas for estimating portion size:

• 1 cup of cereal = baseball
• 2 tablespoons coffee creamer = shot glass1 oz. nuts = fits into the cup of your palm
   
• 1 oz. cheese = 3 small game dice
• ½ cup mashed potatoes = ice cream scoop
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter = scrabble tile
• ½ cup pasta = golf ball
• 3 oz. meat or fish = bar of soap

MORE FOR LESS

If you are feeling deprived from the shrinking size of portions and need to fill up more, I now invite you to SHIFT the volume of the food you are eating to lighter and more nutritious foods that fill you full of vitamins and fill your stomach too.

Most Masters admittedly said they still eat a lot of food. However, what fills the plate at their ideal weight, is radically different. They load their plate with veggies, fruit and salad, knowing that these foods allow them fill them up without all the calories.

Before my Shift to Thin Thinking, I could down huge portions of densely caloric food in alone sitting and eat twice my body’s daily caloric needs. Even now, I still like to eat a big dinner. My other meals can be small and wisely proportioned calorically to keep me satisfied and my blood sugar even, but I still like to sit down to a bigger amount of food at the end of the day, but not a big amount of calories.

I use vegetables and salads and interesting flavors with a bit of the denser calories proteins to fill me up.  When I go out, I do the same. I fill my plate with the veggies and salad but take the smaller portion of whatever is being served. That way I can fill up and not feel deprived because I am eating what everyone else is eating.

So what are some ways to add volume using fewer calories? Here are a few ways to leverage volume over calories:

• Broth-based soups before a meal or as a snack or meal fill you up.
• Make vegetables and salads the center piece of your plate and use the denser calorie foods (proteins, grains, and fats) as “condiments”.
• Choose snacks that have volume without calories: fruits, veggies, light popcorn, or soup.

Here is a link to a kitrics scale if you are interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Kitrics-Digital-Nutrition-Scale-Silver/dp/B000U67EI0/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1442236424&sr=1-1&keywords=kitrics+scale

Have a light week and enjoy taking charge of your portions,you will be amazed at how this one ritual can make a huge difference in your progress to weight mastery.

oxoxRita