Portion Control

When we built our house 17 years ago, I decided we needed new dishes for our new kitchen and found a design that went well with our color scheme. It was about that time that I started putting on a few pounds. It wasn't until several pounds later that I figured out what the problem was--bigger dishes. The cereal bowls held at least 50% more than the old dishes. The dinner plates went from 9" to 10", which doesn't seem like much, but when you're used to a full plate, it adds up. Bigger plates = bigger portions = more calories = more pounds. What to do?

In order to get a handle on my portions, I have used a variety of solutions. Some things I measure, like cereal, and pasta (2 oz. on a food scale). It's inconvenient to measure everything, so for ice cream, I use an 8 oz. ramekin, cut up my fruit first, and then put my ice cream on top.

(There was a study released last week that compared people who thought about what they were going to eat, M&M's in this case, with people who thought about putting coins in a slot machine. When both groups were given M&M's, the group that had thought about eating M&M's beforehand ate far fewer than the other group. So we need to fantasize about that sundae before we really eat it.)

Since measuring and counting calories can all be very tedious, I just came across something that gives us an easy way to monitor portion sizes. Slimware plates. The design on the plates shows the serving size of vegetables, starches and protein. I may have to order these soon ($29.50 for four @ slimware.com).

P.S. I just showed these to my husband and he turned up his nose. It's the same reaction I got when I switched from the 10 ounce chicken breast to the five ounce breast.