How Do I Portion Control?
Empowering Your Health Goals — Portion Control Tips For A Healthier You
Raise your hand if you've stood in a check-out line and found yourself scanning magazines for the most recent weight loss tips. Or when the 'new year, new me' season rolled around, you committed to bulking up and binge-watched hours of YouTube videos searching for advice.
Maybe it's none of those things. You might want to maintain your current weight, eat to achieve hormonal balance or give yourself the best chance to live the longest, most active life possible.
Everyone has health goals unique to them. Why wouldn't they? Everyone is unique. Our DNA, where we live, cultural foods, and lifestyles vary. So why would we all be eating the exact same diet every day?
You know your weight management goals, life, and values, so let's introduce you to a tool to help you achieve balanced nutrition and body wellness: portion control.
No, wait, don't leave just yet. We're not telling you to restrict yourself and count calories. Those methods wouldn't work for everyone anyway, so what's the point? Instead, we will show you portion control tips that allow you to embark on a sustainable health journey. Join us as we look at helpful strategies that enable you to confidently take control of your health and nourish yourself in ways that satisfy and energize you.
Benefits of Portion Control
Feeling good starts with nourishing our bodies. Tapping into the power of portion control unlocks multiple health benefits that boost your overall body health and well-being. Of course, weight management is one perk. Paying attention to what portion size is most appropriate for you allows you to enjoy a tasty, nutrient-rich diet that helps you maintain your optimal body weight and promotes long-term wellness.
But why stop there? Reap all the benefits of portion control. You can look forward to:
Better digestion. Which can help with less bloating and discomfort.
Stable energy throughout the day. Goodbye, mid-day energy crash.
Keeping your blood sugar level in check.
Knowing if you're getting enough of a particular food group in your diet.
Enjoying the nourishing foods that you love without regret. And yes, we mean all the foods that feed your body and soul.
By making positive changes to your diet, you can fuel your body with balanced portions that promote health and wellness. Now, let's learn how to embrace the advantages of portion control, one delicious bite at a time!
Eat Regularly
Take control of your hunger by maintaining a regular eating schedule.
Let's face it—we've all been there: jumping out of bed in the morning, rushing to start the day, and surviving on caffeine until lunchtime. Then boom, it hits you! You realize you have no food plans, you're nauseous, and the computer screen blurs before your eyes.
You're hungry and ready to eat anything in sight. That candy bar in the vending machine might get you through the rest of the day but doesn't give you the feel-good nutrients you crave. Then again, a massive meal at the end of the day still didn't provide your optimal daily calories, and now you're stuffed and uncomfortable before bed.
Spacing meals and snacks throughout the day provides consistent fuel for your body. When you're not ravenous from hunger and seeking the nearest sweet treat to jumpstart your depleted energy, you can make more mindful portion and food choices and lessen the likelihood of overeating. Eating at consistent meal times fuels our bodies with the nutrients and energy we need to thrive.
Use The Plate Method
Do you ever wonder just how much veggies, grains, fruits, dairy, and protein to put on your plate? If so, you're not the only one. This is where the plate method swoops in to save you from confusion and simplify your eating habits.
MyPlate is an easy-to-use visual representation of a well-balanced meal based on the USA's national food guidelines. This flexible strategy doesn't make you calorie count, meticulously read serving information on the back of packages, or pull out your measuring cups before every meal. Instead, you can familiarize yourself with this guide or even put it on your fridge to help make informed decisions about your food. By incorporating the plate method into your daily routine, you'll welcome intuitive portion control habits into your life.
It's important to remember that this method is meant to be adaptable. Not every meal will align perfectly with the plate method. But that's okay! You can adjust your next meal or snack to fit your needs.
Choose The Right Plate Size
Yes, you read right. We're not going to tell you to always choose a smaller plate. What if one of your health goals is to get more veggies in your life? How are you going to do that adequately on a baby-sized plate? On the other hand, you may have a habit of eating an entire bag of chips every night while streaming your before-bed show. If you don't feel so good after overeating your favorite crispy, salty snack, try putting it in a smaller container.
You can test out which portions work best for you by using various plate sizes for meals and snacks throughout the week. Give it a try! You'll collect a lot of data about yourself, your hunger, and your satiety. This information will empower you to choose portion sizes in the future that keep you comfortably full, energized, and satisfied.
Communal Eating
Sharing a meal with loved ones is one of life's greatest joys. Fantastic food, good conversation, and loads of laughter are the perfect recipe for lifelong memories. The heartwarming experience of communal eating has portion control advantages baked in as we slow our eating to engage in discussions. Eating slower gives our body enough time to recognize our fullness cues and lessens the likelihood of overeating. Plus, at smaller gatherings, you can split a meal or sample each other's dishes so everyone can join in on the delicious offerings.
Communal eating has enriched the lives and stomachs of our ancestors for centuries. So, the next time you're planning a meal, invite some friends and family over so you can nourish your body, mind, and relationships all at the same time.
Get In Touch With Your Hunger
We live in a fast-paced world full of work, school, and family obligations. These commitments and the habit of eating in front of TV or phone screens can make it easy to ignore hunger or overindulge when we finally have time for a meal. And it's okay that life gets busy. Sometimes, that's part of the fun. What's not fun is feeling hangry or sick from overeating.
Check in with your hunger. You can imagine your hunger as a gas gauge, from a scale of 1 (famished) to 10 (stuffed) before, during, and after a meal. With some practice, you'll become more in tune with your body's needs, eating at the best times for you and choosing portions that satisfy you rather than making you feel sickeningly stuffed.
We all know that incorporating healthier eating habits into our lives has many benefits, but figuring out how to achieve that can feel like baking a cake without a recipe.
Using the portion control tips we provided here, you can take charge of your health journey and eat your way to your happiest, healthiest self.
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