Real estate agents are known to say “location, location, location.” Meaning everything about buying a property, from price to availability, will depend on the location. It also means that the location is so crucial that even if your dream house for your dream price is available, but it is not in the location you want, all bets are off. Portions are the same.
The importance of portions:
One of the main factors in reaching and maintaining your health goals is eating the right portions. You can try any diet or fad but if your portions are not controlled, like the location, all bets are off. Hence the idea of “portions, portions, portions.”
There are so many different opinions and ideas on diets and do’s and don’ts of losing weight, but I think a really important part of it is controlling your portions.
You can eat mostly healthy foods, but you can gain unwanted or unnecessary weight if you are eating too much of them. On the flip side, you can eat fattening foods but if you limit your portions, you can still reach or maintain your health goals.
In the words of Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish scholars and physicians of all time: “All physicians agree that eating a small quantity of bad foods is less harmful than overeating good and healthy foods. When a person eats bad foods without satiating oneself the foods are digested well, the organs obtain nourishment from any element in the food that is beneficial, and whatever is unhealthy is expelled from the body. In this case, either no harm occurs or the harm that occurs is unrecognizable. However, overeating even the best foods can never, ever result in good digestion.” 1
Of course, it’s not only about the number on the scale. If you are only eating unhealthy foods in small amounts, you will be lacking some basic nutrients. But if you can figure out a balance so that no matter what you are eating, you are choosing the right portions, it can be a total game-changer.
Here’s a classic portion example:
You love pizza but you are not allowing yourself to have it because you are afraid you will gain weight, but stop and think about this.
Two slices of pizza are around 550 calories. You might say to yourself, “I don’t want to have 550 calories for dinner,” and therefore opt for a chicken dinner. A piece of chicken with a sweet potato and serving of vegetables is around 400 calories. You do this over and over again until you are craving pizza so badly that you eat an entire pie.
Sound familiar?
Don’t despair. There is a way to eat what you love, not overeat, and include nutrients in your meals!
You can eat the foods you love:
Think about having one slice of pizza with a soup or salad on the side. The pizza will be around 275 calories and the soup or salad will be around 125 calories. So you brought down the number of calories you are eating while still enjoying your favorite food – pizza!
Now you might say having one slice of pizza is so lame that you might as well have none. And I hear that argument. I do. However, something to think about is the idea that a craving can still get satisfied if you only have a seemingly small portion of it. You don’t need to have two slices of pizza to satisfy a desire for pizza. When you are hungry and have a craving, you need two things: a little bit of what you are craving, and enough food to satisfy your hunger.
This may seem like a difficult idea to wrap you head around at first but the more you try it and practice it, the easier it becomes.
Don’t count calories, understand them:
Keep in mind that even though we did some calorie counting, that is not the focus. It is only important to understand calories so that you can familiarize yourself with what a portion is. Knowing a little bit about calories makes it easier to create portions for yourself. And of course, everybody will have different portion sizes depending on age, weight, etc. Once you are more familiar with portions you will not need to count calories. You will be able to figure out what a proper portion is for yourself.
Now getting back to the pizza.
We discussed one option, which is having it with a salad or a soup. A second option is having both slices and leaving it at that. This will not make a difference if it’s not something you do every day. What i important to keep in mind is having your other two meals of the day be as nutritious as possible, as well as low in carbs and fat. So if you have fruits and nuts for breakfast, a healthy salad for lunch, and the pizza for dinner, you have a balanced day.
This idea of balance is really important when trying to reach and maintain your health goals.
You might worry that this method will only work in the comfort of your home where you can control what you eat on your regular schedule. But what should you do when something different comes up in your schedule? Like going out to eat, being at a nice event with great food, or visiting friends and family who have all of your favorite dishes.
Adjust your diet to focus on portions:
This is where I implement the second kind of portion control. It’s the kind where your portion becomes bigger, higher in calories, or less nutritious. Because if you try to stick to your normal portions, you will likely find it difficult, become frustrated, and end up overeating anyway. So instead of giving up completely, if you know you will be in a situation that you can’t control, you can make bigger portion options for yourself and try to stick to those. Being realistic is a far better way to try and be successful than setting up parameters that you know you will not be able to follow.
Gaining only two pounds over a weekend getaway or telling yourself you will have two portions at an event that you know will have great food are still great accomplishments if you stick to them.
So instead of comparing the amount you ate at a restaurant to the amount you would normally eat on a regular weeknight, you can allow yourself to indulge in two portions, or one larger portion, but still not go overboard to a place where you feel horrible. So you might feel full and satisfied but not as though you ate so much that you will throw up. And then you can say to yourself, “Wow, that was good for eating out. I didn’t go crazy.”
The more you get used to this idea of adjusting your portions to your lifestyle the more successful at it you will become. One of the reasons that people overeat when they are not in their usual setting is because they may be eating oily, spicy, or sugary foods, and those are addicting. Keep this in mind when eating those kinds of food and try to stick to your portions nonetheless.
Practice makes perfect:
If you can control your portions (most of the time) you are setting yourself up for success in reaching and sticking to your health goals.
There’s a lot of truth to the saying, “It’s not what you eat, it’s how much of it you eat.” For me at least, this saying holds a lot of truth. I remember when I was 20 pounds heavier, I wouldn’t think about touching pizza or ice cream because of how many calories they have. Instead, I would eat something that I thought was a lot healthier, but I would eat a lot more of it.
Now I will enjoy pizza and ice cream but in moderation. After realizing that there is nothing wrong with having pizza, I’m able to have two slices and call it a day. Or if I really want ice cream, I’ll treat myself to some and eat a healthy dinner.
Sticking to portion control when eating takes the emotions out of it. Instead of beating yourself up about something or eating more because you are stressed, you will start sticking to a portion and stopping after you finish it. If after 20 minutes you are still hungry then of course have a little bit more. The key is trying to get used to portioning everything from healthy foods to high-caloric foods. Instead of thinking about high-calorie foods as automatic issues, try to think about them as fine as long as they are portioned properly. And if you ate a little more than you would have liked to, it’s ok – you are only human.
Best of luck and happy portioning!
References:
1. The life-transforming diet based on Health and Psychological principles of Maimonides (Zulberg, 2007)