Portions and Journaling

Today we had a great class on portions and journaling.  Do you know the difference between a portion and a serving?  I myself thought they were the same.  A portion is what you serve yourself a small slice of cake, a large slice of cake or half of the cake.  We are in control of our portion sizes.  A serving size is the standard recommendation for an item.  For example Ritz crackers, a serving size is 5 crackers.  You can find this information on the nutrition label with the calories, carbohydrate, fat, protein and other nutrition information for that amount of a serving.

Why does this matter?  As I mentioned before 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories or 500 calories a day.  If we don't pay attention to the serving sizes then it is very easy to hit 500+ calories a day. 

Here are some guidelines to think about:

The National Cancer Institute defines a serving as:
One medium-sized fruit (such as apples, oranges, bananas, pears)
1/2 cup of raw, cooked, canned or frozen fruits or vegetables
3/4 cup (6 oz.) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice
1/2 cup cut-up fruit
1/2 cup cooked or canned legumes (such as beans and peas)
1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables (such as lettuce and spinach)
1/4 cup dried fruit (such as raisins, apricots, mango)

 Ways to measure:

Measuring utensils
A digital scale for best accuracy
Visual aids
3 oz meat = deck of cards
Pasta/rice = tennis ball
2 T peanut butter = ping pong ball
½ c veggies = baseball
¼ c dried fruit = golf ball
Baked potato = computer mouse
1 oz cheese = 6 dice

Journaling is a great way to hold yourself accountable but show you where you are at with your daily calorie intake.  I recommend My Fitness Pal.  It is free and incredibly easy to use.  I am happy to help anyone that wants to get on My Fitness Pal.  In fact, I use this app myself.

Slow and steady wins the race.  I really mean just taking it one step at a time.  If this is way to much to take on for now, that is fine I understand.  I ask for you to consider one change this week.  Once you are able to make a change and it becomes routine we can then add another change.

Suggestions:
A new rule, eat out of bowls and cups instead of bags and containers.
Begin writing down or journal all of the foods you eat or drink. 
Weigh or measure all the foods you eat.
After dinner no more late night snacking (one of my culprits). 

Don't start Monday, start today.  No matter what happened this morning you always can change today.

Our next class will be March 4.  This is the class everyone requested called "This or That";  how to make better choices when deciding what to eat. For example, a cheeseburger or Italian sub. Which would be better for you to choose? This will be an awesome class!

As always, I am here to help.  You can reach me anytime at mateychristiane@gmail.com or 781-296-9678.