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Hi, Sweet Friends,

With the Thanksgiving & Christmas Holidays right around the corner, many of us look forward to the delicious calorie-packed foods prepared specifically for this time of the year.

MAD Hubby's Thanksgiving Dinner 2017 Photo: CJD.Sign

Celebrations really do cause our portion control to go out of wack, but how much out of control is our daily portion control sabotaging our diet plan? 

Public Domain Photo: Celebrations

 Portion Control. Are we really getting it all wrong? Well, the article I just read from MyFitnessPal.com says we are! And to me, this really makes sense!!

Source: Pinterest

Have you considered an Avocado, for instance? I have often sliced half of an avocado onto the top of my salad or chunked it up into a smoothie. You? 

 Well, according to this article we are getting it all wrong and causing ourselves to gain weight instead of losing it. Does this sound vaguely familiar? It really does to me.

Source: Public Domain Portion Control

The article really touches on portion control of things we seem to take for granted.

This Brunch Plate is not the typical Breakfast, but looking at the individual items it adds up quickly!

 The plate above is a grouping of foods we recently consumed at a Brunch. On this plate, we have 3 chicken wings, 2 potato-puff rounds, 1 1/2 Deviled Eggs, 1 chicken thigh, 1/2 cup of corn, a 5 meatball sub on a hotdog bun. For starters, the calories, proteins, starches, and veggies are way off. But again, this isn't a typical day.

Take a look again at that Brunch plate. The proteins are 3/4 the plate, the veggies, though high starch, are only 1/4. Totally disproportionate to a healthy plate of food.

 So, how do we curb our mind's opinion on portions?

 With Football Parties?

 With Holiday Parties?

 With Sunday Brunches & Gatherings?

Sharing a 16oz soda. 3 cups of ice, in each glass, helps to keep the portion at a good size.

 Making some rules to judge portions may help. Look at the charts in this post for more ideas.

Another example that hit me like a ton of bricks was the comparison when eating granola. I love granola. Most people I know love granola. That being said, most of us are eating this high fat & high sugar food like it is a processed cereal that we load up into a bowl. WRONG! Oops!! What is that you say? 
 
The portion control should be the size of 1-2 shot glasses full. WHAT?? OH MY GOSH! Now you tell me after years of pouring this delicious crunchy goodness into a 2 cup bowl almost rimming it to the top with Almond Milk, that it is making me FAT!! YEP-Guilty as charged!! YIKES. 
 
I remember when, as a kid in the 1970's, we ate granola by the hands full. This must have started my rollercoaster of senselessly oversizing my portions!! I mean, how could those "little granola bars" be such a bad thing, right? Well, I now know better and really see how out of control my diet has been.

Counting calories has been my main focus for the past 5 years and now I can tangibly see where I have been doing it all wrong. 

Our typical Christmas Dinner with the focus on desserts.

Here is an example of what it means to choose healthier foods for Christmas Dinner.

A lighter approach to Christmas Dinner. Public Domain Photo

The article takes a closer look at the foods that are being disproportioned on my plate and it is truly eye-opening! Again, it ts the one favorite food that is getting me into trouble. 
Yogurt, another culprit with my portion control breakfasts and somedays, snacks, is being over portioned in my daily routine. DANG!! Sadly, this isn't what I was wanting to read when I started this article. All these years my brain has been telling me that if it is good for me then it is good to eat at any "reasonable looking" portion. NOT!! MY BRAIN HAS BEEN LYING TO ME!! Has yours been also lying to you?

Now, MAD Hubby and I have come to the conclusion that this article directly correlates to our weight gain. I am sitting here typing this post while Hubby rolls off the weight gain roll call of what we snack on once a month at our "Date Nights". He then said, "I had a dream about chocolate last night and could EVEN taste it!!" AAHH!!
 
 MAD Hubby is such a great guy that he feels good when he can make delicious treats for us. The problem is that the cake is only shared by the two of us.

RED & Green Velvet Birthday Cake

When we carve into the cake we don't think of portion control. We think we are only two of us now and the cake will go bad if we don't eat it before the weeks out!

AND look at the results! So the takeaway here? Portion Control is more to do with the eyes and not the brain!! Here is the link to the MyFitnessPal article again.

"...the most common portion size mistakes and tips for how to be more mindful:" expert nutritional advice from MFP
The 7 food items listed here are, in no particular order, Avocados, Yogurt & Ice cream, Pasta,

Spaghetti Bolognese

 Granola, Fruit Smoothies, Bagels, and Olive Oil. So, we will be more mindful of our portion control from now on!


We hope you found this article somewhat amusing, but seriously informative and important to your weight loss/weight-maintaining goals.

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