Smaller Portions

As a kid I was raised to clean my plate or I wouldn't get dessert. Dessert became a reward and something I strived for. Hence my current horrible sweet tooth. But I digress.

I wanted to talk about portion sizes. I notice when I dish up my kids plates I give them rather small servings, THEN and only THEN, if they want more because they are still hungry, then we give them more. They are being taught to eat just the right amount and not too much from the start.

I think it's natural for everyone to eat what is served to them. We don't want to waste food. So we end up eating MORE than we want to, because we can't stand to throw it away. So today I tried dishing up my plate at lunch time to match my sons (he's 4). Not that we had the same amount, but the thought was in place. I gave myself a serving that I felt was much smaller than I was hungry for. Well, after eating that, leftover lasagna, plus 2 slices of bread and 2 large glasses of water...I was full.

This surprises me every time. I always expect to still be starving after eating such a small amount, but I'm not. I'm full, not overflowing stuffed like normal, but full...and satisfied.

I prefer that feeling to the feelings stuffed brings. When I'm stuffed I feel bloated, tired, guilty, yuck, embarrassed and WAY self conscious. And this is even when I'm just eating Mac and Cheese for lunch with my kids. Mac and Cheese is not even that good, why would anyone gorge themselves on it. But...sometimes I do.

When my 2nd child was born I was in the hospital for 4 days afterwards (I'd had a C-section). They always gave me a menu to chose from for each meal. I remember when they brought me my first meal and the slice of pie that was for desert I wanted to just laugh at. It was most definitely a "Sliver." Well, after eating like that for 4 days, that's 12 meals, my body adjusted. That's all I needed. And really, shouldn't we only eat what we need, not necessarily what we WANT, especially when you're trying to lose weight.

So for the next week I'm going to try to feed myself MUCH smaller portions. Portions that look WAY too small, but in the back of my head I know will still fill me up.