Last lesson (I promise) on portion control

Earlier this month, The Globe and Mail’s Leslie Beck (Food for Thought) had  a great article entitled: “The key to weight loss: portion control.”

Portions are something I’ve written about quite a lot of late, but I thought she had some good tips. In case you don’t have time to read the whole article, here are the key points and my opinions on some of them:

1. The Plate Model: divide your plate into quarters (one quarter protein, on quarter starch like brown rice, pasta, potato or my personal favorite, quinoa.  The final half of the plate should be filled with vegetables.  Another plate trick is to use a lunch plate as a dinner plate and using small glasses for fluids other than water.  A great idea–while I’m sometimes reluctant to use my lunch plates, doing so does force me to pause and ask myself if I really need more.  Additionally, if I do opt for seconds, I still eat less overall than if I had used a larger, dinner plate. 

2. Serve several courses: stretch your mealtime by starting with a clear soup then offer salad as a separate corse–this extra time helps you to register when you are full. I love this idea–it reminds me of those restaurants where you spend two to three luxurious hours over dinner.  There may be many courses, but they’re not big; it’s quality over quantity.

3. Keep seconds out of sight: don’t put all of your food dishes on the table at a once. Serve yourself and then put a portion away for lunch the next day. If possible, try to cook only one serving.  I find it difficult to prepare only one serving so I would opt for fixing my plate and putting some away  for the next day over cooking “for one.”

4. Bulk up your meals: eat large quantities of low-energy -density foods and smaller portions of food with high-energy-density.  This means having whole grains, broths, legumes and white fish over cheese, salad dressing, meats and breads.   A great tip and one that works! Having a small bowl of soup in the fridge is a great way to curb cravings and appetites. 

5. Don’t rush your meal.  Beck suggests putting the fork and knife down between bits or to consider using chopsticks.  Personally, I don’t think this suggestion is very good.  If I had to endure my dinner mate putting down their utensils between every bite, I would get really annoyed.  Probably so annoyed that I would lunge across the table and shove their dinner down their throat.  Dinner would be so slow as to be painful, no?

6. Share an entree.: yes, restaurants server portions that are quite big, but is it really fair to go out to a restaurant and order only one entree?  I think that restaurants should be enjoyed–I would say just eat out less often rather than follow this rule.

7. Read nutrition labels: Beck suggests reading labels to discover serving sizes and weight out portions. Again, I do not think this tip is a good one.  I think it’s better to read nutrition labels to see what the food is made of and then decide whether or not to eat it. Most whole foods–most healthy foods–don’t come with labels!

Sprouts: Winter Challenge

I saw a great video that Meghan did and I wanted to share it with you guys:  

Did you guys ever do science experiments in grade school? You know, the kind where you have to enlist your parents to help you out? Well it seems I’ll be doing another one this year. In an effort to get some great local food, I’m going to make like Meghan and try to grow some of my own veggies in my apartment…and I’ll be asking my dad to help. 

Wish me luck!

Smarter, Stronger, Faster

If you read last week’s comments, you might have noticed this one from Steph:

“I’d be interested to know what changes you noticed physically from your detox? You mention your psychological relationship with food and your will power, but enquiring minds (well, mine) want to know: did you lose a significant amount of weight? Did your skin improve? Were you, er, “regular”? Are you smarter? Stronger? Faster?”

I guess it’s time for the dirty truth.

Body:  Did I lose a significant amount of weight? The answer is, unfortunately, no. I would have been thrilled if I dropped pounds, but since I did not go to Meghan to lose weight–I went to her for health–my diet rehab plan did not involve any sort of calorie counting; it was all about making sure I had a vegetable-based protein at every meal. I think I may have lost a pound or two, but I would say that has more to do with preparing my own food and less eating out. The diet was strict and so that prevented me from eating some of my favorite foods (some of which are quite fattening, i.e. cheese).  

Skin:  I was so nervous about my skin.  I have fairly sensitive skin as it is and since I went through some brutal acne during my teenage years, I was petrified that it would come back.  Meghan had warned me that I  may experience a break-out during the diet change, but believed it would go away. She was right. I did experience a break out initially, but it came and went within a week.  Plus, the breakout wasn’t all that bad–I had a bunch of small pimples, but they didn’t turn into big sores and never got infected–no scars!  

After my skin cleared up, things were good for about 6 weeks, but then I started to get really dry skin. Meghan suggested that the dryness might be from artificial heating, etc., and while I think that the weather contributed, I do think my diet influenced it as well. The reason I think it was more than artificial heating because of the lines that appeared on my toenails and how brittle my fingernails became.  I’ve never experienced anything like that and this lasted until I started getting some dairy back into my diet.  

Bowels: Oh the bowels! I have always had issues with regularity and while it certainly improved with the cleanse, I was ultimately disappointed. I’m not sure if my expectations were unrealistic, but I thought that all of my “issues” would be solved and they were not.  Granted, I found it really hard to adjust to drinking eight to ten glasses of water per day and while the water helps, it doesn’t always work the way I wish it did. In spite of this set back, I did find that while on the cleanse, I never experienced a feeling of being uncomfortably full, I did not experience any cramping or bloating which was a huge bonus! 

As for being smarter, stronger, faster–I do believe I am smarter about food and about health. I am a more mindful eater and a conscious shopper.  At one point during the cleanse I joked that the more I knew about food the less I ate–some of the reading I did really opened my eyes to the food  industry and there are some things that I cannot get past i.e. margarine–I will NEVER eat it again. 

I thought that I was stronger about food, but alas, I do not think I resolved my issues with food.  Since I was eating great food everyday during rehab, I did not worry about over eating, calories or fat because I knew that everything I consumed was heart and body healthy.  As soon as the cleanse was over and I had more freedom, the same feelings about food–fear and anxiety–came back; I still have a lot to work on in this area and I will be talking to Meghan about this issue.

Overall, the cleanse was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I feel good about having done it and–for the most part–I felt good doing it. But I still have so much work to do. I need to learn how to negotiate aspects of the cleanse with my ‘regular’ diet.  

This week, I’ll be writing about aspects of the cleanse that I hope to maintain and what I will reject.

p.s. The photo above is a picture of the fruit bowl at my sister’s place–I’m trying to eat locally.