Portion Control - how to keep your Cookie Monster at bay.

Tis the season for pumpkin lattes, warm apple pie, friends, family, loved ones and a face full of turkey at Thanksgiving. If we are going to stay on track with our ideal weight in mind, we are going to have to rein in our inner cookie monster.

Here are a few tips to stay on track to maintain and not gain during these delicious upcoming holidays.

Think small, eat big

Our mind can play tricks on us to think our mouths are bigger than our stomach. An easy way to trick your mind that you have enough food on your plate is to get a smaller plate. At Thanksgiving, we tend to cram every crevice of our plate with delicious food and all the trimmings (minus the cranberry jelly blah!). When we use a smaller plate, we cram less on our plate and less down our gullet.

Plates sizes now can be up to 12’’ which can hold approximately 1900 calories, and if you go for seconds you just ate over twice your daily intake! That’s before the pumpkin pie and icecream hits the table. In the 1960’s the plate sizes were around 8.5’’ holding only 800 calories.

Food geometry, see math can be fun!

Also we can use smaller utensils to take smaller bites so our stomach can fill up more slowly to let us know when we are getting full.

Make veggies the guest of honor

When I fill my plate for dinner when I’m not cooking at home I try to make 80% of my meal vegetables. This way I can get my full, get in “good” calories and not overeat protein and carbohydrates. Also be cautious of your vegetable toppings and dips. Smothering your broccoli in cheese or ranch dressing will quickly add “bad” calories back on your plate.

How many calories do I need?

Here is an easy way to calculate how many calories you need on a daily basis.

Pick your ideal weight that you want to be and calculate 10 calories per pound.

In example: say your ideal weight is 130 lbs and that your female.

130 lbs x 10 calories = 1300 calories per day

There are also several apps that you can use to track and calculate calories on the go.

Here is a link to the top 10 apps of the moment for Apple and Android.

​ Tupperware is a diet’s sidekick

When you store your leftovers from the feast, separate your food into portioned tupperware. This way you can take it on the go and have the right amount so you don’t overeat.

Also saving old jars makes it easy to portion nuts and snacks. You can label the lid with the serving ounces for quick reference when refilling them. Using snack baggies works well too for chips and dry snacks.

These simple tricks will help you sustain from eating too much and then come new year's, having to burn it all off again to get back to where you started before the holidays.

Now tame that inner cookie monster and go out there and continue to be the amazing person you are each and every day!

If you like this post, check out others related to health and wellness here and send me questions you have and I will create posts answering them.

As always enrich your Mind, enrich your Body and enrich your Health.