High protein, low carb, no refined sugars, no french fries after 9:45
PM unless you're standing on one foot and singing the national anthem
– so many diet rules it's no wonder obesity is nearing epidemic
proportions. The USDA guidelines are kind enough to provide general
comparisons to help us trim our servings to healthy sizes, but let's
be honest, how many of us are carrying a handy-dandy deck of cards
when we head out to dinner? And that chunk of cheddar, what size
dice do we use to measure that? Surely not this twenty-sided honker
left over from my youthful experiments with D&D!
Food Portions Out of Control? Get a Grip!
With all the guesswork that goes into healthy dining these days, I'm
surprised anyone even bothers playing the trendy diet game at all.
I'm going to dispel some of the mystery for you, my friends, because
I intend to live a very long time and it won't be half as exciting if
you're not all along to enjoy the ride! Did you know the secret to
measuring healthy portions lies within your very own hands? It's
true, your palm, fingers and thumb are great for measuring ideal
portions. Just don't send your guy into the kitchen to prepare a
cheese plate if his hands are twice the size of yours!
The “All Fingers and Thumbs” Approach to Portion Sizes
If you want to look and feel your best, you need to put as much
thought into measuring the portions you put on your plate as you put
into picking out clothes that make you feel beautiful and confident.
After all, Joan Rivers put it best when she said, “Diets,
like clothes, should be tailored to you.” This is the number
one reason I like using my hands as a guideline when measuring my
portions, but don't just take my word for it, plenty of dieticians
agree. Here's how you can make it work for you:
- 3 ounces of meat, fish, or poultry = the size and thickness of your palm
- 1 ounce of hard cheese = the length and width of your thumb. 1 tsp = the tip of your thumb (from the knuckle). 1 tbsp = 3 thumb tips
- 1 cup dry cereal, popped popcorn, or one medium piece of fruit = the size of your fist
- ½ cup cooked veggies or pasta = one cupped hand
- 1 cup raw, leafy spinach or tossed salad = two cupped hands
I really can't say which came first for me – the diet or the
exercise – I just know that when I started taking the internal
condition of my body seriously the two seemed to fall in line pretty
naturally. I didn't set out with the goal of losing weight, a
problematic thyroid pretty much rendered my metabolism non-existent.
Instead, I don't bother worrying about what I'm eating, I prefer to
focus on how much, gravitating towards healthy-sized portions, rather
than fretting over the calories or decadence. If you'd like to get
on the road towards a healthier lifestyle, but you're not sure if
these handy (no pun intended) measuring tools may not be right for
you, it's perfectly reasonable to invest in a kitchen scale as a
backup form of measurement until you're feeling more confident with
eyeballing your portions.
