Portion Before Distortion

I love salty snack food.  In fact, I could literally eat a whole bag of chips or popcorn.  I justify the chips becuase they are from Trader Joes or Whole Foods and made with Flax Seeds and Vegetables.  The popcorn I usually get is airpopped.  Healthy?  Right?  Probably not when I eat the whole bag in one sitting!  How easy is that?  Simply open the bag, stick my hand in, and pull out a flavorful and salty chip.  With the bag so easily accessible, why not help myself to more and more?  Pretty soon the whole bag is almost finished!  What?  How did that happen?  This behavior contributes to mindless eating.  In other words.......Auto Pilot. 

When we're on auto pilot, nothing else seems to matter.  Calories, taste, smell, texture, and satisfaction all go down the drain.  A major consequence of going on auto pilot is weight gain.  Raising awareness about our food before we eat it empowers us to nuture our bodies. Therefore, this act alone can help maintain a healthy weight or help some even lose weight.     

A key element to building awareness about our food is by observing our portions.  Before you get portion distortion, look at the label to see how many servings are in each bag or box.  I am sometimes amazed by how many servings there are in a bag that I previously made 1 serving out of!  When we eat straight from the bag, we are no longer away of how many servings we are eating.  How can we change this?

PORTION YOUR FOOD AS SOON AS YOU GET IT HOME

Supplies:  Sandwich sized Zip lock bags, food scale, and food item

1.  Read the label.  How many servings are in a bag?  How many ounces are in a serving?  How many calories are in a serving?

2.  Weigh food so that it matches 1 serving size and place in zip lock bag.

3.  Continue to weigh and zip lock the rest of the food until the bag is empty.  The number of zip locks bags will equal the number of servings on the original bag.