Each week I try to work on a new healthy lifestyle goal. This week I have started working on portion size. This is one way that I want to work on finding satisfaction, not overindulgence, when it comes to my food.
The biggest obstacle in my weight loss journey has been food. Setting goals to lose weight is great but what happens if you just plain love food?
I am not quite ready to make drastic changes in my eating habits. There are some things I don’t want to give up, at least not at this point in time. I have tried other diets where you cut out all things like sugars and breads. Making a drastic change like that can work for only so long. I always say that small steps can lead to bigger changes.
For instance, yesterday my husband wanted to go out to lunch. One of our favorite meals is from a restaurant that makes wood-fired pizzas. Our particular favorite is a portabella mushroom pizza oozing with cheese and flavored with garlic.
As luck turned out the restaurant had changed its name and gone through a makeover. However, they still serve wood-fired pizzas. Under this new management you no longer got free bread with your pizza, something my husband complained to me about. I just smiled and said I was glad, that kept me from indulging in buttery toasted bread dipped in gobs of flavored oil.
Of course my husband ordered the largest size pizza. This monstrous delicacy arrived at our table and I felt my mouth water. What I normally would have done was eat half the pizza. In fact, my husband was already prepared for that because he seasoned only his side with red peppers. Yet I ate four fairly small pieces of pizza. The great thing was that I felt pleasantly full, not sick to my stomach like so often happens.
Later on for dinner that night, I was careful about how much food I put on my plate. I tend to put too much on. Sometimes if I am full and there is still food on my plate, I am able to stop eating but many times I am not. I will justify there is no point in wasting it. However then I end up feeling stuffed instead of pleasantly full. Believe me, there is a difference.
So how about you? What do your portion sizes look like? Making a change just in that one area can be a positive step in the right direction. Spend the next week eating smaller portion sizes, which will train your stomach to eat less. It’s yet another small step in a healthier lifestyle.
Image by: wisebread.com