Portion control is really important

It's been slow going but I'm into week 3 of the dieting process. I feel like I'm getting better at the impulse control where food is concerned and I am not so obsessed about the whole food and eating thing. I still think about it, but it's not ruling my life quite as much as when I started out.

One thing that I have learned recently though ... portion control.

A few nights ago I cooked a really yummy pasta dish for dinner and I was careful with the amount of food I put on my plate and ended up with a reasonable portion but still enough to make me feel full after eating. That was about 1.5 cups of cooked pasta plus assorted stuff mixed into it, and about 550-ish calories, which is very respectable for a dinner portion.

However, we had a whole heap of leftovers which is often the case when I cook pasta. The beloved likes to take leftovers to work for lunch and they make a quick, easy and tasty dinner for a night or two during the week.

This time, we had three large size portions leftover and they were all about 2, perhaps 2.5 cups worth of pasta.

I decided that I would just eat one portion that was packed away instead of just eating part of it and having bits of leftovers on top of leftovers in containers in the fridge.

Well, that was a mistake. One large leftover portion was 850+ freakin' calories!!! That totally blew my calorie count for the day. Fortunately for me, it was not huge in terms of blowing the calorie count for the day since my day time calorie consumption was quite low and I had plenty to spare, but I still ended up 100+ calories over. Of course, I didn't realise this until after I ate the meal and I calculated the calorie count, although I had an inkling when I saw that it was a lot more food on the plate that the first night when I had good portion control going on.

Over the course of the week, I did eat all the leftovers, and each night, I blew my calorie count for the day, by just a little bit. Not a lot, but just enough to make me feel somewhat guilty, so I am so glad that all the leftovers are now finally gone.

Would I have been better off just tossing out the extra food? Perhaps, but I find it hard to do that and I also find it hard to leave food on my plate, though I'm getting better with practice, particularly while eating out, and they serve very large portions.

A little update, so far, I have lost 3 lbs. I was quite pleased a couple of days ago when I did my weekly weigh in and found that I had dropped another 1 lb taking my total to 3. I think I've mentioned that it's slow going, but I'm pleased with the downward progress.

The beloved is doing really well too. He's been at it about 10 days and he has lost 7 lbs. He went away on a business trip and business trips are always awful when it comes to diet and exercise, but while away he managed to lose 1 lb rather than put on weight. I'm so proud of him, and also a little jealous that the weight is falling off him a lot faster. That said, he has a higher weight loss goal than I do.

A few things that we have changed that is helping - no more chocolate after dinner, and if we do have it, we only have one small piece that is the equivalent of 75 calories. That's one Lindt ball. We've been having an apple for dessert after dinner, because we do like something sweet after dinner. An apple is a fabulous dessert, only 45 calories for an apple.

I can't remember if I have told this story or not, but at the very beginning of my diet, I had an apple for dessert and the beloved had a whole Kit Kat bar. My apple was 45 calories and his Kit Kat bar was 900+ calories. He was appalled and I was feeling pretty damn righteous. :-) But for the beloved, knowing how many calories that Kit Kat bar had in it, has really helped him to watch what he puts into his mouth.

We are both continuing to watch out diet. I've got 4 more lbs left to go, but once I reach that, I might stretch myself and see if I can't go a little further. I'm pretty sure that would make my doctor very happy as it reduces my risk of diabetes greatly.

If you're doing something similar, I wish you all the best. Be encouraged and be patient.


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Progress is slow, but I keep going

This post was written a while ago and I'm just now posting it. I am still on my diet, or rather I am getting back into my diet, so all of this is still relevant. And also, I'm sorry for not posting for such a long time. I realise that I have neglected my blog.

Progress has been slow this week but I continue to persevere, which at times is hard, because I am not seeing quick, immediate results.

I keep having to remind myself that I need to be patient and this is a slow process.

I thought I'd provide a recap of my week so far, it's only Thursday, so I only have 4 days of a recap for you, but to be honest, I'm doing this more as a reminder to myself than anything else.

I have a 1300 calorie a day allotment that I can consume each day. It goes up a little bit with the walking I do, but not by much.

Monday: Calories left = 119

Tuesday: Calories left = 470 - this is a particularly good night. We had steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner and that's a very low calorie count.

Wednesday: Calories left = 276 calories - I was a little naughty here. I had a piece of coconut covered, toasted marshmallow and a chocolate covered marshmallow as a treat. That was about 150 or so calories.

Thursday: Calories left = 276 - I had a glass of wine with dinner here and we also had pasta.

Looking back, I have to say that I am pretty pleased about the fact that I've been coming in under my calorie count each day, some days more than others.

I remember reading once that you need to not consume 1000 calories in order to lose 1 lb. So all the leftover calories are a good thing, because the more leftover calories there are, the more it will add up to the 1000 calories to equal my 1 lb of weight lost. Of course, I have to put in a small disclaimer here to say that I do not remember where I read this, so don't quote me on it.

Another thing that I've noticed, which I talked about previously is the hunger pangs, here and here.

I am getting to the point now where I am not that hungry throughout the day, though that is not the case everyday, since today I felt a bit more peckish that other days and felt like I needed an earlier breakfast.

I used to get quite hungry by the time dinner rocked round, but I have noticed in the last 2 or 3 days that that has subsided. I get home and I am quite comfortable until dinner time. I am not starving, as I was in the beginning, nor am I hungry, as I was a week in. Now, I feel just fine, which is a very good thing.

My boss, who has been on a rather crazy, strict diet says that after a while, you just don't need food anymore and you start to feel rather righteous about not eating and scoff at people who do. I don't know that I will ever get to that point since I'm not doing it crazy like he did.

In the beginning, I was also constantly thinking about food and when I could eat next. That has also passed and I am not doing that anymore too. That's a very good thing, because I feel a lot less like I am obsessing about food all the time.

So that's it for now. The journey continues and I press on ....



Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
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