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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