Today we’re going to talk about Portion Control

You should already have your welcome pack, and you should have read through it by now, and started to familiarize yourself with what appropriate portion sizes look like.

Some of you, if you have a history of calorie counting or macro tracking might feel uncomfortable using an estimation mechanism such as this, if you’re used to trying to tightly control calories.

Now, I’m going to let you in on a secret about calorie counting …

It is TERRIBLY inaccurate.  Did you know that labelling guidelines allow stated calories to be +/-20%?  And then, not every calorie we eat gets properly digested and broken down.
Now, I want to keep this article reasonably short, but if you want to know more about why calorie counting is so inaccurate, click here, and I’ll email you a free report on that, which shows with graphics how this works.You see, the goal behind Freedom Nutrition Coaching, is that you are able to feel free from restrictionsAnd trying to tightly control every bite that enters your mouth, and you learn how to apply some simple

Tools that have big impact, and that don’t require huge amounts of time to implement

So, Portion control is easily one of the most important tools to utilize for anyone wanting to make

A big impact on their weight loss journey.

The reason for this is, often you hear people say “I’m eating healthy, I don’t know why I can’t lose weight?”

Or, “I’m eating all the right things and still the scale isn’t budging”

And when it comes right down to it, the portions of their meals and snacks are what’s holding them back

Our environment shapes our perception. Here’s a few examples

1. We eat more when we serve on bigger dishes.

2. We eat more when watching TV for 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes

3. We eat until a container is empty (e.g. Movie Popcorn Buckets)

4. We snack more if dishes are close to us.

Every one of us makes about 250 food decisions a day

(Coffee or tea? Peanut butter or jam? Should I finish this sandwich?).

Most decisions we can’t explain. We just… make them.

In fact, research shows that most of our food decisions have nothing to do with hunger, but are actually

determined by what and who are around us, along with our habits and familiar routines.

Ever wonder why certain foods are so darn appealing?

They’re designed to be, whether it’s due to how they look or smell, their enticing packaging, where or

who you eat the food with (or if you eat them alone), and because advertisers remind you of them constantly.

What does all of this tell us?

We look beyond our food, to our environment (our surroundings) for cues and clues about how and what to eat.

We’re in the habit of cleaning up everything on our plates, regardless of if we need to or not. If we eat off of bigger dishes (e.g. larger plates and bowls) we will easily eat more calories without even realizing it.

So, I want you, before you start eating your meals, to take a conscious look at the portion sizes on your plate or in your dish and see how it matches up with your hand.