29 year old seeking portion control

L.M. writes, "I am 29 years old and have diabetes. Can you help with portion control?"

L.M., life is not fair to a dieter when the packaged food you get from the supermarket or cooked food from restaurants are actually good for numerous servings, yet only made evident if we bother with the food label (if it is handy). Until the bill is passed that each package wll be for each serving for numerous food types, we must apportion our food ourselves, understanding the basic categories that make a healthy meal.

A 3:2:1 ratio of fruits and veggies: carbs: protein is easily aided by plates that are premarked towards this set-up. Choose My Plates, Portion Control Plate, Focus Control Plate, Fresh Baby Drink Cup all around $10 and the most restrained of them all, the glass Meal Trax, about $50) are options towards this. One should not just apply this to any plate, as size do of course matters, and because we are seeking to keep to the healthy levels of 12:6:4 ounces of the basic food groups per meal, it would serve us well to realize that only a 8" diameter of filling (not counting the rims however size would serve this purpose).

If the plate planning is hard to approximate for you, one can also default to three-compartment food container boxes with the volumes above or the use of cups. The latter is the cheapest and ready alternative is any 8-oz cup. Make 1.5 cups: 1 cup: 0.5 cup your safe ratio for each meal for the fruits and veggies, good carbs and lean protein and you will be provided for. With time, one's estimates for cup volume will be good that you can even eyeball it alone or with the use of the quadrant method. Either way, if one has to have seconds on special occasions (eating for less than twenty minutes and claiming you are still hungry is not an excuse), get half, not whole portions of seconds: that is everything should fit in 1.5 c or fit a circular diameter of 4". Use any cup too for drinking water before and after the meal so your portion planning will bear even greater, uh, outcomes. Once again, try and stick with the habit for 4 weeks before you try another health win.