Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

There are a few things that I have learned about eating home cooked meals:

• Dish up the correct number of servings onto the plates in the kitchen. – When I was growing up, my family used to just bring a huge bowl of spaghetti noodles and another huge bowl of spaghetti sauce to the table. The bowls would be passed around and we could choose how much of each we wanted. Now that I have mastered healthy eating, we dish up all the food in the kitchen and bring the individual plates to the table. I found that serving a meal “Family Style” is too much of a temptation for me. I tend to take too much in the first place and go for seconds afterward.

• Dish up the leftovers into individual sized portions. – I use Ziploc Storage Containers because they are inexpensive and translucent enough to tell what has been stored in them. If the recipe says that it has six servings, I get a dish for me, a dish for Mike and four Ziploc bowls. I divide the recipe equally among the six dishes and put lids on the containers before taking our dishes to the table.

• Leave the leftovers in the kitchen. – If the leftovers (in their individually sized containers) are in the kitchen when I finish eating. I am reluctant to get up and dish up another serving. I would have dirtied a dish (and lid) for nothing and that’s one less lunch for me over the week. If you want to truly be committed to only eating one serving, put them in the freezer before you eat your meal. I guarantee that the idea of that same meal, growing ice crystals in the freezer will prevent you from overeating.

Controlling the amount of food I eat has been an important factor in my weight loss success. Whether I am eating at home or at restaurants, managing my portions has been essential. I don’t cook at home very often, but when I do, I find that these three tips prevent me from eating too much at home.