Adnan from Phoenix reminded me about the importance of portion control when trying to lose weight. It was the single most important factor for me.
Just as Adnan mentioned the large size of the Subway sandwich that was a normal meal for him, finishing a bag of Flaming Red Hot Cheetos in one sitting late at night while watching television was no big deal for me. Likewise with Goldfish Crackers. I would eat fistfuls of this delicious snack without batting an eyelid.
I am half convinced that snack food manufacturers have figured out what to add to their products to keep people like me from being able to stop after eating a reasonable amount.
I love to eat. And I live to eat. Eating to me is an activity to be cherished. Not to be hurried. And I used to believe that satiety was equally important. Continuing to add food that seemed tasty to one's mouth until one felt satisfied, was a God-given right of every person, I thought.
Well....that upper limit kept growing. And believe me, this just didn't start recently. I think in my case, it started in my late twenties. Eating until my stomach felt distended. Binge eating. You name it.
The only way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you are burning. Its that simple in theory. But very tough in practice.
Two things helped me control my portions after I resolved to lose weight to normalize my blood sugars.
First, I did not wait to be ravenously hungry to start a meal. As a rule now, I try to pace my meals at no less than 3.5-4.0 hours apart. But during the first few weeks and months, I used to eat whenever I felt reasonably hungry. Not waiting until I was totally starved to start my meal helped me to not reach for seconds or thirds. It was brutal at first. But over time it became easy.
Second, I stopped bringing the dangerous food items into the house. Like all the snack foods I mentioned earlier. Even now, when there is good stuff on the counter or in the fridge, it takes a mammoth effort of willpower to restrain me from having a bite.
Portion control day in and day out will become a habit with time. But it is the most difficult type of self-control for me.
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I also would like to draw your attention to another important thing here, in one of your earlier postings you mentioned something about fruits and the sugar contents in different fruits. Well, the sugars found in fresh fruits are not at all harmful to you, specially citrus and berrys are really good for you when you are trying to loose weight, but again moderation is key here. I also read your posing about OJ and the effects of it on your sugar levels, I think if you start drinking freshly squeezed OJ in the morning then you will be just fine, the store bought OJ have too many preservatives and stuff in them, even though a lot of them say no preservatives they still add stuff to it. As for fresh fruits, the sugars found in fresh fruits are not complex sugars thus eaisly digested and eaisly processed by your body specially your pancreas.
ReplyDeleteUntil next time.
Best Regards
Adnan, Phoenix AZ