Eyeballing Portion Sizes

If you've ever travelled to another country, you may have noticed how much smaller the portion sizes are there.
Americans like to point to any number of factors contributing to this country's soaring obesity rates, but the simple fact remains that we simply eat too much of the wrong kind of things.
I remember, when I began watching what I ate a year ago, I was utterly shocked at what an actual serving of cheese was supposed to be.
1oz? 1oz? That tiny bit of cheese is all I'm supposed to eat all day? I used to eat half a block at a time, just as a snack.



In just 20 years, the serving sizes have doubled, if not quadrupled in size. It's no wonder we are considered the fattest nation on earth.

When you are trying to watch what you eat, every bit of food you put in your mouth becomes not just food, but a breakdown of calories, fat grams, carbs, and portion size.
Going out to eat becomes an activity fraught with anxiety because you don't know how much butter they put in something, or whether or not that amount of mashed potatoes on your plate is about a cup's worth or a half cup.

It would be nice to say that it's better to not be neurotic about it and to just go ahead and sit back and enjoy the meal, but that's near impossible when you are crying yourself to sleep because you can't see your collarbone anymore.
After all, not paying attention to how much you were eating is what got you fat in the first place.
I have friends who suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and they will tell you that even after they've recovered, they never do quite manage to give up counting calories or examining portion sizes.
I think about what I will do once I lose this last 20 pounds, and wonder if I will forever use a tablespoon to spread my peanut butter, because then I will know exactly how much I've used.
Perhaps this obsession with weight and food has replaced corsetry as the way in which society keeps women figuratively constrained.
Regardless of the negative moral or psychological connotations portion sizing and calorie counting may imply, it still cannot be argued that doing this is the single most important part of dieting. As such, the question still remains: What do you do when you're going out to eat? Do you bring measuring cups and spoons with you everywhere you go?
I hope not. How tacky would that be?
Instead, I've found that there are many ways in which you can eyeball your portions to make a relatively accurate guess as to what exactly something like 3oz of chicken breast is supposed to look like.
This website is a great start: http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/qt/eyeportions.htm
In the end, regardless of what Dr. Atkins or anyone else tells you, it still holds true that calories in, calories out is the only formula needed for successful weight loss.
I must admit, however, that I find the calories in part far more fun than the calories out. My next blog post will be about me going to the gym for the first time ever in my life. Stay tuned. There may be tears.