I was chatting with a nutritionalist the other day about dieting. She was clearly against fad diets, and actually stated "There is no such thing as dieting" :o. I was shocked, to say the least, because dieting is a big word in my life. My nutritionalist friend was adamant that controlling portion size of your food is by far the most effective way to lose weight.

If you think about it, you can see her point. Meals sizes have become larger - did you ever see the movie Super Size Me? But not only restaurants are the bigger portion size culprits, but we are as much to blame. Have you ever made a recipe that says it serves 6, but your small family of 3 polishes it off in one sitting? Let's face it, our stomachs and our brains have grown accustom to being filled to the brim after every meal and in this way it has become so hard to cut portion sizes down.

So how do we control portion size? Well, apart from weighing and measuring everything you eat (which I know I don't have the patience for), my nutritionalist friend suggests buying yourself plates and bowls that are of "normal" size. This means putting aside your big fancy plates and bowls with the wide rims that are nice for dinner parties, but also give way too much room for packing your plate, and go back to simpler, smaller dishes. For example, I have been using soup bowls that are only half full after I add 2 cups of soup, or whatever. So I went out and bought some modest bowls that are completely full with 1 cup. What a huge difference! A 1 cup deficit of my favorite beef stew is a reduction of over 100 calories from my meal. :o

So if you are trying to lose weight, start thinking about portion control. Buy yourself some new dishes, if your currently ones are on the large size. It doesn't have to be expensive - dollar store plates and bowls are as good as any others. Keep your meals small, and don't eat until you are stuffed. If you need help with this, follow a diet that portions food out for you.