Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development & Support:
The sun is shining in Seattle and spring is finally in the air. And my spring capri pants feel just a little snugger than this time last year. About 4 or 5 times snugger actually. This prompted me to do a couple of things recently:
a) dig my pedometer out of my drawer, buy a new battery for it and attach it to my pants
b) start tracking my food again
I somehow stopped doing both of those things during the winter months and I know those particular tools are invaluable for keeping me on track in terms of my weight and health goals.
While reviewing my food record, I noticed that my portion sizes were larger than my body needed them to be. So I got excited when I read about a Portion Distortion Profile on a website called PEERtrainer.
According to PEERtrainer, there are four basic categories of Portion Distortion. Read the questions below and see where you belong. Then I’ll share what resonated with me.
1. You distort what a portion size is because you never knew. You didn't pay attention, and have no idea what size your portions are.
2. Life has changed on you (you've just had a baby or you've started a new job and your hours have changed): you have moved to a new stage of your life.
3. You got rid of the processed foods and moved to real food, whole grains, vegetables and fruits but are having a hard time losing weight (or are gaining weight).
4. You work out all the time and look at portions in relation to your workouts, without really knowing whether calories burned equal calories eaten.
Do you recognize yourself in any of these?
I realized that categories 2 and 3 apply to me.
My work hours increased a year ago and thus my grocery shopping and meal preparation routines changed too. With less time to cook, I was buying lunch out way more than I had before. And we all know that restaurant servings are typically bigger than what we serve ourselves at home.
Added to this change, I had unconsciously been telling myself that because I was ordering whole foods like brown rice, tofu and veggies at the Thai restaurant, that portion size did not matter. Unfortunately, many healthy whole foods are high in calories, too, and so large portion sizes can start to increase the pounds.
What a relief to figure out why some weight had crept back on! The information that comes from self assessment enables us to make changes – to our thoughts, our beliefs and our behaviors.
If you are taking a closer look at your health behavior this spring, see if portion sizes may be part of the issue. Once you recognize some of your reasons for portion distortion, join me on my quest for continued healthier lifestyle changes!