Sometimes when we think we've tried every avenue of weight loss the one thing you may not have been thinking about is "serving size". You might be eating more than you think you are or not eating enough, all because you're getting the serving size wrong. I know I was blown away when I started researching serving sizes for different foods. I was way off for my meat portions. I just had no idea how much 3 oz was. Here are some hints to help you, but I challenge you to take a couple of days and go on a serving size journey and just measure things out so you have a better idea of how much a serving looks like and then see if it doesn't help you take off some unwanted pounds.
The following are 1 serving size portions:
Grains - 1 slice of bread, 1/2 C. cooked grains
Vegetables - 1/2 C cooked or 1 C raw or 1/2 C juice
Fruits - 1/2 C chopped fruit or 1 medium size fruit (about the size of a tennis ball), or 1/2 C Juice
Dairy - 1 C Milk or Yogurt, 2 Domino sized pieces of cheese (or the size of four dice)
Meat/Beans - 3 oz of meat (About the size of a deck of cards) Fish - The size of a checkbook, beans 1/2 C
Fats/Nuts/oils - 1 TBSP or with nut butters it could be 2 TBSP (measure this out so you get an idea of what 2 T looks like. 1.8 of an avocado
This is just a small list of ideas of what serving sizes look like. Of course, you will find serving sizes on nutrition facts labels as well. Please accept my challenge this week and go on a "serving size journey".
For some exercise do some lo-impact jumping jacks: Keep your legs a little over shoulder length apart and move your arms up and down while doing a small squat. Do 100! :)
Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich (serves 1)
1 Medium size banana
2 T of Adams PB (or any other nut butter)
Spread it on the banana and enjoy! YUM!
This equals 1 fruit serving and 1 Fat serving.
