Healthy Weight & Portion Control
One of the most difficult tasks many of us have in managing our weight is controlling the amount of food we eat. Too often we sit up to the table and enjoy a deliciously healthy meal only to end up pushing away from the table over-stuffed and miserable.
When I was a child, my grandfather used to joke about building his biceps by pushing himself away from the table on a regular basis. While this specific exercise may not have contributed to his sculpted arms, it definitely played a role in shaping his fit physique. The downside to this practice is that it made for fast meals that lacked in conversation and relaxation.
Many of us use mealtime, especially dinner, as a time to relax visit and catch-up with family and friends. Eating and quickly excusing yourself from the table in a matter of minutes just wouldn't be appropriate, or polite. Instead, we need to practice control... more specifically portion control.
I realize from first-hand experience that controlling the amount of food you eat is not always an easy task. Here's a practical way to keep tabs on the amount of food you're eating, since most of us don't measure or weigh our food on a daily basis.
• One serving (three ounces) of meat, poultry or fish is about the size of a deck of playing cards or the palm of a woman's hand.
• One serving (one-half cup) of fruit, vegetables, pasta or rice is about the size of a small fist.
• One serving (one ounce) of cheese is about the size of your thumb.
• One serving (one cup) of milk, yogurt, or chopped fresh greens is about the size of a small hand holding a tennis ball.
The Power of the Pyramid
The Food Guide Pyramid is an easy way to design a healthy eating plan that will ensure your body gets the daily nutritional requirements it needs. Just to refresh your memory, here's what you need to eat each day:
• Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta: 6-11 servings a day
1 serving = 1 slice of bread; 1/2 bagel; 1 oz. dry cereal; 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice or pasta.
• Vegetables: 3-5 servings a day
1 serving = 1 cup raw leafy greens, 1/2 cup any chopped vegetable, 3/4 cup veggie juice.
• Fruits: 2-4 servings a day
1 serving = 1 medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 c chopped fruit or berries; 3/4 cup fruit juice.
• Milk, Yogurt and Cheese: 2-4 servings a day
1 serving = 1 cup milk or yogurt, 1 oz natural cheese, 2 oz processed cheese.
• Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs and Nuts: 2-3 servings a day
1 serving = 3 oz cooked lean meat, poultry or fish; 1 egg; 1/2 cup cooked beans; 2 tablespoons peanut butter, nuts or seeds.
Couple the Food Guide Pyramid with practical food portion measurements and you've got an easy and pretty accurate way to gain control over the amount of food you eat.
Bon Appetit!
How To Maintain A Healthy Weight
Follow these steps:
For a prediction about your future, don't bother with crystal balls and psychic friends. Your doctor can ask two simple questions that will reveal, with a fair degree of accuracy, what's in store for your health as you age: Do you smoke? Are you overweight?
Next to smoking, your weight is the greatest measure of what sort of long-term health risks you may face, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, gout, and gallbladder disease. Lowering your weight, quite simply, means lowering your risks.
Of course, before you can work to maintain a healthy weight, you need to know how to define a healthy weight. Use the Body Mass Index calculator. It gives you a rough idea of where you stand, placing you in one of three categories: healthy weight, overweight or obese. Check your BMI right now, and then use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.
Know Your BMI?
If your body mass index is less than 25, you should work to keep it there. If your BMI is greater than 25, you can improve your long-term health by lowering your number. Studies have shown that having a BMI above 25 increases the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer.
The following steps, from the nutrition and weight-management book "Eat, Drink And Be Healthy" by Walter C. Willett, M.D., chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, can help you maintain a healthy BMI or lower one that's high.
Get Active:
If you are active now, congratulations. You can reap even greater benefits by increasing the frequency and intensity of your activity. If you aren't active, getting started can help reduce your weight and, therefore, improve your health. Here's what Dr. Willett recommends.
Walk:
A walk might not seem like "exercise" to people who sweat at the gym, but research has shown considerable health benefits from walking. For women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study — one of the largest and longest health studies ever — those who walked briskly about three hours a week were 35 percent less likely to have had a heart attack over an eight-year period than the women who only walked occasionally.
Make your day more active:
You've heard these suggestions before, but they're worth repeating. Use stairs instead of elevators, park a distance away from your destination and walk, get off the bus or train a few stops early and walk the rest of the way, rake and shovel manually instead of using power equipment to blow leaves and snow away.
Make exercise enjoyable:
Obviously, the more fun you have participating in an activity, the greater the chance that you'll do it often and stick with it longer. If you hate the thought of being indoors and running on a treadmill, don't set that as your goal. If you love swimming, join a pool. Like tennis? Sign up with a partner. (Having someone to keep you on track always helps.)
Exercise 30 minutes each day:
This is the tough one for many people. Scheduling time for exercise is often the first item to drop off the "to do" list. Try to think of daily exercise as an investment, just as valuable to your future as your IRA — you're banking good health now for use later in life. Here's some good news: The 30 minutes doesn't have to be consecutive. If your schedule doesn't allow one uninterrupted 30-minute block of time, get your daily fill of exercise in two 15-minute blocks.
Watch What You Eat:
The two factors that influence what you weigh are amount of physical activity and how much you eat. Dr. Willett suggests focusing on the following dietary practices to monitor and control the calories you consume.
Keep track of your calories:
To maintain your current weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. Writing down what you eat is the first step toward making a change. Right now, you may have no idea how many calories you take in each day. (The average number used by health professionals and the food industry is 2,000 calories per day.) Keep a notepad with you and jot down what you eat throughout the day, and the approximate portion sizes of each item. At the end of the day, you can search for the values of each food and tally your totals. (Our nutrition database contains thousands of food entries, each with total calorie content and the ability to adjust portion size. You also can get an idea of how many of those calories you're burning when you exercise.)
Practice defensive eating:
In our "super-size it" society, overeating is easy, automatic and nearly inevitable. To protect against the onslaught of messages tempting us to eat more food and larger portions, Dr. Willett suggests these steps:
- Stop before you're stuffed.
"Clean your plate" was not good advice. (Sorry, mom.) Walk away from your plate feeling satisfied but light.
- Don't eat things just because they're available.
If you stock your pantry with high-calorie snacks, chances are that you'll eat them. Make life easier for yourself and don't bring tempting items into your home. Instead, stock fruit (apples, grapes) and whole-grain crackers.
- Choose small portions.
You can control portion size at home. Dining out, however, requires some planning. Know that the portions you get in restaurants and fast-food joints are often double (at least) a normal portion size.
- Eat slowly.
Your digestive system sends signals when it's had enough. If you eat too quickly, this process can't keep up, and you end up eating more than you need.
According to Dr. Willett, most people can control their weight by being conscious of what they eat and by getting daily exercise. The reward is a longer, healthier life.
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