Don't You Be Eyeballin' Me!

Portion control is my nemesis! I'm here to tell you right now, I'm bad at portion control. It's what got me into trouble over time.

When I really committed to getting fit and losing weight, I began to weigh and measure all of my food. I know, I know, what a hassle, right? Who has time to do that? Who WANTS to do that?

You do.

Seriously. If you are as lame as I am about eyeballing your portion size, you need to weigh and measure your food to "get your eyes right."

After many years of eyeballing my food, I'm BETTER, but I'm definitely not perfect. Case in point: 10 minutes ago I was having a morning snack. I had 3 dried figs (not hard to eyeball), and then was adding some walnuts. I looked at the bag and thought, "That looks like two tablespoons." I started to pop a few in my mouth and then decided to measure the bag first. FOUR TABLESPOONS. I was totally off. Had I logged the two tablespoons, I would have been as much as 110 calories off.

So what's the big deal? And what is my point? My point is that we can't always trust our eyes. And the big deal is that if you're in weightloss mode, those 100 calories (and the 100 calories you missed at another meal or snack) could, especially over the course of a week, truly make a difference. You hop on the scale at the end of the week expecting to see a one pound loss. But it's not there. You might be close, maybe you just needed another 100 calories per day gone out of your diet this week. Where was it? For me, it would have been in that bag of walnuts.

This happened to me over and over again before I really knuckled down and consistently tracked my food (and ramped up my workouts). Those hundred calories here and there can make a difference if you're trying to lose.

Is it as big a deal if you're maintaining? No, but weighing, measuring, and tracking my food is what keeps me in check and keeps me from mindlessly tossing things into my mouth when I'm cooking or packing lunches. It all adds up!

So don't be eyeballing it! Do some measuring and find out how accurate you are. Make it a game. It's really not that bad -- in fact, it may just grow on you!