My SPECIAL Plate

   I came to the realization a few days ago that I was developing a negative attitude toward portion control. At first I thought it was the smaller portions leaving me hungry, but I listened to my body and that clearly wasn't the problem. My body was feeling content with the smaller portions! Then I looked over at my husband's plate and realized something: my plate looked small and pathetic compared to his. I had all this empty space on my plate and my subconscious was starting to realize it too. So in an attempt to nip this in the bud I bought myself a "special plate" (that's literally what I call it at home).

To the left you see the plates that I used to eat on & on the right is my "special plate". Big difference, huh? I am also a firm believer that if the plate and food have a better presentation then the experience of eating the food will be enjoyable too, which came in handy as I was introducing more veggies into my daily diet.

To illustrate the difference, I took this morning's breakfast and showed you the before and after on both plates. So the picture above is what 2 hard-boiled eggs and a slice of wheat toast looks like on the plate I used to eat from. Pretty sad!

Okay... so here is what the same meal looks like on my "special plate". See how your brain can be more visually satisfied looking at this plate instead? Now, there's one more thing I want to address: What do you do when your smaller amount of bites are all gone, but your hand goes to grab for more? This kept happening to me and I kept wondering, "Is my hand grabbing for more because I'm hungry or because it's what it is trained to do?" Again I listened to my stomach and realized it wasn't because I was hungry. It literally had just become accustomed to always grabbing for more. So here is how I tackled this issue:

I cut or slice everything up before I sit down to eat it. The repetitive hand motion makes the eating process last longer than it probably would if everything weren't cut up. For example, with this morning's breakfast I sliced up my eggs in an egg slicer (which I use to cut up strawberries, pears,etc.) and turned 4 or 5 bites into 10 bites. I know it seems really silly but it truely is working for me, and I know if I have this concern other people will too. Another good point I want to mention is that this has also helped me prepare for post-surgery life as well. Everyone has told me that after I have the surgery I will HAVE TO CHEW CHEW CHEW! I am trying to start getting into the habit of chewing all of my food really well, so cutting things up has been a good visual reminder to practice my good chewing skills.

So here's my really full plate that made me perfectly content this morning.

HEALTHY EATING!