Digestion Problems Continued

Another thing that can help us prevent gastrointestinal problems is to revise some of our habits that may be causing these issues. Certain foods can actually interfere with digestion. Here are a few foods that you should be aware of and cut down your intake.

The first is coffee. It doesn't mean you can't have it, it means to cut back how much you drink. some other foods are chocolate, fatty or fried foods, heavy cream sauces. The other thing to do here is to decrease the size of your meals. My husband and I now only order one meal when we go out because there is more than enough food for both of us, sometimes there is enough to take some home. The portion sizes in most restaurants is way more than most of us need to eat. It's OK to take some home. You would be better off to eat 6 small meals a day

Hints For Maintaining Your Weight During the Holidays

I have mentioned this before, but again as we head into the holiday season and the parties and goodies that will be around, one of the most important things you can do is keep your plate small. The smaller your plate, the less food you will consume.

Research has demonstrated that on average, if you use a smaller plate you will decrease the number of calories by about 142 per meal. Now that may not sound like much, but over a year of 3 meals a day, this results in about 44 pounds of weight gain.

Also, before you go to a party eat something at home, like a bean soup or salad with beans in it. By the time you get to the party, you will not have the urge to eat everything in site.

Some Last Thoughts On Portion Control

Curb your appetite. Before a big meal, eat a salad or broth based vegetable soup. If you do this before you go to have the big meal, you will have a feeling of fullness much sooner and will tend to eat less.

Eating out - here are a couple of things for when you eat out. Ask for a lunch size portion of a dinner entree. Share whatever you order with a friend. My husband and I have found that the portions are so huge now in restaurants, that we do much better just ordering one and sharing it.

Ask for a takeout container or doggie bag when you place your order. When the order comes, place half of it in the container before you start eating.

Lastly, on eating out, steer clear of the "All-You-Can-Eat" buffets. If possible order off of the menu.

Portion Control

Another thing to do for portion control is to use smaller plates. If you have a smaller plate and it is full, you will have a sense of eating the right portion. If you have a big plate, you will want to fill it.

Another thing is the utensils. Use small spoons for gravies and heavy sauces and big spoons for vegetables. This way you will get more of the vegetables and less of the things that are not as good for you.

More to Control Portion Size

Slow down!! Eat more slowly. Most of us eat until our brain tells us we are full. The problem is that we have probably had 2-3 times as much food as we need by the time our brain says we're full.

Take sips of water between bites. Take time to really enjoy what you are eating. Pause before you take seconds and ask yourself if you really need that second helping. Think about it for a few minutes and have another sip or two of water. If there are going to be leftovers, put them away before you start your meal after you have dished up. This will make it more of an effort to go get seconds.

Better yet is to cook so that there will not be left overs. Then the temptation for seconds is removed.

Limiting Portion Sizes

Yesterday I started to talk about controlling portion sizes. Here are a couple more tips on controlling portion sizes.

Read the label. How much is actually one serving? Sometimes what we think is one serving is actually 2 or 3 servings.

Put left overs into single serving size containers. This will help you limit that next portion instead of grabbing the entire leftover and eating what may be 3-4 portions.

Ways to Control Portion Size

Here are some tips to help control portion sizes. Start out with half of your usual portion of your favorite foods. Then substitute vegetables and fruits for the rest of your portion. This is a great place to start.

Try to avoid the big snack bags of chips and cookies. Either buy the smaller pre-portioned sized bags, or if you buy the big bag, as soon as you get home, immediately divide the bigger bags into single serving plastic bags.