{"id":30061,"date":"2010-09-18T01:01:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T06:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=30061"},"modified":"2010-09-17T14:29:43","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T19:29:43","slug":"simplify-portion-distortion-without-gadgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/simplify-portion-distortion-without-gadgets\/","title":{"rendered":"Simplify Portion Distortion Without Gadgets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a title=\"bagel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/simplify-portion-distortion-without-gadgets\/\" target=\"_self\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-30063\" title=\"bagel\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/bagel.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>Guest blogger, Monique Muro earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from Cal State Long Beach. She currently assists with the PR and Social Media marketing for the revolutionary supplement <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alldayslim.com\/\"><em>AllDaySlim<\/em><\/a><em>, and works as a freelance writer on the side. An avid reader and writer, her articles can be found at Suite101, eHow, Ezinearticles.com, Demand Studios, CNN iReport, and Examiner.com. She writes on a variety of topics including fitness, books, movies, and current events.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"portion control video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/videos\/understanding-portion-control\/\" target=\"_self\">Portion control<\/a> will make or break your diet, without question. Eat more than your body can burn off, and in due time, the results will make themselves known in that subtle pinch at the waistline when you pull up your favorite jeans.<\/p>\n<p>Most of this is due to a little known thing called \u201cportion distortion\u201d, a catchphrase that describes how we determine which <a title=\"perfect portions\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diets\/Perfect_Portions\/\" target=\"_self\">portion<\/a> sizes are \u201cnormal\u201d. Take a bagel, for example: Twenty years ago, a bagel three inches in diameter, about the size of a compact disc, was an adequate size for breakfast, clocking in at 140 calories. Today bagel sizes average a whopping six inches in diameter, and upwards of 350 calories. Bigger sizes are now considered the \u201cnorm\u201d, as the food industry recognizes the nation\u2019s ever increasing demand for more food.<\/p>\n<p>But the devil\u00a0is\u00a0in the details when it comes to carving out the right portion size. How much money do you have to spend on specially marked cups and scales to accurately diminish your portions?<\/p>\n<p>Here are some tips to follow that make it easier to eyeball your serving sizes without having to spend money on extra gadgets.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Never eat more than the size of your palm. Everyone can gage roughly the size of their palms. When faced with a scrumptious meal, go ahead and taste a little of each side, but never scoop out more than would fit into the palm of your hand.<\/li>\n<li>Drink water before a big meal. The Journal of the American Dietetic Association published a study recently that showed participants who drank a glass of water 20 to 30 minutes before each meal ate 75 calories less than those who did not. Water isn\u2019t a good replacement meal, but it does help you get full faster, so you won\u2019t eat as much as you\u2019ve served yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Cut it in half. Be it dessert, French fries, pancakes, or grandma\u2019s chocolate bundt cake, cut it in half or split it with someone. No matter how many calories a piece of food has, splitting it in two is a surefire way to slash the calories, and the only tool you need is a knife.<\/li>\n<li>Eat on a smaller plate. When you\u2019re off to stack your plate with food, opt for a smaller one. No counting or measuring necessary. Simply fill up the small plate, and you\u2019ll be eating far less than everyone else.<\/li>\n<li>Print a portion guide. Web MD and Reader\u2019s Digest both have free, printable portion guides that serve as easy ways to determine the sizes of portions without having to measure. A baseball equals one cup, a deck of cards equals three or four\u00a0ounce of steak, and so on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While it\u2019s always going to be hard to resist the foods you love, the easiest way to manage is with moderation. Share it with someone. Savor the food you allow yourself, but pay close attention to your stomach signals. At the end of the day, your stomach has the final \u201cfull\u201d say.<\/p>\n<p><strong>___________________________________________________<br \/>\nGuest Blog Series:<\/strong> Look for the following badge on your favorite health sites to see if they have been a featured guest blogger on <a title=\"diet reviews\" onclick=\"pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outbound\/article\/');\" href=\"..\/..\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>DietsInReview.com<\/em><\/a><em>. See other posts in the <\/em><a title=\"diet blog\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/category\/guest-blog\/\" target=\"_self\"><em>Guest Blog series<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a style=\"margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; width: 120px; height: 60px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/category\/guest-blog\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/images\/diet-weight-loss-blogger.gif\" alt=\"Diets in Review - Weight Loss and Diet Blog\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If you would like to apply to be featured as a guest blogger, please <\/em><a title=\"guest blog\" href=\"mailto:help@dietsinreview.com?subject=guest%20blogger%20application\" target=\"_blank\"><em>contact us<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest blogger, Monique Muro earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from Cal State Long Beach. She currently assists with the PR and Social Media marketing for the revolutionary supplement AllDaySlim, and works as a freelance &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/simplify-portion-distortion-without-gadgets\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[23,4236,29,708],"class_list":["post-30061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-guest-blog","tag-monique-muro","tag-nutrition","tag-portion-control"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30061"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30488,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30061\/revisions\/30488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}