Fitness Tip: 3 – Reduce Portions

If I were to tell you that you can eat lots; may be 5 to 6 times a day. You would be super excited and jump out of that chair. What if I were to tell you to reduce your portions from a plate to bowl? I am sure you are thinking now. Still thinking?? Aahhh…Stop thinking right now if you want to have a healthy lifestyle and body!!

This time sincerely try to cut on your portions for 20 days (to begin with). Challenge yourself and stay determined that you need to stick only to bowls and not plates.

Everyone has the ardor and determination it’s just that we are too lazy. We don’t like to admit the fact that we are lazy. But acceptance will be good here; not for me or loved ones around you but yourself.  So accept it and say it loud to yourself “Yes! I am lazy to stay determined”.

I did not mean to be rude but sometimes you need to kick your emotions. I do it often with myself. So let’s begin this with an energy to control our brain. Advice that I followed was to eat half of what I ate.

1.       So to begin with, replace your plates with bowls. Remember our friends “Chinese” they do the same J

      Here are the few random pictures from my table, the plate is for my husband and bowl is of course for me. You can also use a small plate and small fork as the brain still thinks it has eaten a plate full. Beat your system. Pretty challenging! But it’s possible!

OH! The last picture is different. That's because I had stomachache so I preferred non-fat greek yougurt and rice (made it thinner with water).

2.       Learn to say NO/Thank You when you are asked to serve in larger plate or larger portion. Sometimes my husband does the serving so he asks me if I need plate or a bowl. Not even for once I would have ever told him a plate. If he insisted “Come on you can have it in a plate for once” I answer “Thank you for lovely gesture but I will be fine in a bowl” J

Now, recently when I want him to help me out for serving, he gets the bowl or small plate off from shelve.

Your loved ones start respecting your efforts and dedication that they help you quietly without insisting the other way round.

3.       Prepare your meal first, clean up and store away your leftovers in refrigerator before eating. In this way you will not be tempted to eat more after the meal.

4.       Restrict your servings. Once served, I never take second serving. It’s not about being hungry and starving to death. It’s about eating right quantity and right food. Size of stomach organ is not more than our closed fist though it has the ability to expand.

5.       It is also true that our stomach takes 20 minutes to send a message to brain that it’s filled. Haven’t you ever experienced that without your notice you stuffed yourself so much that you were unable to move easily?  And you say “are yaar bahut kha liya" J

      By the time stomach could send a message to your brain  that it's filled, it was too late and you ate your food to glory J. Hence, they say CHEW! By chewing you give good amount of time and of course it is good to chew for digestion reasons.

6.       To the beautiful mommies out there, please leave the club “clean the plate”. By this I mean DO NOT eat left overs of your kiddo.

7.       I was also asked how do I manage a portion with ROTI (Indian Bread). I prefer 1 roti in whole day (always for lunch). Before this I always felt I would die if did not eat 2 rotis’ in a meal. Thats because roti is my staple food but Silly Me!! I could manage through very well. Like my husband says “It’s all in our mind”. 

     

      Now if you are eating 2 in noon and 2 in night. Try reducing to 1 each and increase your veggies. You can also try Non-Fat Greek Yogurt. I eat more of veggies and curd, this way I sustain against rotis'.

Here’s the pic from my routine. I wouldn’t even use that plate. It’s for the blog lest I hold it in my hand and chomp it out J

8.       To the working people or say who pack their lunches. You cannot give any excuses to yourself. You can beat your system too.

Get hold of 3 small boxes. 1. Fill it with salad 2. Fill it with fruits. 3. Fill it with your healthy lunch. Below are the pictures just for references, you can have more than 2 fruits.

      I hope this post gives you a little idea on how to cut down your portions. After 20days you will also get accustomed to bowl and healthy foods like I am now J.

By this, it doesn’t mean you can have only 3 bowls of your food in a day. Eat more than 3 times but in pieces like babies do. You can eat the right stuff like veggies, fruits, juices, protein foods, green tea, brown bread, meat, egg whites, oatmeal, corn flakes, drink milk in fact anything that is healthy and non-fatty BUT in small portions. J

      Have a great weekend!