Today's Last Meal: Chicken Pasta with Homemade Pesto, Broccoli, and Spinach Noodles. This is some real comfort food right here. The nooks and crannies of the broccoli really soak up the pesto and the pasta, oh my god, the pasta. Of course when E makes this dish there's enough for a whole week so I'll be eating this "last meal" for awhile. Oh god the pasta.
I'm learning various techniques to help me learn healthy portion control. For awhile now I've been really curious as to why most restaurants don't offer half-sized portions of entrees. Part of the reason I never developed a sense of proper proportion control is because of the "clean your plate" syndrome. Driven by guilt over starving children in third world countries, I learned that I had to eat all of the food on my plate in order to finish my meal. As a consequence I don't consider a meal done until I'm uncomfortably full. Unfortunately that uncomfortably full sensation doesn't hit until about 5-7 minutes after I should have stopped eating.
Here's a list of the techniques I'm starting to use to help me eat healthier.
-ask for a to-go box immediately upon getting food at a restaurant and put 2/3rds away for later.
- no eating in front of the TV or while working (still haven't got this one down)
- eat slowly (chew at least 15-20 times; place fork down while eating a small bite and wait about 30sec before taking another)
- eat off of a small plate
- eat while standing up
- eat a meal's portion of fruits and/or vegetables before going out to eat
- get the smallest portion available for any junk food
I've found that incorporating even just a few of these really helps me keep my eating under control. Let's take a Last Meal that I ate over the weekend as an example.
Last Week's Last Meal: Dan's Hamburger and Chocolate Shake. This greasy, cheesy, hot burger is a heart attack waiting to happen. It's also one of the best cheese burgers I've had. A year or so ago I'd have ordered the large double cheeseburger (you read that right, large AND double) with fries and a large shake. Saturday I made do with a small single and a small chocolate shake.
Here's how I exercised portion control on the last grease-bomb burger I might ever eat. I removed one of the buns and cut the remaining burger in half - instant double cheeseburger. I chewed each bite about 12-15 times (this has the added benefit of really letting me taste the burger instead of just wolfing it down). I bit off small quarter-sized portions, and waited until I'd finished chewing and completely swallowed the bite before taking another. Even though I ate in front of the TV, I made sure that I set my burger down while I chewed to avoid the reflex of taking another bite while still chewing. By eating so slowly, it was easier to tell when I was getting full.
Don't ask about the shake. It's a chocolate shake and it might be my last one so I drank it all up. I drank my milkshake!
Brilliant!
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