149.4 Portion Control

I lost .8 pounds yesterday, and now am back inside my weight-loss goal of 145 to 149.9. For exercise, I walked the dogs a mile in the park. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk
El Monterey beef and bean burrito with salsa
1/4 cup peanut M&Ms (1 serving)
Salmon patty and steamed mixed vegetables
1/4 cup peanut M&Ms
10 corn tortilla chips (1 serving)

Portion control is one of the keys to keeping the weight off. When I was fat, I would just set the bag of M&Ms or corn tortilla chips next to me and eat until I didn't want any more.

Today, I check the package to see how much or how many a serving is, and I serve myself that many or that much. Sure, I can go back and get another serving if I really really want to, but most often, I don't.

Portion control is a little tricky because of the way food is packaged. A can of soup has "about 2" servings. One serving of salad dressing is only 2 tablespoons, which is less than a glug from a typical salad-dressing bottle.

I am glad food is labeled by calories per serving and how many servings are in the package and how much is one serving. This way, I can always figure out how much of the package I can eat and only get one serving's worth of calories. If I'm out camping or something and don't have a measuring cup, I can divide the contents of the package by how many servings are in it, to get one serving.