Portion Control

I often read on the main board people who have had surgery discuss their surgery as a tool to have portion control.
So for those of us not going the surgery route or not there yet what ways can we do better with controlling our portions.??

I have a plate that is three sections that I try to use keeping the meat/starch in the smaller areas. I have reusable water bottles I use each day to measure how much water I'm drinking.
I bought a food scale last week and have been using it especially helpful with measuring my protein.
I bought some measuring cups at the dollar store and often just put my like cottage cheese right into the 1/2 c. one and use it as my serving dish....anything to avoid having another dish to wash.

Any other suggestions?

I forgot all about those plates.  How do you like it?  Do you think it really helps?

I'll be watching thos as I'd like to learn more as well! I do like you are doing- I use the bottles, measuring cups and a food scale. I don't have portion plates but I use a smaller plate to help my brain see this as ENOUGH! lol

Great post!

 Sound like you're on the right track for potion control. 

Some of the tips I've learned along the way (IE- meat serving should be equivalent in size to a deck or cards, a serving of cereal is about he size of a tennis ball etc) are useful on the when you don't have access to measuring tools, but for me- using scales, measuring cups, spoons etc is CRITICAL. its so easy to gradually work your way back up to larger servings. 

One thing I can bother to do is measure my water intake. I just drink. If i measured it I know I'd *always* be under whats is recommended, but with a *seriously* overactive bladder- I just can't do what's recommended.

I do think the section plate helps me be more mindful. The ones I have are just like my dinnerware/corel I think is the brand.

I feel much less guilty eating this way than I did the last time I tried to lose weight on medifast. I'm not spending a ton of money, I'm not wanting to hurt my husband because he is eating real food and I'm not  trying to eat soup that a family member mistook for a bowl of dog food LOL...I mean really if people leave the house because your ''diet'' food stinks so bad your not going to enjoy it.  I also put the weight back on real fast after that.

I switched to smaller plates and use the salad fork and teaspoon instead of dinner fork and soup spoon because my plates and silverware are huge. I found that made a big difference. I think those divided plates are really cute.

As for weighing and measuring - been there, did that and bought the Tshirt. LOL I'm too lazy and I also would creep up the servings over time too. If you can stick with it then that's a good thing. I completely changed my lifestyle and follow Dr. John McDo