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Preparing Portion Control Meals: How to Include Unhealthy Foods You Enjoy and Still Lose Weight

The Team — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:11:40 +0000

If you’ve ever wondered how to prepare meals that will help you lose weight and include some of the unhealthy foods that you crave, we can help. Weight loss and an occasional treat do belong in portion control eating and the healthy meals at the heart of your eating plan are easy to prepare, nutritious and very satisfying.

Fresh foods are always the healthiest to include in your menu. By providing a variety of different flavors and textures they make eating interesting. Herbs like parsley, some rosemary, oregano or basil add special tastes to a wide range of meals. They can be grown in the smallest apartments and easily included in menus. Investing the time to grow or buy ingredients like these will help you vary your meals and is well worth the effort.

Some ideas below are based upon foods from each of the main food groups. No foods types are omitted. Even those that don’t fit the ‘healthy food’ category should feature from time to time. You enjoy these foods and you should eat them occasionally in small portions. In this way portion control eating makes losing weight possible without feeling as if you are ‘going on another diet’.

To lose weight on a regular basis you need to eat foods we call ‘slimming sensations’. These foods are low in processed sugar and fat and provide your body with the necessary nutrients. As you continue to lose weight, feel confident enough to include an occasional (small) slice of your favorite cake or share dessert with a friend. Your weight loss will continue even with a small portion of something you love.

The way to include all foods in your menu as you lose weight is to make sure that you limit the amount you eat of these and the frequency of this. A small potion eaten infrequently is the answer! This is the key to making portion control eating an enjoyable eating experience instead of a boring diet. Make sure that most food you eat is healthy and filled with the necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber your body needs and low in sugar, salt and fat. Doing this will allow you the capacity to enjoy a small treat containing more salt, fat or processed sugar than you generally allow from time to time.

Portion control is not about ongoing deprivation that makes you crave the wrong foods more than you should. A small serve of something you really enjoy, as a special treat will not counter balance the value of all the vegetables, lean meat, fruits and cereals that you include in your menu. You’ll still come out ahead and feel better for it, more determined to work towards your weight loss goals.

The following suggestions are healthy food choices for a meal comprising food from each of the main food groups. A meal plan like this can be prepared quickly and easily at home or ordered when you dine out. You can even prepare or order a healthy meal like this and add a special treat without compromising your intake of important nutrients.

Appetizers

Fresh, steamed seafood such as shrimp cocktail

Eggs

Never fried, poached or boiled

Salads

Salads with low-cal dressing, lemon juice, vinegar, or vinaigrette

Breads

Crackers or whole grain rolls

Potatoes and Substitutes

Noodles – preferably whole wheat noodles

Fats

Olive oil, low-calorie salad dressing

Vegetables

Boiled, steamed or raw

Fish, Poultry, Meat

Broiled, grilled, roasted, baked, never fried poultry, fish, or seafood

Desserts

One scoop or ½ cup of ice cream or sorbet

Flavored coffee

Beverages

Seltzer water, low-fat milk, sugar free drinks

Coffee, tea

Planning a portion control meal like this revolves around a balanced proportion of foods from each food group. Your meal plan should include 50% vegetables and fruit, 25% grains and 25% proteins. To make healthy eating a part of your life forever while you still lose weight or maintain your weight loss, always include those less-than-healthy-foods that you really love, in small portions now and then.

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Rowena French uses responsible portion control to successfully manage her own weight and her family’s health. Tired of dieting without success? Sign up to my free magazine to learn more about how to use portion control for healthy, permanent weight loss. If you haven’t already subscribed to my free product sample, watch my preview video for more information about the whole portion control package.

You CAN Eat Chocolate in a Portion Control Eating Plan!

The Team — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:48:54 +0000

Thankfully portion control eating does not include depriving yourself of everything you enjoy eating! Overall you do need to consider what type of food you eat and how much of this is right for you in this eating plan. Regularly depriving yourself of foods you really enjoy will not help you to healthily reduce and manage your weight. In fact it is likely to undermine your efforts in the long run. So, this is how portion control can help you successfully lose weight and still eat chocolate!

Chocolate bars have expanded in size more than 10 times since they first became available. This reflects our increasing taste for chocolate and our increasing consumption of it. The implication of this for consumers of chocolate today is the need to decide how much of a chocolate bar is good to eat, instead of assuming that the entire bar is up for grabs! You can eat chocolate but in moderation. It’s not hard to determine a moderate serve of chocolate, so you can get a taste of something so rich and decadent!

Foods that fit into the same category and are rich in sugar include donuts, ice cream, cookies, desserts, creamy toppings. An occasional indulgence in these special treats is OK as long as it only happens occasionally and involves small sizes. A small piece of banana cake now and then or a small cone of honeycomb ice cream will not see your weight balloon or your health diminish. You can avoid by including ‘unhealthy’ food in a healthy way – in small portions and only sometimes.

You probably won’t lose weight after small treats like these but you probably wont gain any either. By restraining from overindulgence, and controlling the size of your food portions you will be able to maintain a healthy weight and eat most things you enjoy.

Eating these foods too frequently and in large servings is what leads to weight gain and health problems but eating them in moderation is acceptable. If you have a craving for a small muffin, then have one!

The secret is the number of muffins you eat. One is fine more than one slowly and insidiously becomes a problem. Don’t eat cookies or donuts from a package until there are none left. Avoid eating packaged foods like cookies or muffins if you are really hungry as you will always eat more than one.

One muffin won’t make you gain weight, but many muffins will do just that and you are certain to feel worse for it! An additional warning about eating packaged cookies and treats is that they generally contain the unhealthy transfats and saturated fats in the oils used to cook them. You need to steer very clear of these.

Sometimes chocolate may be the only food that will satisfy your ‘sweet craving’ but other treats can do the same thing. Consider sometimes fresh fruit or low-fat yogurt as an alternative as these are sweet without a high concentration of complex sugars. But when chocolate is the only food you really desire, then eat it, in small portions only. In this way, portion control eating accommodates an occasional treat as you keep focused on your healthy weight loss and weight management goals over the long term!

Warm regards

Rowena French

For the Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Losing Weight through Portion Control: How to Interpret Food Labels

The Team — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:35:33 +0000

Reading food labels can overwhelm us, especially when we rely on them to help us make the right decisions about food that will help our weight loss program. We can however learn to interpret food labels as part of our portion control eating plan. If you know what information to look for on pre-packaged food you can chose wisely and avoid being mislead.

Make sure that you understand the information provided about the content and number of each serving in your package. Don’t be fooled by details of fat in one serve if you plan to eat more than one at each sitting. For example, if there are three servings in one pack and each contain 7gm of fat, be sure to realize that 2 servings will contain 14 gm fat and if you eat the whole package, you will consume a staggering 21gm all at once. When you are really clear about how much fat each serving contains you can decide how much you will eat and how you will remove and store any remaining servings. Getting a clear idea of the content of each serving requires a careful look followed by sensible action. This is how portion control eating works best!

Label-reading doesn’t have to become an obsession but doing this the right way will assist you to make good use valuable information pre-packaged foods. The guidelines below will help you to read these food labels. By doing this, you’ll make more informed decisions about the best foods for you and the portion size you should eat.

There are some things like salt and sugar that you will want to diminish in your diet. Others like fiber will need to be increased. The checklist below provides some simple guidelines for label reading.

Always count the servings per container and check the content of each of these

Note the calories

% daily values are 5% or less = low / 20% or more = high

Search for low percentages of saturated and transfats

Limit salt (often referred to as sodium)

Eat plenty of fiber and protein

Reduce your sugar intake

Food labels should indicate the amount of saturated fats and transfats. Look for those foods that contain a low percentage of both of these. Keep a close eye out for foods where the salt (sodium) content or the sugar (sometimes referred to as glucose) content is low. Food labels on foods containing healthy fats will show ’polyunsaturated fats’ or ‘monounsaturated fats’. Whatever the fats, minimize your total fats to between 20%-35% of your daily calories.

Plan your portion control diet with the help of food labels. Details of the fat, sugar, protein, fiber and salt in this food is crucial for your decisions about what to eat and how much. Use this information to allow yourself the pleasure of eating some of every type of food as you lose weight. Don’t eliminate whole sections of the food pyramid in a dramatic and unbalanced eating regime.

This balanced eating program is a breath of fresh air after so many fad diets that can’t provide your body the nutrition it needs as you lose weight. Add this advice on interpreting labels to your portion control checklist.

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

A Lesson in Portion Control at a Thai McDonalds

The Team — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:28:16 +0000

1. Consider whether or not you really are hungry or perhaps something else instead of eating in response to your next set of hunger pangs? You may be anxious or depressed or stressed or even bored. Eating food may not be the best response for you. Taking a walk, reading a good book, calling a special friend, or some other activity satisfies your needs just as well, or better, than food!

If you take long enough to consider your hunger signals, you will find that your common sense will inform you whether or not you’re really hungry. Consider an alternative to the kitchen pantry or the nearest drive-through when stress or loneliness attack for greater satisfaction mainly because you are listening to your common sense and making better choices.

2. If hunger not other feelings are causing your hunger signals, when you do drive up to a fast-food restaurant, think about the size or portion of the food you’ll consume not just what type of food you’ll eat. This is the basis of portion control eating. Consider a child sized meal or order a salad and fruit with your burger instead of high-fat fries. A small hamburger and fries go a long way toward satisfying hunger.

Over eating is generally brought about by eating those extra large, super-size, portions on offer when your body doesn’t need them. Regular eating of portions that are too large causes you to feel tired and unhappy. It also causes blood sugar levels to rise quickly and fall sharply leaving you tired and zapping your energy shortly after you eat. Your common sense tells you to think about the size of your meal! Listen to yourself and you’ll make better choices! Common sense and an understanding of how much you need to eat through portion control is a vital tool for helping you manage your weight and your life.

It’s akin to self-control and the two are partners in how healthy or how poorly you eat. When you pair common sense and self-control, you have the power to overcome unhealthy eating habits and enjoy the foods you eat too. It’s all about thinking about what you should eat, how much you should eat, and realizing and stopping when you are full, or nearly full. And remember that it takes about 20 minutes after you eat to realize exactly how full you are.

On a visit to a McDonald’s restaurant in Thailand, Professor Steven Hawks from Brigham Young University had a revelation about the portion size of our food. ‘The portion size was about a third to what you get in the United States," he said. "My first reaction was 'What a rip off,' but then I started to see, 'Well, that was enough to be satisfied.'

To lose weight and control this weight loss over the long term, you do not need to restrict your food so much that there is little or no enjoyment in eating. Don’t feel guilty about what you eat, just manage how much you eat through portion control eating. This will see you stay within your nutritional plan to lose weight or maintain it. The occasional cake, cookie or cheeseburger is not what made you overweight to begin with. It’s the culmination of years of over-eating and indulging that created the problem. Those years of ignoring your common sense finally caught up with you in a big way.

The good news is that you can control what and how much your eat. Make a point of discovering the nutritional value of foods, understanding the importance of successful portion control, exercising self-control, and stepping into tomorrow with a healthy, positive attitude will make all of the difference!

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Portion Control Today – How Different Were Food Portion Sizes 20 years Ago?

The Team — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:21:11 +0000

Have you ever wondered why hamburgers, French fries, fried chicken, pizza, and cheesecake are these so much worse for us now than they have been in past years? After all they have been around for a long time. Why do they appear to do more damage and why is the concept of food portion control becoming so important to us?

The answer to this question is related to the general health of our nation. The inclusion of these foods in our diet certainly is impacting on our lives. Obesity in the United States has just become a national epidemic in the past 20 years. Children are not exempt from this catastrophic obesity epidemic in our country. Childhood obesity continues to escalate in all socio-economic populations as children’s understanding of food portion sizes has been determined and controlled by large international food organizations. The marketing departments of these organizations increase the portion sizes of comparatively inexpensive food to increase their sales.

According to registered dietician, Dr Lisa Young, also an MSNBC reporting contributor, ‘When McDonald’s first opened, a soda was 7 ounces. Today, the child size is 12 ounces, a small is 16 ounces, and the large 32 ounces.’

So it’s not the inclusion of these foods in our diet today that is the real problem. Its how much of these foods we consume that’s at the heart of our health crisis. When you compare food portions 20 years ago with today’s extra generous super sized servings it helps to give some idea of the cause of the obesity epidemic in our country. Take a look at the change in caloric intake in foods today compared to 20 years ago below. You’ll be amazed at how different they are and understand how we need something as helpful as portion control to keep a today.

Food Portions Today Compared to 20 Years Ago

Information Source: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Food Item	Calories 1989	Calories Today	Calories Increase
Spaghetti and Meatballs	500	1,025	525
Cheeseburger	333	590	257
Soda	85	250	165
Turkey Sandwich	320	820	500
Bagel	140	350	210
Pizza	500	850	350
Caesar Salad	390	790	400
Cheesecake	260	640	380
Cookie	55	275	220
French Fries	210	610	400
Pizza	500	850	350

So what can we make from these figures? The outcome is clear. The result is obvious. We are consistently and unwittingly consuming more food than we need. As we do this, we regularly stretch the size of our stomachs and condition our bodies to feel hungry when we should not feel this way. The more we eat like this the greater the likelihood that we will gain weight and the more calories we need to use to burn off excess and unwanted fat. Our desire for oversized food portions of have overpowered our good intentions to exercise more or get fitter.

How can we avoid becoming a victim of mega sized eating?

Don’t be seduced by extra large size meals for only 39cents more! Decide how much food you need and only eat that much
Find out what size portions of different foods is right for you so you can eat the correct amount of everything you enjoy without gaining weight
Learn how portion control eating habits will help you do this as a way of life, and avoid overnight fad diets that generally don’t last much longer than that.

Reclaim Your Health. Start today.

You Can Do It!

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Can I Eat Portion Control Foods, Lose Weight and Still Keep Healthy?

The Team — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:30:26 +0000

The short answer to this important question is ‘Yes’. The more important response is an explanation of ‘How’ and ‘Why’. Knowing about your body’s needs is important when planning a portion control menu that will help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight. There are four (4) main food groups that supply essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for your body:

1. Grain and Wheat

2. Dairy and Cheese

3. Vegetables and Fruit

4. Meat, Fish, and Alternatives

One common characteristic of most diets is that they limit or eliminate entire food groups from their menus because they are deemed unhealthy and unpopular at the time. Many diets restrict food groups and minimize the inclusion of nutrients, such as fats and protein, in the dietary plan. This is not the way portion control eating works. Your body requires a variety of essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals found in carbohydrates, proteins, fats, sugars, and water. The secret is knowing where to find these nutrients and how much of each your body needs. Armed with this information you will be well equipped to make sensible decisions about what and how much food you eat.

The inclusion of carbohydrates in any weight loss menu is important because foods containing carbohydrates have essential nutrients for the body and provide a much needed energy supply to the body. There are good and bad carbs. Highly processed carbohydrates typically raise blood sugar levels and eventually lead to that ‘crashing’ feeling you experience once they are processed through the body. Complex carbohydrates are good carbs. They pack the most nutritional value and promote appetite suppression. Brown rice and whole wheat flour are examples of good carbs. These foods are not only valuable sources of energy but an effective means of keeping your rumbling ‘hungry tummy’ quiet much longer.

To remain healthy, your body needs a regular intake of foods containing protein. We can’t afford to do without it because protein is another essential nutrient for the body and is used to create muscle mass, to support healthy cell creation and function, and to strengthen the immune system. Proteins are found primarily in meats, poultry, dairy products, and fish, beans and legumes. Protein is found predominantly in meat (lean is the best by far) and fish. A portion of these foods representing a third of your meal in your portion control meal provides your body with a healthy intake of protein.

Foods containing fats have been deemed unpopular across recent years. They have been reduced or completely excluded from many diet plans. Because fats are important to your diet however they are included in portion control menus, but they should be restricted to between 20 to 35% of your daily intake – targeting less than 30%. There are healthy fats and not-so-healthy fats so it’s important to know the difference. The best source of fats are from meats, oils, nuts, and dairy products. The most important information you need to know when including fats in your eating plan is the foods that contain healthy fats.

Foods containing a group of processed fats known as Transfats need to be avoided or eaten in small portions and only occasionally. They are basically healthy fats that have been hydrogenated to increase their shelf life and flavor. They are found in high percentages of cakes, cookies, and snack foods. Transfats are known to raise LDL (unhealthy cholesterol), levels in the body. High LDL levels can lead to serious heart disease.

Transfats do not contribute to weight loss or the development of a healthy body and their inclusion in your portion control eating plan should be considered carefully. The key is to significantly reduce the amount of saturated fats in your diet and to manage these is to watch the amount of fat you consume from meat and dairy. Make use of low-fat or fat-free choices. Remember it’s often at the store that you make the most important decisions about portion control meals.

Many foods contain fats that are good for your body and are referred to as healthy fats. These fats add to the condition of your skin and hair and need to appear on your menu regularly. Olive oil is a sensible and healthy choice for fats since it contains monounsaturated fat, which reduces the LDL levels in your body and, in turn, lowers your risk of heart disease. It is a healthier choice for fats, especially the lighter extra-virgin olive oil choices and recommended in portion control eating plans. In addition to olive oil, you should also consider canola, peanut, sunflower, and soybean oils. Many of these oils are now used in products such as mayonnaise to make them healthier for you

Portion control eating plans include foods from each of the four major food groups. These choices reflect an understanding of the right kind of foods within some of these categories. You can achieve and keep a healthy body weight through portion control, losing excess weight and most importantly keep it off. By including smaller portions of foods that are more calorific on your menu, you will discover how to make eating an enjoyable way of life rather than another grueling diet. By eating sensible portions of the right foods you will avoid feeling hungry and stay healthy by giving your body everything it needs.

Connie Diekman, Director of Nutrition at Washington University, St Louis has to more to say about how to get healthy and stay healthy using portion control here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Why Portion Control is NOT about Abstinence

The Team — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:52:21 +0000

Whenever you start a new diet you generally discover that at some stage you will need to abstain from at least one food group- which ever one is deemed to be the ‘bad guy’ at the time. The greatest ‘weight gain’ culprits over recent years have been carbohydrates and fats. Portion control eating does not subscribe to abstinence from carbs, fats nor any foods as a means of long term weight loss. Instead it promotes eating the right sized portions of these and all foods.

The benefit of eating carbohydrates as part a weight loss program can be confusing as there are some carbs that should be eaten and others that should not. Highly processed carbohydrates typically raise blood sugar levels and eventually lead to you feeling ‘down’ once they are processed through the body. Complex carbohydrates pack the most nutritional value and promote appetite suppression. Brown rice and whole wheat flour are examples of good carbs and an important component in any portion control menu they will stave off your hunger longer.

The inclusion of fats in your portion control menu is important but the total amount of fat you eat should be monitored and generally less than 30% of your daily food consumption. As is the case with carbs there are healthy fats and not-so-healthy fats so it’s important to know the difference. Fat can be obtained from meats, dairy, nuts, and oils and knowing where to find the healthiest fats is important.

You can eat sugar or artificial sweeteners and still lose weight, it’s just a matter of how much. Using natural sugars may be more satisfying but either source should be used in moderation. Unlike most fad diets portion control eating is not restrictive – it’s a way of life, so there is a place for the inclusion of limited amounts of either natural or artificial sweeteners.

The jury is still out about the value or not of sweeteners in weight loss programs. However, they can be a useful strategy for reducing the amount of sugar in your diet, which does lead to better weight control. The important thing to understand is that the use of real sugar in your diet is not necessarily a bad thing when you practice portion control – unless you are diabetic or have some other illness that prohibits the consumption of sugar.

Take care when you select artificially sweetened drinks as these often contain empty calories and can promote hunger rather than suppress it. There is some value in a limited portion of something sweet rather than continually depriving yourself of a delicious sweet treat or cup of carbonated soda. This generally leads to overeating later. The solution is found in an underlying principle of portion control! A small taste of something calorific is MUCH healthier than prolonged abstinence and then binging.

You can lose weight without abstaining from the foods you really enjoy. Smaller portions of food from every food group Combined with physical activity, is a winning combination! If you eat 100 more food calories a day than you burn, you’ll gain about 1 pound in a month. That’s about 10 pounds in a year. If you reduce the same number of calories seamlessly by managing the size of your food portions through portion control and gradually increase your physical activity you WILL lose those extra pounds and keep them off. All without the agony of abstinence from entire food groups.

Take a look at what Connie Diekman, Director of Nutrition at Washington University, St Louis has to say about how to get healthy and stay healthy using portion control.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Warm Regards

Rowena French

For The Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Without Portion Control, Weight Loss Didn’t Happen – History Explains!

The Team — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:15:40 +0000

High-carbohydrate diets of the 1970’s reflected no understanding of portion control as the way to long term weight loss. Instead, they encouraged the increased consumption of carbohydrates and decreased the amount of meat and protein portion in a diet. Potatoes flew off the shelves and bread-lovers dove head-first into the crusty, white loaves in the bakery section of supermarkets. Whole-wheat was not even on the radar screen at the time!

But the focus on carbohydrates and reduction of protein was not a long-term answer to weight loss either. Before the craze ended, it was clear that a diet heavy with carbohydrates was not the answer for sustained weight loss, and the focus moved to meats and protein. These became low-carbohydrate diets and they rocked the dieting world again by putting the brakes on carbs!

Diets like this literally reversed the fads of yester-year’s high-carbohydrate diets by saying that bread and pasta and anything white were bad for you and should be eliminated. Once again, the public jumped aboard a new diet fad and lost the critical nutritional value of many carbohydrate foods. They failed to understand that the key to healthy weight loss over the long term is by following a healthy eating plan not a restrictive one through portion control.

The Atkins Diet glamorized the high-fat, high-protein diet and ‘ketosis’ became a household word as millions of people jumped on the dieting roller coaster again! According to Wikepedia, ketosis is ‘a stage in metabolism occurring when the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which can be used by the body for energy.’ Unfortunately, many medical resources consider this a physiological state that is associated with chronic starvation! Scientists and physicians scratched their heads with concern about how this diet would impact the heart’s health in years to come.

There are many ways to lose weight but the key to success is being able to keep it off and maintain a healthy weight. Limiting food types, minimizing calories, and eliminating food groups can help you lose weight quickly. But when you resume your old eating habits, you’ll regain the weight even when you’re just introducing healthy foods back into your meal plans! The secret to losing weight and avoiding weight gain after this is by reducing the amount of food you eat through portion control rather than eliminating them completely.

That’s why you should not deprive yourself of foods you enjoy. You need to learn to manage portion control and know more about what your body needs to stay healthy. It’s clear from history that fad diets are exactly that – FADS! Diets are short-term fixes to a lifelong problem and they often have hazardous health effects in the long-term.

We now know that healthy proportions of carbohydrates, fats, and oils are needed in the diet for healthy weight management. Understanding the value and importance of all types of food groups, vitamins, and nutrients is essential to better managing your health and your weight. Eating all of these in a balanced way through portion control allows your body to react as it should and provides a long term answer to weight loss and maintenance

Don’t think about ‘dieting’. Think instead about eating a healthy portion of foods from each food group. Listen to your hunger signals, and enjoy your food. This is the basis of portion control, the weight loss and weight management secret we can learn from our European neighbors who keep trim without eliminating foods that they enjoy.

Warm regards

Rowena French

For the Team@mightydigitaldownloads.com

Rowena French uses responsible portion control to successfully manage her own weight and her family’s health. Tired of dieting without success? Sign up to my magazine to learn more about how to use portion control for healthy, permanent weight loss. If you haven’t already subscribed to my free product sample, watch my preview video for more information about the whole portion control package.

Food Portions V Diets – You MUST Read This Before Starting a Diet

The Team — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:11:14 +0000

Many fad diets quickly gain a massive following because of the rapid weight-loss experience they claim. The Grapefruit Diet of years ago touted spectacular results from eating grapefruit before every meal. Advertising the health benefits and fat-burning potential of grapefruit had dieters scrambling for the produce section! This was truly a ‘one hit wonder’ to the over-weight individual. It restricted the type of food to be eaten and failed to include correct sized portions of the wide range of foods we need to eat to stay healthy.

The Grapefruit Diet is a 12-day diet plan that restricts caloric intake and requires eating a grapefruit prior to every meal. Although it talks about the weight-losing properties of grapefruit, the real weight loss comes from the restriction of calories. Its proponents say that you can lose 10 pounds in 12 days. Sound good? Sure it does, but imagine what happens once you go off the diet as you crave calories and when you ignore the size of your food portions? Rapid weight loss is not a long-term solution.

The Atkins Diet has weathered the diet storms for years and gained popularity in the late 90’s. Then in 2001, the ‘New’ Atkins Diet surfaced and promoted low-carb bars and food products from Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. Unfortunately, this diet still restricts the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods instead of modifying the size of the food portions we eat. Carbohydrates are on the taboo list of The Atkins Diet.

This diet defies everything we have learned from nutritionists and scientists over the years about the importance of a healthy diet, including grain products, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and meat. No single food category provides everything the body needs and the Atkins Diet is no exception.

The South Beach Diet bans fruit, bread, potatoes, pasta, and baked goods during the first phase. You can supposedly lose 13-15 pounds in the first two weeks as you ‘detoxify’ your body. You then add ‘good’ carbs back to your diet and weight loss slows down but continues. And finally, during the last phase of this diet you can eat anything in moderation.

As you can see from the strategy, the first two weeks are really a teaser to get you motivated to diet, but that period of rapid weight loss is unhealthy and can cause serious health issues. The real success comes when you re-incorporate all food groups back into your dietary plan and exercise portion control.

The Zone is a very complex diet plan that requires weighing, measuring, and calculating percentages of food groups consumed each day. It is time consuming to manage and becomes frustrating and difficult to maintain. Although the recommended proportions of food groups consumed are healthy, the process is difficult to maintain. Modifying the size of your food portions from the beginning would be much healthier and far less complicated.

As unlikely as this may sound, dieting in an attempt to control weight is often associated with weight gain. Those people who diet, generally gain more weight than those who never restrict. Healthy weight management means following a healthy meal plan, not a restrictive one and can be achieved through portion control.

You can reach the same weight loss goal as each of these ‘diets’ just by controlling the size of the food portion you eat. Losing weight can happen naturally and healthily not unnaturally when you feel deprived and unhappy. Best of all it can include the right sized portions of the all the food types you should eat and like to enjoy.

Do you remember another Weight Loss journey that you embarked upon that just did not worked for you (or probably anyone else) over the long term? I’d love to hear from you about these as well as and any weight loss success of your own or by others.

Warm regards

Rowena French

For the Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Rowena French uses responsible portion control to successfully manage her own weight and her family’s health. Tired of dieting without success? Read more about the benefits of portion control in my other blog posts. Sign up to my free magazine to learn more about how to modify your food portions for healthy, permanent weight loss. If you haven’t already subscribed to my free product sample, watch my preview video for more information about the whole portion control package.

Food Portions, a Successful Alternative to Boring Diets that Fail

The Team — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:25:17 +0000

Dieting to reach a healthy weight and keeping this same weight over time is not as straight forward as it may seem. Many diets offer to do this. The South Beach Diet, Nutri-System, Jenny Craig, and a multitude of other dieting options bombard the airwaves and can confound the issues. No wonder people feel that their weight loss and management is out of control. Those of us who struggle with our weight, need a new, less complex perspective on food, one that is focused on the portions or the amount of food we eat. We need to eat our way towards a healthy life, one portion at a time.

There is a way to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight over the long term. To do this you need to recognize those things that sabotage your ability to lose and maintain this weight. As you do this you will discover that a healthy weight is not exclusively about deprivation. It is about discovering a way to eat the foods you enjoy and not gain weight. Establish these healthy, life-long habits and you will eliminate ‘weight-worry’ from your daily life.

We know that the best eating plan or diet is whatever works best not just at the start, but over time. Looking for a quick-fix is only temporary. Depriving yourself of the things you love to eat is a short term fix to the problem. But learning to manage your food portions and control how much you eat is the key to long-term weight control.

Including the foods you enjoy eating on your menu will actually help you lose and maintain your weight! Even creamy soups, pasta smothered in cheese and sauce, and crusty buttered rolls can all be part of your menu when you eat them occasionally and in proper portions. The secret to doing this is at the heart of life-long weight loss.

Believe it or not, you can reach your healthy weight goal and enjoy the benefits of this for good by eating the foods you love. As you develop this aspect of your new healthy lifestyle you will dispel the many myths and misconceptions about food. Investigate carefully the limitations of diets containing foods with fat burning capacities that are guaranteed to cause rapid weight loss. Food has changed over the past 20 years and the value of organic or natural food choices in your menu is important for you to understand too. Eating these healthy foods and eating smart in correct portions is the way forward.

Using all the information you gather about correct food portions, you will be able to plan meals that will reflect sensible portion control and help you move towards better nutrition and a healthier body. Learn to eat well rather than continue on the yo-yo dieting roller-coaster. Join the world of eating for enjoyment and discover ways to manage your weight while still indulging your senses with the right sized portions of the food you love!

Warm regards

Rowena French

For the Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com

Rowena French uses responsible portion control to successfully manage her own weight. Tired of dieting without success? Change your food portions. My free gifts show you how portion control replaces dieting. Read my blog, watch my free preview!