Are Your Food Portions Helping You Reach Your Goals?

This week I want to focus on food portion, and how even eating healthy foods can be too much if they are not in the right proportion.  As I have mentioned in the past going from living off of protein shakes to progressing to real food I had to learn how to eat real food again.  Anyone can lose weight if they don't eat, but how can you maintain or lose when you eat?  The Paleo Diet has taught me so much about putting the right foods in my body.  The right foods meaning that are in a natural state rather than processed, but I still struggle with the portion size at least at dinner or when I get home from work.  Believe it or not there is such a thing as too much fruit, meat, and even veggies.  There is a general guide for a portion size below, but most importantly listen to your body and when it says you are full to satisfied rather than being stuffed.

The portion size at restaurants is 2-3 times more than what we need.  Some helpful tips for eating out are to have the waiter half you portion size bringing one portion out to eat and the other boxed to go for later.  Also order a house salad before your meal instead of appetizers.  When you order appetizers you are generally full before you even get to your entree.  Another thing I have noticed is to limit your fruit portions to 1-2 servings a day.  Fruit contains natural sugar, but it is sugar.  It is also best to eat fruit earlier in the day rather than at night.  A whole banana is two servings of fruit rather than one so keep this in mind when you are selecting your fruit for the day.  Keep a food journal; you do not have to right down everything you eat, but right down if you do not feel well and what you ate so you can determine if you went past your level of full.  High activity helps with portion size.  You may be training hard and need more calories, but do not over do it.  After my first Half Marathon one year I had a sandwhich with a banana peanut butter and honey thinking I needed to carb load, but it actually made me very sick and full for days.  I may be different than you since I do suffer from stomach issues, but these are great guidelines to keep in mind and to make sure portion size does not halt your success to achieve your goals.  Here is a guide to help you see if you are facing some of the roadblocks from www.paleocookbooks.com the comments are my words.

Mistake #1. Following a Fad Not a Diet
My Advice:
A diet is a life style; there are not any quick fixes
Mistake #2. Not Diversifying Exercise
My Advice:
Reach a plateau; change it up
Mistake #3. Not Positively Leveraging Stress
My Advice:
When are stressed it is a great time to use that energy to workout.
:Mistake #4. Poor Goal Setting
My Advice:
Make goals and celebrate the small successes along the way
Mistake #5. Taking Supplements & Expecting a Miracle
My Advice:
The reason there are so many pills out there because no one has found a miracle in any of them
Mistake #6. Not Reducing Calorie Intake
My Advice:
If you eating more calories than you are burning you will gain or maintain your weight
Mistake #7. Eating Foods That Promote Weight Gain
My Advice:
Processed foods do not promote health they only put on weight
Mistake #8. Eating Too Much Fruit
My Advice:
Fruit is sugar you can eat too much; stick to 1-2 servings a day for weight loss
Mistake #9. Eating Late at Night
My Advice:
Going to bed on a full stomach you wake up on a full stomach
Mistake #10. Going it Alone
My Advice:
Have an accountability partner to help one another and celebrate success together

Surrender to What Is

Life challenges bring life's biggest lessons. This week was a challenging week one of those roller coaster weeks I wrote about in my previous blog, but in the end I learned so much that brought me to a brighter beginning. One of the things that is the hardest for us to do is to let go and completely surrender. You may have been told that you have to be strong and do not show weakness, but if you are fighting a losing battle in the end you already lost. True joy comes when you surrender to what shows up, surrender to love, surrender to God, and surrender to the things we cannot control. All of these things if you fight you will lose so why fight it spending all of your energy and bringing so much negativity into your life? Life is a journey a long journey through ups and downs, but it is constant what's good will change and what is bad will change that is why you cannot get attached to your feelings. During Yoga a pose becomes true Yoga when you do a pose and nothing else is in your thoughts, but that pose. There is not a hidden agenda and there is not a what happens next; you are in that moment without any distractions. Can you imagine how much better life could be if every day had that much intention, and you lived every moment for what it is and nothing else? Every day presents a new challenge, but you have two choices to grow or to shrink taking away your true power. I hope these thoughts will help you through your difficult time and not allow you to dwell, but instead surrender and move on to make room for growth in a new beginning.