Caution- Portion

OK since my family has confessed they don't read my blog, I can say what I want here, no risk of them finding out. (don't tell them)....Well they know I love them but; I have issues with the portion sizes. Here is my issue. We are a family of rather large adults. By miracle and nothing else, childhood obesity is not an issue in my family. It seems once they turn 21, whew....let the GAIN begin...

I'm not trying to be the food police but my goodness and gracious. The amount of food they pack on the kids plates is just short of child abuse. They fix the kids the same size they fix themselves. We already know that our portions are bigger than the daily recommended allowances. So imagine how we are stuffing our kids whose bellies are about the size of an egg with junk. We stretch out their little tummies like a fat lady does spandex. I'm not calling anyone a bad mother but tell me why a 3 year old should have 2 pieces of chicken with a heaping of potato salad or 2 burgers or 2 hot dogs or any combo of the above. That's just way too much food. I watched the kids drink soda after soda and fruit drink, and fruit drink after sugary fruit drink Then they act as if I am the crazy one for telling them ENOUGH. I have had countless of arguments because guess what???? kids are smarter than adults. THEY STOP EATING WHEN THEY ARE FULL!!!  So then you hear the parents yelling, "you better eat that food". REALLY- then I ask "why you give him/her so much in the first place?" ...humph- no answer.

Now that I have ranted, lets talk about adults too. Be easy on your portions. Teach your body to eat less and it will need less. So that means that you are going to feel something that you haven't felt in a while...HUNGER. yep that's what I said. but you are not going to starve!!!. Capture how you feel at that moment and learn to distinguish between real hunger, THIRST (i'll get to that), and perceived hunger. Real hunger is what you feel when your body has used all of the energy sources from the previous meal, your belly is empty and it really really is time to eat. Perceived hunger is when you think you are hungry even though you just ate, or you've convinced yourself that you haven't eaten enough. Thirst is the first sign of dehydration. You should constantly drink water throughout the day. The body knows that you will feed it when its hungry so thirst will bully hunger into making you think you are hungry when you are just thirsty. GOT IT?

I challenge you to stop using a plate and start using a saucer. Go ahead, I dare you.