How can I control my portion sizes when I'm out to eat?

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Jeannette Bessinger
Balance for Life, LLC
www.balanceforlifellc.com  
(401) 835-2428

Jeannette Bessinger, Board Certified Holistic Health Counselor and owner of Balance for Life LLC, is a co-author of the upcoming book, Simple Food for Busy Families, author of Your Baby's Best Food, and meal and recipe designer for the Dr. Jonny Bowden’s The Healthiest Meals on Earth. A motivational speaker and health/nutrition educator, Jeannette regularly gives talks and classes to businesses, corporations, non–profits, wellness centers, hospitals, colleges and faith–based organizations with an interest in wellness and disease prevention. Jeannette has provided services in health education and prevention for individuals and groups in a wide variety of venues for fifteen years.  Creator of the Whole Life Nutrition™ approach to health improvement, she currently runs successful lifestyle change programs in both hospital and holistic settings. Jeannette acts as a lifestyle health consultant to several public and private groups and coalitions working to improve the health of schools and cities. She was a lead strategist on a citywide intervention plan for obesity funded by the RI Department of Health, and designed an obesity prevention program for Head Start with a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics. A graduate among the first class of women at Columbia College, Columbia University, Jeannette has pursued an extensive, multi–modal education in teaching, health and wellness. As a very busy wife and mother of two children, she understands first hand how challenging it can be to maintain a healthy balanced lifestyle as a working parent. With a personal history of autoimmune disease and diabetes, she knows how vital it is to put your health first on your priority list. Much of the depth and practical nature of Jeannette's material arises directly from her own efforts to meet the challenges of balancing health, family and a lively career.

How can I control my portion sizes when I'm out to eat?

 

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Host: How can I control my portion sizes when I am out to eat?

Jeannette Bessinger: When you going out to eat you are not generally in control at how much food you put on your plate. Most of the time, in a typical American restaurant you have given far more food then you actually need.

In order to eat a proper portion for yourself and not overeat, a simple thing that you can do is divide each of the sections of your meal in half or in thirds. If you look at a typical plate of typical portion in a restaurant of protein, cut away half or one-third of that put it to one side. Eat the two-thirds portion that s left. Check your satisfaction signal. Decide if you need more or not and if you feel comfortable, stop eating at that same point.

Vegetables, you can usually eat as many as you want because they tend to be high in fibre and high in water and low in calories. But starch, you really have to watch, the more starch you eat the more you want. So, just be in control of that, have a small amount not more than the size of your fist including desert.

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