Take Control of Your Portions

Portion control is just plain hard, and restaurant servings do not help. That's why we created another great resource for successful portion management -- the Take Control of Your Portions poster. This poster offers great ways to reduce oversized portions and manage a healthful diet.As a bonus, this poster also comes with a free handout. The handout offers the details of each portion reduction depicted on the poster.Today, because I love you, I am making this handout available for free! Read on for a preview, and, if you like it, there's a link to download it at the bottom of this page.Enjoy!---You don’t have to accept the massive portions that are offered to you by fast food restaurants and food manufacturers. Instead, you can make your portions realistic by measuring and re-portioning them.How exactly? Let’s look at some examples.Make a Healthful Plate

• Fill half your plate with veggies.
• French fries are okay in moderation and accompanied by a large salad.
• Sharing this meal is a real value because you feed two people for the price of one meal.
• Plus, the calories go from 1250 to 550.

Of course, you don’t have to split your meal. If you’re dining alone or just don’t feel like sharing, replace that value meal with a small burger and side salad.One Cup = Eight OuncesPeople often overlook drinks when it comes to successfully managing portions. If you want to have a beverage with added sugars, be sure to measure a single serving into a glass for yourself. You’ll be surprised at how big your drink really is! You can also order water or diet soda/tea and skip the added calories entirely.Be Smart with Snacks!If you want to practice good portion control, it is wise to pre-measure a 1-ounce serving onto a plate instead of snacking mindlessly out of the bag. The bag above doesn’t look so big, but when you pour it on the plate, you can see that it easily tops three servings. Mimic the photo at the bottom of the page and measure out a single serving for a snack instead, which is about one handful.Remember, fruits and vegetables are healthful snacks that are dense in nutrients and rich in fiber. Choose them as a default whenever you can.---So, what did you think? If this handout would be useful to your clients, it's all yours! Download it today.You can also get a copy of the Take Control of Your Portions poster, along with lots of other portion control resources in the Nutrition Education Store.