Portion Sizes and Eating to Live

My friend was telling me that the stomach is only about the size of a fist, and that it can handle about double that amount of food. But if you eat more than that, the excess gets stored as fat. So she makes sure she eats about two fists worth of food at a meal, and usually has about 4 meals a day, ever four hours.

Since I have known for a long time that portion size is a big part of my problem, I decided to start doing something similar. For dinner tonight, it meant that I couldn't eat half of what I cooked, because it turned out to be a four fistfuls of food. Oh well, I can have the leftovers some other time. Even though it didn't look like a lot of food, I am surprisingly satisfied and not at all tempted to eat the rest.

I mean, it sounds kind of disgusting to eat so much more than your stomach can handle. I have to admit I never thought about that before when I was doing my human garbage disposal routine. In any case, the effects of overeating are unpleasant too. Even if I don't have digestive issues, eating too much always makes me sleepy.

Her theory is that if you are eating the way you should be eating, you won't be tempted to eat for emotional reasons or be plagued with moodiness. I'm a little skeptical about that—I think moods are caused by more than food issues—but I think eating right can certainly reduce the moodiness and make you less likely to eat for "self-medication."

I will say that I am proud of her for keeping to her food plan and exercising every day. She has lost six pounds in the last two weeks. I remember well how good it felt to see that number on the scale go down and to feel one's clothes getting bigger and—after about 30 pounds or so—to hear so many compliments from my colleagues.

I think one thing that makes it harder when you get to goal weight—or an extended plateau, in my case—and you don't have that reward of the number on the scale anymore, or the clothes or the compliments. Somehow you have to find your reward somewhere else, like feeling in control of your life and body, etc.

I WILL see that scale go down, though! I know I need to get down at least 30 more pounds, and if I pay more attention to my body's needs instead of looking at eating as entertainment or medication, I know I can do it.