Virtual Plating

childbride · Post by **childbride** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:06 pm

This is such a newbie question, but after seeing the phrase used several times around here, I'm curious about "virtual plating."

Is it what you do when you decide that your soup and half-sandwich would fit on the same single plate (but you're not actually going to put them on the same plate, because you don't want your sandwich to get all soupy)? Is there more to it than that? Does anyone have any virtual plating guidelines to share?

jennzenn · Post by **jennzenn** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:14 pm

I have these little bowls for cereal.(actually they are a real 1 serving size for cereal etc...hold about a cup of soup or cereal)
In the morning I actually put it on my plate...there is room to the side if I would like an egg and toast too.

I find that if the soup bowl is way too big...then that really is your meal. If it is like the bowl I am mentioning, you can actually fit a nice tuna sandwich on the side, even a few sliced cucumbers. Mind you the plate looks full. But that is what I do.

Smaller portions...bigger variety. Thats what they do in europe.

hope that can help

Jennzenn

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:50 pm

Virtual plating is the act of judging the amount of food that would fit on a plate for a meal, then deferring some of it to a later time. So, for instance, if you had a sandwich, chips and an apple for lunch, you could defer the apple until 2:30 P.M. if you wanted.

At least, that's what I think it means...

navin · Post by **navin** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:10 am

I have these little bowls for cereal.

Ah, so I'm not the only one who does that kind of thing.

I do it for lunch or dinner if I'm having soup 'n' sandwiches. Put soup in the bowl, put it on a plate, and fit a sandwich on it, and it usually makes for a pretty nice meal.

But yeah, there are 2 schools of thought for virtual plating.
1. Let's say you had lunch at 12, dinner isn't until 7. You might use virtual plating here - have an apple around 3, but then at dinner time, leave a spot on the plate where the apple would have fit.

2. Or, if you have a meal that doesn't lend itself to plates (e.g. soup, salad, or stuff you just don't want mixing), you try to visualize what would fit on a plate, and eat about that much food.

In my opinion, virtual plating is kind of a double-edged sword. If you aren't careful, you can end up eating a lot more if you virtual plate "incorrectly". If at all possible, I'd recommend getting the habit down first, and keep virtual plating to a minimum. Then once you have a good idea of what it feels like to eat a plate of food, virtual plating might be more reasonable.

joasia · Post by **joasia** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:41 am

I have always understood it as meaning, if you go out with other people and you don't want to look boorish by piling your meat, appetizer, fruit on one plate. You can visualize the amount that would fit on one, but eat in courses like everyone else.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:39 am

Or, if you have a meal that doesn't lend itself to plates (e.g. soup, salad, or stuff you just don't want mixing), you try to visualize what would fit on a plate, and eat about that much food.

My lunch is almost always some combination of soup, salad, and sandwich. I don't worry if the soup and/or salad would fit on a plate. I often have a salad at supper, too, and don't worry about whether or not it would fit on a plate along with the rest of dinner.

When it comes to veggies or veggie-based dishes, I don't worry about my meal fitting on one plate. I do, however, limit the number of servings -- one bowl of soup, one plate or bowl of salad (watch the dressing!). I pay more attention to no seconds, no sweets and no snacks than to whether or not my meal fits on one plate.

florafloraflora · Post by **florafloraflora** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:47 pm

I do some virtual plating at almost every meal. I like a lot of variety, but I tend to eat tiny portions so I don't worry about it too much.

I eat a lot of things like soup, yogurt, canned pineapple, and oatmeal that just don't play well with other foods on one single plate. I have a set of 4-oz (half-cup) ramekins that I use for these things. I usually put the ramekins on a dinner plate and fill in around them.

jennzenn · Post by **jennzenn** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:30 pm

florafloraflora wrote: I eat a lot of things like soup, yogurt, canned pineapple, and oatmeal that just don't play well with other foods on one single plate. I have a set of 4-oz (half-cup) ramekins that I use for these things. I usually put the ramekins on a dinner plate and fill in around them.

That is what I do with my little bowls....ramekins as you call them. It keeps the portions small and variety big.

Jennzenn

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:12 pm

The most important rationale for the "one plate" rule is that you see what you are about to eat. It may be excessive, but at least it should be consciously excessive. The idea is that the mere consiousness of excess will gradually whittle away at it.

There are two kinds of virtual plating, one more dangerous than the other.

The first, the safer kind, is a situation where you see the food all in front of you at one time, but it can't all share a single plate because it would just be a mess -- like soup and salad. It's safe because you can still see any excess up front. A physically small plate for the sandwich is all that's necessary and will make you feel better about doing this.

The trickier kind is when you are in a situation where you are eating in "waves." You never see the food all in front of you at once and limit your intake by imagining what the whole thing would look like, ideally by leaving a gap on your plate in round 1 to compensate for round 2. I would avoid this kind of virtual plating unless absolutely necessary because it is so open to abuse.

One physical plate without any funny stuff is the safest thing, and I'd recommend sticking to that whenever possible, especially up front when you are building the habit.

Reinhard

jennzenn · Post by **jennzenn** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:27 pm

thanks Reinhard,
You clarified that one...and a lot of prople were wondering about it!

Jennzenn

thtrchic · Post by **thtrchic** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:27 pm

I actually do gather all my breakfast food and all my lunch food in the morning when it's being packed for work to look at it and see that it's a plates worth, but then eat it in waves. I see that it's not totally ideal in terms of habit building, but the compromise that works for me and keeps me basically within the "rules."

JustAnnie · Post by **JustAnnie** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:57 am

The "trickier" version of virtual plating is not one that I am prepared to do yet. Everyone chuckles at me because I gather all food in front of me before I begin to consume it. For instance, I don't have the salad come BEFORE the sandwich or the soup BEFORE the chicken fingers in restaurants. I want everything there where I can eyeball it at once and decide how much of everything will fit on my very real, or virtual, plate. Maybe someday I'll feel more qualified to eat in "waves" but for now....uh uh.

childbride · Post by **childbride** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:56 pm

JustAnnie wrote:Maybe someday I'll feel more qualified to eat in "waves" but for now....uh uh.

I completely agree. I was thrust into a serious eating-in-waves scenario last night when the dinner plan suddenly changed from home cookin' to kaiten sushi. It was too much virtual plating for my little mind to handle.

Bee · Post by **Bee** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:30 am

One of the more challenging situations I've been in since starting No-S was eating sushi out with a bunch of people where the sushi all came out at different times and it was impossible to see the entirety of what I was going to eat before I ate it (which I agree, is more important for me than the actual fitting all on one plate thing, although that is a useful tool also).

Anyway, the good thing is there is a limited amount of damage you can do with sushi, even if you go overboard.

Tapas is another thing that presents this particular challenge, but they can be a different story, calorie-wise.

Tricky.

Space_mom · Post by **Space_mom** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:24 am

Eating in waves happens to me whenever I have soup, and I end up eating too much!
For example, I have soup and a sandwich, then I realize I'm still hungry and eat a piece of fruit and a yogurt.
It IS tricky! I must be very careful.

stevecooper · Post by **stevecooper** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:36 am

Virtual plating and waves seems like a massive risk, in that it (a) breaks the habit of three distinct eating times, and (b) breaks the habit of one plate of food.

It seems like lots of people have problems when they go out. If it's a special event, why not consider this a special day, and move forward an s-day from the weekend? So, instead of doing NNNNN-SS, if you were to go to a restaurant with friends on a tuesday, your week would look like NSNNN-NS.

The benefits here are that (a) you don't have to virtual plate, (b) you can allow yourself eating waves, deserts, etc, and (b) you're still on the five-N, two-S plan.

Jammin' Jan · Post by **Jammin' Jan** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:45 pm

Wave-eating is really dangerous for me. I get myself in trouble every time.

I like the idea of the little bowls or ramekins. I may look into buying a few of those. Anyone know if Correlle makes something tiny like that?

childbride · Post by **childbride** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:10 pm

Jammin' Jan wrote:Anyone know if Correlle makes something tiny like that?

The smallest ones I know about are these little CorningWare "Corelle Coordinates" ramekins.

storm fox · Post by **storm fox** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:32 pm

Trouble is, with me they're not just waves...they're tsunamis!
I'm a bit of a fundamentalist with this diet. I eat nothing between meals, and I don't drink caloried beverages between meals either. Water is the only thing I take between meals. I went with No S because
A) It is probably the most humane diet to live with. 3 meals per day instead of 5-8 (I've seen bodybuilders and lifters who wake up in the middle of the night for one more protein shake-how's that for balanced living?)
B) it accounts for all my dietary vices: Snacking, Sweets, and control of both portion sizes and trips to the kitchen/buffet.
Also, no magical or evil macronutrients, and the thing Reinhard writes about beets-I read that book!

I don't have all the habits down yet, so I'm very conscious about being obnoxiously hardcore until thought patterns and behaviors set into habit. I'm already noticing a change. This morning I realized I felt full before I cleaned my plate, and scraped the remainder of the food into the garbage! I NEVER DO THAT! I would have saved it but it was eggs and that'd be gross later.

I'm having soup & a sandwich tonight, so I'll have to do some virtual plating, but all the food will be in front of me at the same time and for some reason I also seem to have found a satiety switch somewhere.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:21 pm

Storm fox, I think you're wise to "stick to fundamentals." I'm a bit of a purist too.

When I do make exceptions, I try to keep them small and pre-planned. For example, on the days I have lunch-time yoga I can eat the fruit from my lunch before class if I want. Same lunch I pack on non-yoga days, but I'm eating later b/c of yoga, so...

Waves get you into trouble. Plus, I find the discipline of checking "how hungry am I?" as I load my one-plate is helping me to tune into my body's cues better than I used to. I like that.