Everyday Systems

Successful no-s-ers:
Did you find that you had very large plates toward the beginning of the process? Did your plates get smaller? How exactly did this happen, and after how long?

I'm just wondering because, after a great 4 months on the diet and a not so great 4 months, I'm starting again and have found that, when filling up my plate at mealtime, I panic a little and put lots of food on. Then I finish it all, ending up too full and resolving not to do it again. Has anyone else found a way to avoid this?

Thanks!

Hey, don't know if this helps, but I fill half my plate with salad. Like spinach leaves or whatever I have on hand. I then top it with some protein and of course whatever vegies or fruit sound good. That the other half I just have whatever I'm craving at the time. It still looks like alot of food, but 1/2 of it is pretty lo-cal tasty.

I'm going to second the Filling Half the Plate with Salad trick.

A) You get veggies. Veggies Good.

B) You still get more calorically dense stuff that's tasty without going overboard. (Not to imply salad isn't tasty. It is, but you get what I mean).

C) You get a visually full plate, so you're not feeling deprived.

Yep, when I first discovered No S, my portions were definitely larger than they are now. Over time, I've developed a sense of how much I need to be comfortably full but not stuffed. This happened gradually. It happened as habit-kicked in and I no longer freaked out about getting hungry between meals.

Also, I started using a smaller 9" inch plate at home (mostly for dinner ... my breakfast plate is usually smaller and I tend to eat soup for lunch) and this provides some built-in portion control. I did this because I read a book called "The 9-inch Plate Diet" which focuses on how the standard plate size has increased by about 3 inches over the few decades. I decided that if the average plate size in 1970, before there was an obesity epidemic, was approximately 9-inches that that was good enough for me. So I bought smaller plates for myself and have been using them ever since. (My DH still uses our old, bigger plates.)

There's about a ten minute lag time between when you are physically full and when your brain senses you are full.. Why not try pacing yourself a bit, and pausing mid-plate for five mins and have some water.. go slower and see when that full feeling hits you.. I don't wanna say skimp on your plate, because I really think that sets you up for rationalising going back for seconds.. Take as much as you feel would be a good meal, but just eat it slower.. if you find you have four or five fork fulls left, so be it.. put em in the fridge and have them at your next meal as leftovers.
Good luck!