Healthier Eating Without the Calorie Counting

Healthy eating without counting calories. It’s quality not quantity. so break the diet industries hold!!

Think healthy, think balanced and think portion before calories and divide your plate accordingly. 

Deborah Fields

A simple tip can be buy smaller plates and also put down your knife and fork in between mouthfuls. These are behavioural changes that enable us to look at what’s really going on. 

Some people think that the only way to lose weight is by calorie counting and commit vast amounts of knowledge to memory in order to help them but have had little success, does it work?

A study at Harvard University found that for calories it is the quality not the quantity that matters the most. So rather than become obsessed with how many calories you are eating you should rather be focusing on eating a healthy balanced diet. 

“So what does a healthy plate look like? For starters, it’s not the size of a serving platter. Ideally, it’s divided this way: ½ plate of veggies, ¼ plate of lean protein, and ¼ plate of high-fiber carbohydrates.

• Great lean protein choices include: beans, skinless poultry, fish, eggs (mostly egg whites), sirloin or other extra-lean cuts of beef, tofu, and low-fat dairy.

• Great high-fiber carbohydrate options are: oats, barley, quinoa, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat couscous, and buckwheat.

• As for veggies, try: tomatoes, broccoli, string beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, spinach, cauliflower, kale, and bok choy—the more the merrier!

Where does fruit fit in? Fruit can replace (or share) the veggie portion of your plate, or serve as your high-fiber carbohydrate. It can also simply be eaten as part of a snack or dessert.

And don’t neglect healthy fats, such as olive oil, nuts, avocado, seeds, and canola oil. Excluding this group from your meals will surely leave you unsatisfied. But overdoing this group could expand your waistline.

So what do proper portion sizes look like? Here’s a quick cheat sheet of size comparisons:

• A teaspoon of margarine, butter, mayonnaise, or oil = the size of your thumb tip

• A 1-ounce serving of cheese = six playing dice

• Two tablespoons of peanut butter = a ping-pong ball

• One ounce of nuts = a shot glass

• Three ounces of meat, poultry, or fish= a woman’s palm, deck of cards, or cassette tape

• A half cup of cut fruit, vegetables, or grains (like rice, couscous, or barley) = a small fist

• One cup of pasta = a tennis ball

• A medium potato = a computer mouse

• One slice of bread = a CD case

• A quarter cup of dried fruit = a large egg

Lastly, remember that how a meal is prepared can make or break its health factor. Food that’s been roasted, steamed, lightly sautéed (in oil), baked, grilled, or broiled is better than food that’s been fried, sautéed (in butter), or drenched in heavy cream sauce. And go easy on high-calorie condiments, such as mayo, creamy salad dressings, sour cream, and butter.

Bottom line: Be calorie conscious, not calorie obsessed. Common sense tells us a lot—for example, that a bacon-double cheeseburger packs more calories than a simple burger, and a croissant packs more than a slice of whole-wheat bread. Once you stop counting calories, just think of how much extra mental energy you’ll have to put toward something much more productive.”

Original article from: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/09/13/how-to-eat-healthywithout-counting-calories

Keri Gans – September 13 2012