You can gain weight eating healthy foods!  Why is that?  Because if you look at our mothers or grandmothers, their average calorific content a day was about 1800 calories a day on average.  Today, woman are eating about 2200 calories a day.  Since the 1950s, portion sizes have increased for women and men.

Portion size is key to staying slim.

Six things you can do to eat the right portion size.

1.  Don’t use the regular sized meal plates.  If you use a smaller one or use older ones from an antique store, you will fill your plates and subconsciously think that it is a lot because your (smaller) plate is full.

2.  Use a plate that doesn’t match the color of your food.  You are more likely to eat less asparagus (for example) on a white plate vs. a green plate.

3.  Don’t go to buffets.  Very dangerous and filling up those large plates again and again is going to make you gain weight.

4.  When you fill your plate, the right way to do it for your diet, your body and your health and nutrients is to fill half of the plate up with vegetables, then the other half is divided into two parts–one part starchy vegetable and one part meat.  And you can foresake the starchy vegetable because most of us get enough carbs in other foods, so just get more vegetables.

5.  Don’t fill your plate with pasta or rice.  If you must have those things (hopefully, not often), use the whole-wheat version (not white) and put it in the quarter where your starchy vegetable would go.  But, a whole plate of pasta is not the right portion size and this is why you are having weight issues.

6.  Eat slowly and chew well.  Give your body time to get the signal to your brain that you are full.

Try these ideas and see how well it works for you!