Willpower, baby!!!

Another day at the desk, eating a thrilling lunch. But I'm proud of myself. I'm eating this.

Instead of this.

Or this.

Or one of these.

There's about 4 boxes of those muffins at the front desk and I'm having to walk past this stuff all day. Torture. I looked at the info on the muffins...33g of fat in one little muffin. Ack.

I'm proud of myself. I'm eating salad. And if I get a wild hair afterward, I'm gonna eat this-

That's me. Living dangerously.

Custom Meat Cuts

When it comes to meat, I have 3 things that I pay attention to:

-knowing exactly how much I'm using per meal for price breakouts and budget
-having meat that has most prep work done, so that it's quick to use at meals
-portion size for calories, diet and health

I have found that buying in bulk is great. Even better, buying full sections of meat and either cutting it up myself or having the butcher do it can be even better. Example- I love boneless pork chops. I've found that buying a whole pork loin is cheaper per pound, and then I can cut the chops to 3 oz. portion sizes, which I then marinate and freeze so they are ready to cook as soon as they defrost.

For good cuts of steak, I typically wait for the Fareway here to have a great sale. They have a wonderful meat counter, and I can have the butchers cut things specifically to my liking.

You can also take your boneless skinless chicken breasts, portion them up, and have them in marinade ready to go.

Now I know I'm eating the proper portion size of meat and can't eat more (no temptation!), I can determine exact price per meal, and the prep work is all done! Works for me!

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Easy Way to Control Portions

You hear it all the time. You can't "diet". You have to change habits and make it a part of your lifestyle. Sometimes it's the simplest things. Here's one that has really worked for us. See the plate on the right? That's the biggest plate size in my set, and we just used it by default. See the one on the left? That's the "salad size" plate.

We always served food on the biggest plate because, you know, the box called it the dinner plate, so I guess you eat dinner on the dinner plate, right? This summer, I decided that if I wanted to eat less, it might make sense to have a smaller plate to put it on. So we moved to the smaller plate size.

If you'll notice, it's not so small that we are getting tiny portions, but it does help us restrict what we can eat in one sitting. And, the plate looks full, which makes a big impact when I sit down and look at my food. I have a full plate, so I don't feel deprived. Hubby has lost 40lbs since summer just with a smaller plate! Amazing.

So are you eating off the huge plate, or can you downsize? Downsizing your plate could help downsize your pants, and this is a habit that is easy to live with!