One of the things that I struggle with the most is portion control.  I’m not good at eating just one serving of cookies, or chips, or ice cream.  Nor am I good at eating one serving of chicken, or spinach, or blueberries.

Whenever I find little gems that help me win these tiny battles with portion control, I like to write about them so that they’ll stay fresh in my mind for a bit.  Here are some recent tips that I’ve found and would like to incorporate in to my eating habits.

Learn from your Diet mistakes–Learning to eat healthy is a journey.  Many of us have spent a life time acquiring bad habits, we can’t expect them to be erased over night.  Try and focus on the victories while still being mindful (and learning from ) of the defeats.  Eventually, the victories will start to outnumber the defeats and it will get easier to maintain healthy habits.  Until then, fight hard and DON’T give up!

Don’t use visual clues when eating–Many of us stop eating when the container is empty.  We eat until the bag of chips is gone, or until our plate is clean.  We eat with our eyes instead of our stomachs.  We eat until our pants feel uncomfortable and THEN we stop.  How can we stop doing these things and start paying attention to when our stomach tells us we’re full?  There are lots of ways:

• Use smaller plates
• Eat while sitting
• Concentrate on eating when you’re eating–don’t multitask!
• Eat slowly
• Taste your food and enjoy it

All of these little tricks will help you become a healthier eater.

Make your own Portion Control Bags–If you know how much you’re supposed to eat, but have a hard time not  reaching into that bag of chips or box of crackers buy snacks that are already packaged into 1-portion increments.  This may cost more money and be less environmental, but if it’s the only way that it gets you to control your eating, it may be worth it.  You could also make, reuse, and recycle your own single portion servings of your favorite snacks with ziploc bags.

If none of these tricks work for you, then do what I need to start doing–buy carrots, not cookies!  Do you have any tricks to help you maintain your proper portion size?

• When I lost 40 pounds in 1997, I did so because I counted calories.
• When I biked 2000 miles in 1998, I did so because I logged my progress in an increasingly elaborate spreadsheet.
• When I paid off my debt, I did so because I tracked every penny I spent.

Although record-keeping helps to motivate me, I still view it as a sort of a crutch. I’m not sure why. Still, I’ve decided that it’s a crutch I need to use. I’m trying to get back in the swing of using FitDay.

The problem is, I’m finding it difficult to actually get into the flow of things. When I spend money, I generally have a receipt, which makes tracking my financial affairs much easier. But when I eat, nobody gives me a receipt for the calories.

I find that I can keep good records at FitDay for a couple of days, but then somehow I lose my focus. I forget to enter a breakfast, and then a lunch, and then I’m off track again. Or I “cheat”. I eat a cookie, but don’t enter it into the database, thus invalidating the whole point of recording data.

Obviously, this is a behavioral issue. At my money blog, I often write about circumventing personal finance problems through the use of “money hacks” — little mind-games and tricks that you can play on yourself to force the desired outcome.

I guess what I’m looking for here are some suggestions of “fitness hacks” that I can use to make sure I record my data. I’m sure that many of you count calories, too. How do you make sure that you get the information recorded completely and in a timely manner? Do you carry a piece of paper with you? Do you force yourself to log the information immediately after a meal? Are there iPhone-friendly apps for doing this sort of thing?

I also ran 4 miles in 36 minutes on my treadmill and immediately ate a handful of nuts and a string cheese to replenish the calories lost.  I don’t think I ate enough today, but I still feel like I was eating all day.  That’s a good thing though, right?

There’s been a couple of good posts this week by the guys in the fitness health network. All of us seem to be coming to grips with our weight loss plans. Here are a few of the entries that I found myself relating to this week.

I’ve found myself back in the gym lately, but without a personal trainer. And I’ve been struggling to find a routine. I’ve got several routines that were given to me by previous trainers, but I’m finding them either boring or too easy. Lazy Man and Health wrote a post about beginning circuit training. While it’s not a terribly detailed post, it does touch on the biggest benefit, at least in my mind, of circuit training–keeping your heart rate up for the entire workout instead of having huge fluctuations that occur during typical work/rest cycles that a lot of us do at the gym. Keeping that heart rate up burns more calories, which helps you see results quicker!

I think all of us over at the FHN are over weight and concentrating on creating a calorie deficit. No Calories Needed is working on a food budget. The most interesting thing about his post is the very different caloric requirements that he obtained from the 5 or 6 different online calculators. This is a huge problem. In fact, he found a 1000 calorie/day difference between some of the calculators. If you’re trying to maintain a 500 calorie/day deficit, this might pose some problems. I think the best way to solve it is to pick a number and try it for two weeks. If you lose two pounds during those two weeks, you’re right on. If not, you may need to adjust your caloric intake for your specific metabolic rate.

And Fat Man Unleashed had a reader call him out on making excuses for not losing weight–and he lost two pounds this week. This happened to JD a few months ago too and really kicked him into gear. Now Israel has had some success too. It just reminds me that one of the main reasons for these blogs is that our readers support and motivate us to get the job done. We all thank you guys for that.

Next week, I plan on writing at least one post that I’ve done some research on. I’ve got some questions I want to answer about vitamins and also about the dreaded high fructose corn syrup. I don’t think I’ll be able to research both of them this week, so if any of you have preferences, let me know. Have a good weekend.

The product was fantastic. I didn’t need to wear a hat (I hate hats) and my head never got burned. It works so well, that I’m down to the last half ounce. I’m sure it’s well expired, but I think the expiration date wore off years ago. Unfortunately, it’s been discontinued by Banana Boat and I’m not the only one who misses it.

I’ll write the company and see what product they might recommend that I use in it’s place. However, they don’t seem to have a similar product on the Banana Boat website. I’ve done a little research and all I can find are two types of products:

• Sunscreen for Bald Guys – This isn’t helpful to me because I want something that will let my hair be natural. I imagine that hair style is not a big priority for sunscreen for the bald.
• Hair Protector with no mention of SPF – If it doesn’t say it has SPF on it, I make the assumption it doesn’t have any. I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be mentioned if it was there – it’s an extra selling point.

Lastly, I’ve tried the new misting sprays that are on the market. They are for your body, but I thought it couldn’t be bad for the head. I was wrong. A quick spray is the equivalent of a bottle of AquaNet. Some might not consider that a bad thing, especially if you are wicked awesome homegirl (lyrics: video – you won’t be disappointed), but it’s not going to work for me.

Anyone have any hints or tips on what they use? Does it work?

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While I agree with JD completely, not everyone who read that day did. One of the comments really made me wonder how people without weight problems help support their loved ones with weight problems.

JD…You’ve committed to weight loss seriously enough to start a blog, and admitted that willpower is a big problem for you (just like it is for pretty much everyone). Yet you think it’s unreasonable for you to ask your wife not to fix chocolate cake? Weight loss is very hard…. I think it’s very reasonable (if not an absolute necessity) to ask the people in your family and the people you live with to commit to making your diet the best it can be. Otherwise, how do you expect to be successful? Of course you have to develop willpower, but how does every other person trying to break an addiction deal with it — firstly, limiting access to the temptation as much as possible. Alcoholics don’t hang out in bars, at least not when they are first becoming sober.

At my house it’s easy. I do 99% of the grocery shopping for the family. I don’t really buy too much junk food anymore because I know that I’ll eat most of it. I still buy “kid friendly” food that tests me (I sometimes fail). But for the most part, I feel like I’m pretty successful. My wife really gets the short end of the stick here. She loves a good glass of juice or a can of soda. And she’d probably sell me for a nice big bowl of ice cream. But I don’t buy it unless she writes it down on the list. I really appreciate the sacrifices that she makes for me.

As with all problems, there is a huge range of solutions. I’m sure some of you skinnies out there say, “Suck it up fatty! I’m eating ice cream.” And I bet some of you only cringe on the inside while asking, “Please pass the carrots sweetie.” But I’d really like to hear how you all manage this problem in your households. Should non-dieters compromise their lifestyle in order to support their overweight family members?

When it comes to my diet, I have a problem. The hotel we are staying at won’t have a refrigerator or a microwave. I’m trying to compile a list of breakfast and lunch foods that are healthy and won’t break the bank. So if I were to have cereal, I’d have to experiment with powered milk. I could get creative and warm something with hair dryer but that’s a little further than I want to take it.

Here are some items that I’m thinking of:

• Peanut Butter & Fluff Sandwiches – It’s not as healthy as I’d like, but it’s portable.
• Meal Replacement Bars – Power Bars, South Beach Bars, etc. These are not really cheap, but I can get them at a very good price at the local military base. I’m satisfied with the healthiness of this option.
• Cereal – I was thinking that I could have it dried. I’ve never had powered milk before. Is it an acquired taste?
• Edamame – I have to give a tip of the hat to Weight Loss Journal for this idea. I have no idea how much they’ll be, but I know they are healthy – as long as it doesn’t impact my hormone levels too much.
• Fruit – This is pretty straight-forward. Apples, oranges, etc. make for a healthy snack. I might bring a couple of bushels of these.
• Nuts – Good source of protein and good fats.
• Dried Fruit – It’s a good additive to cereal, nuts, or just on it’s own
• Beef Jerky – I know there’s a lot of sodium in beef jerky, but it’s a great source of lean protein.

So this is where you come in. What foods am I missing?

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