Eat Out Eat Well

Let A Baseball Be Your Guide For A One Cup Serving Of Food

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baseball-equals-one-cupIt’s awfully hard to gauge how much food you’re putting on your plate – and even harder to figure out how much food you’re popping into your mouth when you eat directly from a multi-serving bag of food – like a big bag of chips.

Portion size is critical to managing your weight.  One helpful idea is to use familiar objects as visual guides to “guesstimate” portion sizes.

One Cup Is About The Size Of A Baseball

The suggested serving size for many food items, particularly produce, is a cup. The suggested portion size for many denser items, like pasta, rice, or ice cream is a half a cup, so two servings – which is, at minimum, what most of us eat, would equal a cup.

 A Baseball, Not A Softball

A cup is about the size of a baseball – a baseball, not a softball.  So a cup of cooked greens, a cup of yogurt, a cup of beans, or a cup of cantaloupe should all look like the size of a baseball – but with obviously different calorie counts.

Here are some of the CDC’s examples of one-cup servings:

  • 1 small apple
  • 1 medium grapefruit
  • 1 large orange
  • 1 medium pear
  • 8 large strawberries
  • 1 large bell pepper
  • 1 medium potato
  • 2 large stalks of celery
  • 12 baby carrots or 2 medium carrot
  • 1 large ear of corn

It’s easy to visualize a small apple or a medium potato as about the size of a baseball.  It’s more difficult with an ear of corn!  But, for most food products it is possible to think “baseball” and pour or cut or pick (as in the case of fruit) a similarly sized portion.

This is Tip #3 for Week 3 of the “lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.”  Let everyone know how you’re doing! Post your results and/or struggles and suggestions on Eat Out Eat Well’s page on Facebook.

What To Eat When Party Food Is Heavy On Wings, Pizza, And Chips

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pizza-soda

  • Stick with grilled meat, veggies, or baked chips rather than fried.
  • Turkey, baked ham, and grilled chicken are better choices than wings and fried chicken.
  • Plain bread, pitas, or wraps are less caloric than biscuits or cornbread. Or, try using lettuce as a sandwich wrap.
  • Go for salsa and skip the guacamole; mustard instead of mayo.
  • Minimize calories by dipping chicken wings into hot sauce instead of Buffalo sauce.
  • Try using celery for crunch and as a dipper instead of chips.
  • Try fruit for dessert.
  • Go for thin crust rather than thick doughy crust pizza. Choose the slices with vegetables — not pepperoni or meatballs.  If you’re not embarrassed, try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice (soak up even a teaspoon of oil saves you 40 calories and 5 grams of fat).
  • Alcohol adds calories and lowers your inhibitions so your resolve not to eat everything at the buffet table often flies right out the window. Try alternating water or diet soda with beer or alcohol which decreases your alcohol calories by 50%. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram but doesn’t fill you up the way food does, so you can drink a lot and not feel stuffed.

Does The Thought Of A Buffet Send Your Inner Calorie Counter Into Panic Mode?

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buffet table-graphicEating well and being “calorically observant” can be a challenge at parties, buffets, and events.  Since wedding and graduation season is upon us, week 3 of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge will focus on making good choices to save calories when choosing your food at these events – especially since so many of them are buffets where the array of food can be dazzling and too darn tempting.

The Allure And Terror Of The Buffet Table

It’s possible to keep calories under control at a buffet even with all of that tempting food staring you in the face.  Whether it’s a fancy catered affair or pizza, wings, and cold cuts laid out on the kitchen table, why give yourself extra opportunities to shovel chips and dip or passed hors d’oeuvres into your mouth all night long? You’re human, so stay out of hand-to-mouth range, too. You’re far less likely to mindlessly eat if you have to leave a conversation and walk across the room to get to the food.

We Eat With Our Eyes 

  • Keeping your back to the table is one of the easiest strategies to use.  We often eat with out eyes – if we see something delicious, we want to eat it.  So, don’t look at it.  Keep your back to the tempting food as you’re having conversations or working the room. If you have a drink in your hand – it doesn’t matter what it is – your hands are full and it’s more difficult to grab food to eat.
  • Hors d’oeuvres can really sucker punch you, too.  They’re small, but the calories really add up. Make up your mind how many you’ll eat ahead of time and stick to your plan or you’ll have shoved down a thousand calories before you know it. Pick the ones you love and avoid the ones you don’t.  Why sacrifice your calories for something you don’t love?  Try to keep a mental count because when you’re talking and drinking it’s far too easy to grab from each passing tray.
  • When it’s time to sit, choose a seat that puts your back to the buffet — preferably one that’s some distance away from it.  How long can you sit and stare at those lavishly decorated cakes or the mounds of fried food without wanting to sample?  Not having them in your line of sight helps to keep your mind – and your stomach – off of the food choices.
  • Distance helps, too.  Having to get up and walk past lots people – many of whom you know – while balancing a plate filled to the brim, can serve as a “seconds” and “thirds” deterrent.
  • Before putting any food on your plate, just cruise the buffet line to eyeball all of the choices – a potential minefield of diet busters! What do you want to do?  What’s going to energize you and not mess too badly with the calorie range that you want to maintain? Make up your mind, make your choice, and enjoy what you’ve decided to eat.

 

Want Beef? Here’s a Steakhouse Mini Cheat Sheet

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steakhouse-graphicIf you’re watching your weight, beef can be a good choice – just be aware of portion size and which are the least fatty cuts of meat.  Here’s a mini cheat sheet:

The USDA defines a lean cut of beef as a 3.5 oz serving (about 100 grams) that has less than:

  • 10 grams total fat
  • 4.5 grams saturated fat
  • 95 milligrams cholesterol

The USDA defines an extra-lean cut of beef as a 3.5 ounce serving (about 100 grams) that contains less than:

  • 5 grams total fat
  • 2 grams saturated fat
  • 95 milligrams cholesterol

Twenty-nine cuts of beef qualify as lean or extra lean. Of those 29 cuts of beef, here are the cuts that are considered extra lean:

  • Eye of round roast or steak
  • Sirloin tip side steak
  • Top round roast and steak
  • Bottom round roast and steak
  • Top sirloin steak

Some Calorie Saving Beef Tips

  • “Round” or “loin” are the words to look for when you want the leanest cut of meat (for instance:  top round, sirloin, top loin, tenderloin, eye round).
  • “Cut” refers to the part of the animal the “cut” of meat has been taken from. Leaner cuts usually come from the hip or hindquarter.
  • If you don’t stick to the extra-lean cuts like top round and top sirloin, go for lean cuts like strip, tenderloin, T-bone, and shoulder.
  • Think carefully about ordering ribeye or skirt steaks.  They’re usually marbled – which means there’s fat throughout the meat.
  • In restaurants your safest bet is to ask for smaller portions of leaner cuts of meat.

Traffic Light Food Choices: Red (Once In A While), Yellow (Maybe Yes, Maybe No), And Green (Probably Good)

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red-yellow-green-food-choicesHere are some tips on recognizing menu descriptions to help you make the best caloric choices (of course, portion size plays a big role, too).

Any menu item will have tons of added calories if it is:

  • smothered in sauce
  • covered or layered with cheese
  • loaded with butter, oil, cream, mayonnaise, or dressing
  • “sugared-up” even if it doesn’t taste sweet
    • made from a fatty cut of meat
    • made with hidden sugar or flour and/or some type of fat for thickening
    • a huge portion size

Green Light (Probably A Good Choice) words or phrases:

  • Barbequed
  • Blanched
  • Boiled
  • Grilled/Broiled/Charbroiled
  • Fat free
  • Garden fresh
  • Poached
  • Primavera
  • Red sauce/ Marinara
  • Roasted
  • Seasoned
  • Steamed

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “d” are frequently on the okay list, for instance: poached, boiled, grilled, and steamed.  Some notable exceptions are:  fried, and the “b-d” words:  buttered, battered, and breaded.

Yellow Light “Caution” Foods (Maybe Yes, Maybe No)

Words frequently used on menus to describe “yellow light foods,” should be chosen cautiously because they may or may not be healthy choices.

Yellow Light words or phrases:

  • Baked
  • BastedStir-Fried/Sauteed
  • Vegetarian
  • Vinaigrette
  • High Fiber
  • Light/Lite
  • Reduced
  • Marinated
  • Stewed
  • Panini
  • Almandine/Almondine

Red Light (Once In A While) Foods

Really think hard before eating food described with these words and phrases:

  • Au gratin/Cheesy/Parmigiana
  • Aioli
  • Alfredo
  • Battered/Encrusted/Crusted
  • Bearnaise/Hollandaise
  • Bet you can’t finish it/ Bottomless/Value/Giant/Jumbo/Loaded
  • Bisque
  • Breaded
  • Buttery / Buttered
  • Carbonara
  • Casserole
  • Chicken fried/Pan fried
  • Covered/Smothered
  • Creamed/Creamy/White Sauce/Bechamel
  • Crispy/Crunchy
  • Deluxe
  • Escalloped/Scalloped
  • Fried/Deep fried
  • Pesto
  • Stroganoff
  • Stuffed
  • Twice baked

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “y” should usually send up red alerts, for instance:  cheesy, crispy, crunchy.

This post is part of the 500 calorie challenge:  lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks the healthy way.