Portion Control

Portion control is a frequent topic that new weight loss hypnosis clients want to talk about. They are used to dieting and are used to measuring, counting calories and eating packaged meals. With Slender For Life™ hypnosis for weight loss you learn to recognize when you are truly physically hungry and learn how to know when you have consumed enough food and honor yourself by paying attention and stopping eating.

Slender For Life™ has helped hundreds of people to lose weight and keep it off since 1990. No matter where you may live, Seattle Weight Loss Hypnosis Specialist Roger Moore is here for you.

Portion Control is this weeks reading from my book, Becoming Slender For Life.

Portion Control

Think of eating as fueling your car. When the gas pump shuts off, you stop pumping gas. And that’s what you should do when your appetite tells you that you have enough food (fuel) in your body. And when do you put gas in your car? When it’s nearly empty! You don’t stop at every gas station you drive by to put gas in your car.

Fueling up only when necessary should be our relationship with food. Hunger is a good thing—it means it’s time to eat.

Try this: touch your knee for a moment. Now, how much more aware are you of your knee? Before you touched it, you probably weren’t even thinking about your knee. Your hand works like a magnifying glass—it enhances awareness. You can get in touch with your level of fullness by simply placing your hand on your stomach. This allows you to be conscious—of whether or not you are hungry, and as you are eating a meal, when you are full.

Slender For Life™ uses a fullness scale of 0 to 10. Imagine that 0 on this scale is empty—you are ready to eat, you need to eat. As you do begin to eat, you almost immediately feel a release from your hunger pangs—this is level 1. As you continue to eat, you reach level 2, and you’re starting to rebound—you feel your body refueling, but you are also still aware of some hunger. You reach 3 and 4 on the scale when you notice that the hunger is nearly gone and has been replaced by new energy for your tasks ahead. Depending on what time it is, you may even be happy to stop eating at level 4—think about how much fuel you will need for the rest of your day. By the time you reach levels 5 and 6, this is satisfied. You are no longer hungry, but you also feel energized by what you’ve just eaten, not sluggish. This is the point you should not eat beyond.

If you do continue eating, by 7 or 8 you’re aware that you’ve overeaten, rather like you might feel after having two desserts or overindulging in a rich restaurant meal. If you go further, you’ll hit 9, which is a very uncomfortable feeling—your clothes are too tight, your energy has drained and you may even feel indigestion. If you persist to level 10 on this scale, you’ll feel overstuffed, like you ate way too much at Thanksgiving. It doesn’t feel good; you are lethargic and bloated and probably wish you had stopped eating much sooner.

Often, deciding what a 5 or 6 feels like may be difficult. It was for me. Since I never allowed hunger, I had no idea how much fuel my body needed. I had no awareness of satisfied, since I was never satisfied. One way to begin to understand what this feels like is to wait three or four hours after eating, put two fist-sized portions of food (approximately two cups) on your plate and eat that amount. Put your hand on your stomach and check in and become aware of what this feels like. Use this feeling as a beginning understanding of a 5 or 6 on this scale.

Learn to check in with yourself throughout each meal, especially when dining out. You can be in a restaurant with family and friends laughing, talking, eating and still monitor your progress. Pick up your napkin, wipe your mouth and on the way down, touch your stomach and notice how you feel—no one will notice what you’re doing. Perhaps you’re at a 2. You continue eating, then touch again and realize you’re now at level 3. So you eat some more, check in and find you’re at level 4. Stop and think, does this restaurant have a dessert—perhaps crème brûlée—and tonight you’re going to have some crème brûlée. You had better stop eating at level 4, as it only takes two or three spoonfuls of crème brûlée to get you to 5 or 6 on the fullness scale.

It’s not that you can never again have birthday cake and ice cream or pumpkin pie, but they need to be factored into reaching 5 or 6. If it’s your birthday and you’re going to enjoy a big piece of cake and ice cream, maybe you stop eating the meal at a 2. But no matter how much birthday cake and ice cream are left on your plate, stop eating when you reach 5 or 6. And remember, birthdays and Thanksgivings are single meal events. You don’t eat birthday cake and pumpkin pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next three days.

Eat when your body tells you it’s hungry and stop eating when you feel satisfied. If you follow this simple rule you should never be overly hungry. There is plenty of good food for you to enjoy.

This is not about starvation. Denial does not equal weight loss. It’s a myth that in order to lose weight, you have to be hungry. Remember, you are not dieting. You are changing your eating habits.

And most important, eat consciously and choose what you eat throughout each meal. Just because you have great tasting food on your plate does not mean you have to eat it all! Just because someone brought chocolate chip cookies into the house does not mean you have to eat them.

From Becoming Slender For Life,
second edition, pages 154 – 156

I tell all new hypnosis for weight loss clients that holiday meals are tribal feasts. They are meant to be parties that are filled with joy. As humans, commune over food. We break bread together – and that is a wonderful thing! But, tribal feasts are single meal events. Enjoy a piece of birthday cake or pumpkin pie at the tribal feast. It’s not something that you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 3 days.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

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