Awareness: A Simple Tool to Loose Weight, Stay Healthy etc...

    One of my personal struggles when I was gaining weight a few years back was why? I exercised regularly (at least 3 times a week), and thought I ate generally healthy meals. I always figured I would be able to eat what I wanted because I was athletic and exercised.
    Booooy was I wrong! For some reason it never occurred to me that I was taking in more calories than I was burning. I also never really paid attention or thought to try calculating calories I burned or nutrients I ate in a day. Once I began reading articles, and gaining incredible knowledge from people not only had I built myself up to have enough determination for self control, but I learned about portion size, and how the littlest things like sodium and dairy can affect your body differently.
    We all know portion sizes in America are out of control, but it took learning to measure all my food to fully grasp the concept of how much I was overeating. Funny thing was, eating a normal amount didn't make me feel deprived either.

Some Healthy Tips for Keeping Portions in Check:

• Eat smaller meals more often throughout the day. Depending on your body divide your daily needs into 4-7 meals. Eating every 2-4 hours not only keeps your metabolism running, but prevents binging and overeating when you feel you are very hungry.
• Use smaller plates. When you eat on a smaller plate, the amount of food that fits on it looks like more than it would look on a larger plate. 
• Try to avoid beverages besides water (and perhaps milk, and tea etc.) Most beverages out there are full of empty calories that don't really fill you up the same.
• Eat whole grains, whole foods, and lots of veggies! Your body takes longer to break them down resulting in being satisfied for a longer time period from less food.
• When eating something, put a serving of it in a container and leave the rest in the fridge/cupboard. This is especially useful for snacks like bags of chips where we can't seem to stop reaching into the bag. 
• Sit down, not in front of the TV... and enjoy your food. Focusing on what you are eating will make you more aware that you are actually eating that amount.
• Eat in dimmer lighting. Sometimes our appetites can be overstimulated by bright lighting.
• **** THIS IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY I HAVE FOUND: Be committed to keeping a food log of exactly what you eat every day! Include all condiments, sauces, beverages etc. You can also use a fitness tracker to monitor the calories you burn working out and see what your needs and deficit are. Some of my favorite websites for this include: 
• Shape.com's Virtual Trainer: I like this one because the program that keeps track of your food tells you how much of everything you need, how much you eat for each meal, the nutrient breakdowns, charts of your caloric differences, how many calories you burn from each specific exercise you do etc. You can make a free account here. 
• Sparkpeople.com : This tracker is great if your are looking for more guidance in what you are eating. You can select the options of having meal plans and workout made for you. You can also manually enter your own information. The trackers allow you to set measurable goals and give you the numbers you need to be in range of to get there. This website is very interactive, you can get points, get daily health articles, motivation tips, and be part of support "spark groups" online. There are tons of resources here!

Both of these sites have so much more to offer and have plenty of healthy recipes that you can feel good about! I have found the information on there to be quite valuable. Hope it helps you!