Portion Distortion: The Dietitian Faces Her Own Challenges

This week kicks off the month of May and the countdown to beach season.  How are those New Year's Resolutions coming along?  Are you even still in the game?

My resolution this year was to complete my second half marathon.  I accomplished that goal this past weekend in a personal best of 2:21.  For those of you out there who have finished an endurance event of any type (triathlon, marathon, half-marathon), perhaps you can relate to my experience.

For some reason, training for an endurance event gives me the free pass to eat whatever I like, and more of it than usual, especially the week before the race.  I tell myself I need to carb-load for the race and reward myself for my hard work over the past four mouths of training.  "I deserve this," I think to myself.  Ironically, I have counseled clients for years on finding other rewards for good behavior outside of food.  Perhaps I should take my own advice more often.

The day before my race, my team of girlfriends and I hit Starbucks followed by Cracker Barrel.  I often wonder each time I pass a Cracker Barrel if they placed the rocking chairs out front in an effort for patrons to "rock off" some calories they are about to consume inside.  Hmmm...

For the sake of full disclosure, I ate the following in the first two hours of our road trip. Yes, this meal was followed by four hours of sitting in a car.  Note the approximate (calories).

• 1 banana (100)
• tall skinny vanilla latte (100)
• 3 out of 4 slices of sourdough French toast (225)
• 2 scrambled eggs (160)
• 2 turkey sausage patties (150)
• 24 ounce glass of orange juice  (360)
• 1 Tbsp of butter (100)
• one individual syrup bottle  (200)



My Cracker Barrel Breakfast



Total calorie intake before noon:  1395. 

Total calorie burn during half marathon:  Approximately 1300-1400 calories.

Yes, I managed to eat every calorie I was about to burn 24 hours later in one sitting. 

If this scenario was presented by a client, I may have suggested:

• Drop the OJ.  Use half the syrup.  Order a side of fresh fruit to top the French toast. 
• Limit the French toast to two slices.  Leave off the butter (as it's probably already grilled in butter).

These changes alone would have saved about 600 calories, or about half the meal, and I still would have enjoyed most of the food!  Ahhh, the clarity of hindsight.

Well, since my goal is fitness and weight maintenance, doing this on this one occasion probably caused little harm.   But ... if you are trying to shed some pounds and wonder why all this hard work isn't giving you the results you want, perhaps portion distortion is the problem?

Consider the following tips if your serving sizes are off the charts:

1.  Eat on a smaller plate.  No seconds.

2.  Eat one-third to one-half of your normal portion.  AT... EACH... MEAL.

3.  Find out how many calories are in the foods you eat.  Ignorance is bliss until you miss out on reaching your goals.