by Lee VanAmee

Created on: August 23, 2010

Portion control is usually more of a mind trap than a body signal. 

Most of the people that need to eat large quantities of food have a variety of reasons for why they need more quantity of eating. There are times when it is a person's weight that is going to suffer for the large quantity of foods ingested and other times where it is a matter of one's health due to over consumption of sugar, or their cholesterol or anything else that is just plain not good for us in large quantities. Food can be one of the best things that we enjoy in life. Moderation is the key. 

There are usually reasons behind why we tend to overindulge in the food realm and getting this under control requires that you change the thinking behind these behaviors: 

Family:   In most families you were forced or coerced to finish everything on your plate or else! 

Attitude of Lack:   If you or your family has ever been through hard times where getting food was an issue then you may have developed a fear of having that lack again, so eat as much as you can, while it's in front of you, because you never know where your next meal is coming from. 

When eating out in a restaurant: Most people feel that they "have to get their monies worth" also. If you order an appetizer that really is large enough for one person for $8.00 the other people will chime in that you get more food if you order the "special" for $15.00. But, you may not want more food. Some people are disciplined about eating the leftovers, but most of the time it turns into a science experiment after we leave it in the car or have it in our refrigerator a week later. 

It is what we are used to doing, a habit: We just never really thought about it. Habits die hard, especially if they are ingrained since childhood or that we have never had any reason to look at them. Once you take the habit out of the box and give it a good look see; you usually come up with ways to update it to be better now that you are revising it. 

I am sure you can figure out where the idea came from that you need large portions of food to sustain yourself health wise or just to make yourself feel better emotionally. You will have a new appreciation for new foods and how much food really plays in your life.

 Once you start eating less you will notice a change in your thought patterns and other behaviors also because it will open the door for you to change some more mindsets that were not in your best interest to begin with. Exercising and breathing in some fresh air, doing some other new activities instead of feeling lethargic and trapped after eating too much.

Your health will improve so that will want to be out and about more, it really is freeing to just enjoy in moderation and fill in the void with better activities.

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