Let me just start with an extra large helping of reality: A “serving” at a typical American restaurant is so far outside the realm of sanity that it makes the sorcery in my fantasy novels seem reasonable by comparison. If you think your body needs the calories in a half-pound cheeseburger, 32-oz soft drink, and extra large helping of fries then either you run marathons on a daily basis or else I’ve got a bridge to sell you…
When I was much younger — a teenager — I honestly thought a serving at a restaurant represented a properly sized meal. Hey, what did I know? I worked at a fast food restaurant for two years and ate there almost every day. Unsurprisingly in those same two years I went from a size 12 to a size 20. That was my first clue. 🙂
I don’t eat at fast food restaurants anymore, but I do still enjoy eating out at nicer sit-down restaurants. These restaurants may offer higher quality food made from better ingredients, but they don’t deserve any more credit in the serving size department than fast food joints. In fact, they’re sometimes worse. I’ve seen 3,000-calorie meals at some sit-down restaurants that could honestly feed a family of four. (“So I’d like to order your 16-oz steak with a Texas-sized loaded baked potatoes, steamed veggies, and a basket of rolls. But can you bring three extra plates for my husband and kids?”)
One of my favorite restaurants is Lambert’s Cafe, which has two locations in Missouri (and maybe one in another state). Their claim to fame — they throw hot delicious rolls to their customers from across the restaurant. I could make a meal out of one of those rolls and some fried okra — bot those are just the free pass-arounds that come with the actual meal! First you have to order a heaping pile of pork chops or meatloaf or even a “veggie plate” which includes four of their sides. And even that is too much food.
I don’t mean to pick on them — like many homestyle, country, or southern cooking restaurants part of their ambiance is heaping plates of way too much food. They even take pride in it so it’s hard to imagine a customer going in there and not realizing it’s too much.
Yet too many people do think a restaurant serving is somehow representative of the right way to eat.
Worse, dieters who want to go out to eat see the plate of food and think that because they’re on a diet, they should take the advice to ask for half of it in a to-go box right off the bat.
Wait, why is that a bad thing? The advice is not bad at all! Some of the best eating-out advice for dieters involves getting a to-go box and putting half (or more) of your meal in it before you begin eating. Alternately, you can split a plate with a friend or spouse.
The problem, from a mindful eating perspective, is that dieters are doing this because they’re on a diet — and not because they understand just how wildly insane it is for anyone (dieter or not) to eat so much food.
Serving size has always been a big problem for me. Even after I understood with my head that restaurants gave me too much food (late high school/early college), I still had to convince my heart.
I love food. I love to eat it. I love to eat lots of it. I love the feeling of being full.
Do you know what I figured out? All of that is more a state of mind than a state of body/stomach. I was originally going to say that I spent years convincing myself that a real serving size is tiny, but that’s not the truth. I spent years convincing myself that a portion I once considered tiny is actually quite big, and that servings at restaurants belong in a fantasy world with the sorcerers and werewolves. Oh, and the magic weight-loss potion. Can’t forget the magic weight-loss potion.
It’s hard. I don’t mean to make any of this sound easy. Changing your thought processes is harder than white-knuckling it for a few weeks and dropping two dress sizes. It takes years. But the dream is that one day you can enjoy food without being afraid of it because your natural, daily behaviors are right for mind, heart (emotion), and body.