I am sure that you are feeling the change in seasons in your eating habits, I know I have... somehow healthy food just sounds better now, after a summer of hot dogs and junk. It's a good time to stop eating sugar, move to more whole cooked-whole foods diet, and eat less! I think that many Americans feel that sitting down to dinner means looking at a full plate of food, but is this really necessary? NO! I don't care if you are overweight or not but a healthy portion of food is much less that you may think!
For instance, I found these great suggestions in a recent issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. They suggest, for an adult of average build, a serving of protein should be the size of a deck of cards, a portion of starch should be the size of a tennis ball and veggies are fare game and you can eat as much as you wish! (I would suggest that this doesn't count if it's 'creamed' spinach we are talking about... but you know what I mean!).
The American diet has somehow morphed into a big plate of food and if you look at the suggestions above on a regular dinner plate it's pretty sparse. In our home I like to dish up everyones plate and then serve dinner, this way seconds are after the full range of food has been finished. We also happen to eat off of small plates which helps so that it doesn't look like tiny portions.
Also important is eating slowly, in Macrobiotics it's important to chew your food, in fact, if you chew brown rice about 100 times you will find that the flavor enhances and changes throughout this process. Obviously it would be crazy to sit down and chew 100 times ALL the time but it would be optimal! and your kids watch you so if you eat fast and devour your plate... guess what... they will learn those same eating habits! Sit down, SLOW DOWN and talk at your evening dinner. We have borrowed an idea from Blair at Wisecraft which is going around the table and each of us talks about our 'thorn' for the day and our 'rose' for the day! It's delightful and the kids love it! It also gives your body a chance to register fullness before you've had a chance to overeat. Kids are usually good at eating until they are full, but if they have the habit of eating fast and overeating bring them back to center by slowing yourselves down and they will follow.
Good luck and happy eating!
