Know your Plate — Estimating Portion Size

The research is clear. Regarding your health, what is truly important is whether you are eating enough of the RIGHT food as opposed to focusing on eliminating the WRONG food. 

Daily journaling in MedChefs lets you and your doctor know if you’re eating enough healthy foods (fruit, vegetables, greains, legumes, and fiber); and not too much salt, sugar, and processed meats.

If you’ve eaten your meal plan, journaling is a simple one-click process; check “yes, I ate my meal-plan” and you’re done! But we know life happens and sometimes you eat off-plan. Either you enjoyed a lunch or dinner out, or perhaps you’re traveling and can’t cook at home. When trying to remember what you did eat, the frequent response we hear is “How the heck do I know?” Knowing your plate and estimating portion size is an easy skill to learn.

Tips for Quick Journaling

Here are a few tips for quick journaling even when you’ve gone out to eat or aren’t able to follow your meal-plan:

Missed One Meal on Your Daily Plan

If you’ve just missed one meal or a portion of a meal simply go to “Let’s Eat” and remove the meal you missed. Then, click or tap on the “+” and choose the closest recipe or items that resemble what you did eat. Now, when you click or tap “yes, I ate my meal plan” you’ve journaled an accurate score. Don’t worry, since we don’t count calories, the exact preparation isn’t as important as recognizing the fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes and approximately how much you ate. And, if fish was on your meal plan that day – order fish in the restaurant!

Estimating What You Did Eat

If you eat off plan and need to check “no, tell us what you ate” in the journal, here’s a simple way of estimating your portions by just looking at your hands. Once you learn how to recognize your plate, journaling this way is easy.