Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.

Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year's too.  And all the holiday travel.  And all the holiday meals...

From the limited site statistics Typepad gives me (darn you, Sitemeter!  why did you go all buggy and make me delete you?!?)  I can see that this month I have a lot of traffic to my weight loss/gluttony posts.  Yeah, I'm still working on formatting a printable version, when I have time.  It's a long term plan...

Anyway, I wanted to toss out a suggestion for folks who are viewing the upcoming holidays with trepidation.  Because it's so much harder to eat moderately when you are with the extended family, isn't it?  Partly because of the company, partly because the food is extra-appealing, partly because you don't have control over the menu.  I have written about this before (and recently dredged up some old links for a friend).

This might not work for everyone, but why not try a moderate-sized, balanced-plate plan to get through the holidays or the vacations or the visiting?  It's a very simple set of rules governing meals and mini-meal-type snacks, but one that is highly adaptable to restaurants, buffets, potlucks, and feasts at other people's houses.

I'm definitely not the first to come up with the "plate method" (here is an example of a published version), which is, as far as I am concerned, a tool for filling up on vegetables.  The idea is to create a "mental model" of a balanced meal like this:

The "ideal plate" is not too large and is mentally divided into four quarters.

 - At least two quarters is meant to hold non-starchy vegetables.

 - Up to one-quarter of the plate may hold a source of protein.

 - Up to one-quarter of the plate may hold starchy vegetables or grains.

 - And you don't get to let stuff hang over the edge of the plate or stack it too high.

 - You can fill your two-quarters with salad if you like, but salad greens are so fluffy that as far as I am concerned you can have them for free in a bowl on the side.  Watch the dressing though.

 - Yes, your dessert must fit on your plate.  Have it bump some of the starchy stuff out of the way.

- Yes, your fresh fruit must fit on your plate.  Just remove any of the other stuff to make room for it.

Obviously it's easy to figure out where everything goes if dinner is chicken, broccoli, and rice.  Half a plate of broccoli, a quarter-plate of rice, and a quarter-plate of chicken, right?  So what do you do if dinner is vegetable lasagna and minestrone soup,  or mixed beans and rice and coleslaw?  The key is not to think too hard about it, do your best to approximate the proportions, and to remember that Americans rarely suffer protein deficiency.  When I was following this guideline, I would keep stuff like lasagna to a quarter-plate.  I might let something like beans and rice be a little bit larger than a quarter-plate and fill the rest with vegetables.  

But it doesn't hurt, when you get started, to be kind of strictly literal about it.  Like, if it's spaghetti and red sauce and cheese, literally measure the pasta by placing it on a quarter of your plate before moving it to the middle of the plate and adding the sauce.

You know, right, that "starchy" vegetables are peas; beans like kidney or pinto or black beans; corn; potatoes; sweet potatoes, right?   Don't fear carrots, turnips, and squash; they can be piled high on your plate.  The low-carb people have given root vegetables and squashes an undeserved bad reputation.

If you stick to a single plate and use these guidelines, you don't have to worry so much about WHAT the stuff is you are eating -- it will be moderate, almost automatically.   I'm not saying it will be low-calorie, but I am saying that you will be reinforcing moderate, healthy habits without having to be excessively picky. It really takes care of the excess associated with holiday gatherings.

What if the plate is handed to you already composed, as in a restaurant or a dinner party?  Chances are that the plate is overlarge, so you probably have everything you need to make a balanced plate in front of you, plus a little extra of some of the things.  Transfer extras off the plate if it is possible to do so without being a weird guest.  If you can't do that, discreetly move stuff around and draw mental lines around things.  Remember that the four-quarter plate is a helpful MENTAL model; it doesn't have to actually exist in front of you to help you out.  Of course, some practice with physical four-quarter plates help.  But really, the point is to control what you put in your mouth, not what you put on the plate; the plate is only a tool, and an imaginary one at that.

(And by the way, if you are used to smaller plates and you are given a BIG plate:  Big plates usually have a wide rim around them.  If you only use the center of the plate and pretend the rim part isn't really there, you are generally left with a more manageable circle to work with.)

One more note.  Occasionally you will run into the "corn-potato-peas" dinner when you are a guest at someone's house -- you know, the meal that consists of a piece of meat, plus the "vegetables" are corn and peas and potatoes.  In that situation, you have two choices, and I think either of them work.

(1) Suck it up, count the peas and corn as vegetables, and put them on half your plate (not piled up huge though).  They do have a lot of fiber and other good nutrition in them, which is the main reason to eat vegetables. Be a gracious dinner guest.

(2) If you are certain that maintaining lower calories is crucially important, and if you think you can do this graciously:  Count the corn and peas together as part of the protein, and just figure that you don't get any vegetables on this plate.  Your vegetable quarters are metaphorically blank.  Don't literally scrape all the food to one half of your plate though!   Remember about not being a weird guest.  Do the math in your head, smile and say thank you.

 

 

Comments

[Erin]

Thanks Erin, this is a great post and great timing. I hate being reminded that peas are a starchy vegetable, sigh, but you are correct and I do need that reminder! You've mentioned the mental plate in the past and I've found it a very useful tool. I haven't reached the point where I look at a long 4 day holiday weekend and use good habits at every meal. I often ponder it ahead of time and reach a mental agreement that I will follow my chosen rules for all but one meal over the course of a holiday weekend. I can't decide if that exception is healthy because I acknowledge it ahead of time and plan for it or if by allowing myself to forget the habits for one meal, I'm not breaking the idea of food as critical to the celebration. This post is a good reminder to review my holiday plans and consider using the mental plate for all of the holiday celebrations.

[Bethany]

Oh my goodness, you just laid all that out so easily and it all makes perfect sense! Thanks! And now to do it ....

[LeeAnn Balbirona]

What, no post on the "twinkie diet" making the news rounds today?! :) I was hoping for your critique. See here if you haven't read this yet: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html?hpt=T2
His idea was that it is strictly the calories that count rather than the types of foods.

I'll never forget the first thanksgiving I actually ate a normal (reasonable) amount of food and was able to enjoy the rest of the day rather than lying around in a stupor, clutching my sides. It was like a revelation to me that I *didn't* have to stuff myself (only the turkey!), that I could choose to eat less of everything and still enjoy the day.

Thank you for this series of posts. I'm another one who'll be thrilled to get these all in one document or download.

[Kelly]

I can do fine eating a reasonably balanced meal during the holidays. What gets me are all the hours sitting at various tables and counters talking and not being able to ignore the chips, cookies, candy, glazed nuts, dips, etc. The meal is just one hour but the grazing is all day!