• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Retreats, Classes & Events
  • Work with me
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Private Events
  • Corporate Wellness

happy eats healthy

being healthy is finally delicious!

 

Healthy Chicago Cooking Classes

2 March 14, 2017 Happy Eats Healthy

Is your dinner plate sabotaging your diet?

dinner plateRecently I was part of a girls night out with a group of fabulous women who have all come together to support each other in our lives- both personal and work. We are all successful, own our business and need nights like these to let loose! There was laughing, crying and aha-moments that will lead to progress.

For our night out we traveled a few hours outside Image result for dinner plate sizesof the city to a bed and breakfast. We decided to not waste time going out to eat as we wanted to just stay in and enjoy each others company; so we treated the night like a picnic, each bringing something healthy to share.

The B&B owner was kind enough to set a table with the dishes out of her china cabinet. They were quite lovely and looked like something that have been passed down a few generations. I hoped to not accidentally break anything!

After filling the table with our abundant picnic food, we sat down to eat and quickly started to pass our yummy food. I made tacos using lentils as the filling with my super carrot ginger sauce (recipe coming soon) to top it off- finger licking good!

We didn’t get far on passing the food around though. As we started to fill our plates, we were all forced to stop after just taking one or two scoops of food. The plates in front of us were quite small, so small in fact that I’m pretty sure my salad plates are bigger than them. Our first response was that these must be the salad plates and our host must have thought we were eating in courses. So we asked for the dinner-sized plates; the response brought about a lengthy discussion of food portion sizes.

Turns out these little plates ARE, and have always been, her dinner plate size. Whhaaat? Really? Our responses varied from shocked to slightly embarrassed to a little nervous laughter.

I knew dinner plates in the United States have changed significantly over the past few decades, but to really see how much surprised even me!

Just a few decades ago, dinner plate sizes were 7-9 inches versus an average 12 inches today. Now, my creative side loves the look of a larger plates, it just gives more room for creative sauce design and I think it just looks better. So that is all great if you don’t overload the plate with food. The problem is that most of us (me included!) will not leave room for design and white space. We pile on extra scoops to fill the space. Sound familiar?

And if you grow up in the ‘clean your plate’ club, you don’t stop eating when you are full. Did you know that it takes 20 minutes for the stomach to signal the brain that it is full? When we have double helpings on our plate we never stop in for a ‘am I full’ check.

This doesn’t mean you have to go throw out your plates. Here are my top tips to combat dinner plate sabotage:

  • Start with being more mindful of your plate size and portion size
  • Try using a salad plate as your dinner plate 2 times a week.
  • Have fun! Take a moment to ‘decorate’ your plate, even if you use the mustard in a squeeze bottle. Swirl on a squiggly line on part of your big dinner plate first. THEN add the food. Fun right?

Tell me how you are taking back control over your dinnerware in the comments below.

Happy Day
~Monique

2

Categories: Happy Eats Healthy

Previous Post: « Dry Brush
Next Post: Sit or Stand…. does it really matter? »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Things I Like

footprints

the importance of remembering how far you’ve come

Remembering how far you've come can be ...

Keep reading

pink-salt-benefits

my #1 salt choice

If you've followed me in any way, shape ...

Keep reading

Check out all the things I like

Your chef

Monique Costello Happy Eats Healthy Chef

About Us

Want to find your happy? You hold the key!

Happy Eats Healthy exists to help others learn about and incorporate the healing power of clean foods in their lifestyle while experiencing how delicious healthy can be. Also, cooking and eating and socializing are FUN!

> LEARN MORE

Private Events

Happy Eats Healthy Private Events

Hosting a private event?

Don’t stress, we’ll cook for you!

> LEARN MORE

Recent Posts

  • 10-minute Korean Ground Beef {df, gf}
  • Bailey’s Irish Cream Mocktail {v, gf}
  • GF Quinoa Pizza
  • GF Focaccia Bread {gf, v}
  • Bison Osso Buco with Kale {low fodmap}

Read by category

  • Apps & Snacks
  • baking
  • Beauty
  • blogging
  • Bread
  • Breakfast
  • Breakfast
  • Dairy-Free
  • Dessert
  • Detox
  • Drinks & Cocktails
  • Fall
  • Fermentation
  • from scratch
  • Gluten-Free
  • Happy Eats Healthy
  • Home
  • Kitchen
  • Main
  • Meats & Fish
  • Paleo
  • Recipes
  • Salads
  • Sauces
  • Season
  • Self Care
  • Sides
  • Skin Care
  • soap
  • Soups
  • Special Diets
  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Super Foods
  • Supplements
  • Sweets
  • Things I Like
  • Tools
  • Tutorials
  • vegan
  • Vegan
  • vegetarian
  • Vegetarian
  • Veggies
  • Winter

Archives

Footer

Join the Party

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

More to Explore

  • About Us
  • Things I Like
  • Happy Clients
  • Contact

Want More Monique?

Visit her here

Copyright © 2023 · Happy Eats Healthy · All Rights Reserved