One of the things no-one ever wants to hear about when it comes to diet and exercise is portion control.

Okay, maybe not everyone, but confound it, moderation sucks for me. *grin*.

I had a serious illustrative example of portion control recently through an obsession with Bento boxes. Notice my hand there for scale, then keep in mind I have small hands. That box is 7×4x3, and is a lunch box — as in, intended to contain a meal. *grin* It's also billed as a large bento box! When it arrived in the mail my heart sank, thinking I'd spent my money on something useless.

But, I did want to try the bento.  A bento is technically just a boxed meal, but there’s a serious culture around it in Japan.  Mothers compete to make healthy, attractive meals for their small children to eat at school.  Railway stations sell these boxed meals to eat on the train.  In the Edo period of Japan, the bento was the meal of travelers.  Even in theaters the makuno-uchi bento ("between-act bento") was popular for Kabuki shows.

So I had to at least try.

This is a real lunch I packed in it. (Onigiri wrapped in nori, about four tablespoons of tuna salad in two mushroom caps and a bit of red pepper, some sliced cucumbers, baby carrots, blueberries and snow peas. You're looking at about a 600 calorie meal right there, which is about right for my age and activity level. Well, it was about right for how much lunch I needed, and by golly it did fill me up and carry me through to dinner, and yes, I was quite hungry for dinner when dinnertime rolled around.  You're supposed to be hungry at mealtimes. That's kinda the point!

I say this because I think we do a lot of unconscious eating, and eating larger portions without thinking clearly about it. We overestimate what a portion size really is, thus underestimating how much we're eating. 

So, if you’re trying to lose weight, consider the lovely, healthy bento box!

Posted by Noel.