Starting Sunday, January 07 @ 11:59 PM, until Sunday, January 14 11:59 PM  your challenge is to ...

Eating Smaller Portions

In this week's challenge you must eat in smaller portions. Practicing portion control can help you learn to be satisfied eating less food, which can help you both physically and financially. The weight control information network recommends that you learn the difference between a serving and a portion- although those words are often used interchangeably - a serving size is the amount of food listed on the nutrition facts of the label and a portion is the amount of food you chose to eat.

Benefits of eating in smaller portions:

Decreased calorie intake

Maintain blood sugar levels

Prevent metabolism crash

Prevent nutrition imbalances

Weight loss

Increased energy


A smaller plate tricks your brain into thinking it's a huge portion as shown

Here are a few tricks to help you out this week:

Eat small meals more frequent

Use small serve ware and dishes

Add veggie fillers to your meal. (Example: spinach)

Don't eat from the bag or box

Divide food into smaller snack-size bags in advance, which will make it easier to eat only one portion at a time.

Limit mealtime distractions

Read the nutrition label to determine what a serving is and serve yourself that amount in a dish (Example: chips, cookies, crackers, candy)

Serve yourself in the kitchen, rather than having second helpings right in front of you at the table.

If that does not help here is an example of eating smaller portions frequently throughout the day.
If you normally have toast, cereal and fruit for breakfast, have the cereal first, the toast and fruit an hour later. At lunchtime, eat half your sandwich with a piece of fruit, then have the other half an hour later with some soup or a small salad; eat a smaller dinner than normal then have more fruit, a yogurt or a small sandwich an hour later.

Suggested Reading:
The Importance of Eating Small Portions - Learn more here.
Why Eating Little and Often is Best - Learn more here.
3 Benefits of Eating Smaller Portions - Learn more here.

This challenge was closed on 1/14/2018

The Weekly Health Challenge is a self-audited program designed to motivate the JCSC Wellness participants in reducing BMI on a weekly basis.

How it works:

1. Each week there will be a new health challenge. You can accept the challenge by accepting the pledge for each challenge. You can only accept a challenge from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Tuesday.

2. At the end of the week, you can declare if you have completed the challenge. You can only mark a challenge as completed from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Tuesday.

3. Every week, the participants that complete the challenge will be recognized on this page.