Portion control

Sometimes being a parent is hard.  Ah...who am I kidding? It's mostly hard. But a good kind of hard.

 I have become a portion Nazi.  Meaning, I've become a tyrant about the portions my kids, and myself, eat.  I decide before a meal how much each person will get and that's what they get...and not a drop more.  Well, I'm a little looser with veggies...but for the most part...each person gets their share and that's it. No seconds, no exceptions.

You see, I am overweight...er...obese.  That's really hard to say.  But you know what? I don't ever want to have to use that word in regard to my children.  And that is largely up to me.  Did you know that if you are overweight there's an 80% chance that your children will be? It's true.

I don't typically think of it this way, but I am setting my kids up for failure.  Who wants to do that? I certainly don't.

Lately I had started noticing growing bellies on my babies...and I knew that I had to do something.  I had already joined Weight Watchers but I hadn't really changed my family's diet at all...only mine. So I made a decision that something had to change...and that something was the size portions I allowed my children to have.  As well as teaching them table manners...which encourages them to eat slower, take smaller bites and in the process, not eat so much.

And just in the three weeks I've been really strict about this, my monkeys little bellies have shrunk significantly. I haven't weighed or measured them because I didn't want to make it about weight for them, I want it to be about being healthy...but just judging from their size, they've probably lost a few pounds.

But that's not the only positive difference in our lives, resulting from more careful portion control.

Our groceries last much longer. I've only had to go major grocery shopping once this month...as opposed to 2 or 3 times. I spent around $400 on groceries this month...for a family of seven...as opposed to $600-800.