When I first got into nutrition, the portion size stuff really threw me. Deck of cards equals protein, dice is fat? As someone who hates board games, I find this annoying. So, I really love the move towards using your hand as your guide to portion size, and I find that it also helps make the size of your serving appropriate to you–my hands are a bit smaller than Peter’s so our serving sizes are close but mine are a bit smaller to accommodate for the fact that, well, I’m a bit smaller! So when Jaclyn Fulop, a board licensed physical therapist with more than ten years of clinical practice in sports medicine and orthopedic rehab and owner of Exchange Physical Therapy Group in Jersey City, came on the Consummate Athlete Podcast, I was STOKED that she talked about this. Here’s her cheat sheet:
If you don’t know how much you should be eating, use your own hands.
- The size of your fist should equal the serving size of carbs. (Veggies are unlimited, though!)
- The size of your palms should determine the meat or protein portion.
- The amount of fat you should use can be measured by the tip of your thumb.
And when it comes to what’s ON the plate, Jaclyn’s simple advice is golden:
“Eat a very colorful plate. You want to make sure that you got plenty of vegetables, lean protein, and those healthy fats like the avocados, nuts, peanut butter, olive oil. Skip trans fats, obviously. I try to have a whole grains that have lots of vitamins and minerals that are high in antioxidants. Like quinoa, oatmeal, brown rice, those are all four choices instead of white bread. It’s important, especially during this time, that you keep your immune system strong.”
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