Cathy S. Judd reports on the success of the Smart Portions healthy eating and weight loss program. She is the Family & Consumer Sciences Agent for the Lincoln Extension Service of the LSU AgCenter in Ruston, LA.
Smart Portions For Healthy Weight Loss
The LSU AgCenter just completed an eight week Smart Portions program. The Smart Portions program teaches people how to eat healthy and lose weight. Losing weight can be a challenging task, unless you have great support. Fifteen Smart Portions participants encouraged and motivated each other to stay on task. They teamed up and supported each other for eight weeks. To verify change in behavior, participants had their body mass analyzed, waist measured, and starting weight recorded on the first day of class. Each week participants weighed in. At the end of the eight weeks waist measurements and body mass were analyzed again.
Participants learned how to change eating behaviors by looking at true portion size. They learned how to eye-ball portion sizes by looking at familiar items such as a baseball which is equivalent to one cup or a deck of cards that represents 3 ounces of meat. Many times we just accept what is put on our plate. If you eat out on a regular basis you may notice it is hard to maintain your weight because of the huge portion sizes. If you’re from the ‘clean-the-plate’ club it is hard to leave food on your plate! Participants learned strategies to help them not to overeat when eating out or at home and not to give in to habits. Participants learned to become more mindful of what they’re eating and how to enjoy food.
We discussed how stress may induce eating, how to make changes to your favorite recipes, what body mass index says about your health, the importance of exercise, the best kind of exercise, and how to read labels. In the Smart Portions class participants also learned how to make healthy food selections when eating out and how to make food tasty.
The “Smart Portions” program is a great way to start healthy lifestyle changes with the help of other participants. The class helps participants to be accountable for their food choices and exercise. The fifteen Smart Portions participants implemented the information they learned from Smart Portions and lost a total of 54.4 pounds together! Our highest weight loss was 9.6 pounds, second was 8.5, and third was 6.4.
If you are interested in participating in Smart Portions please visit www.lsuagcenter.com/lincoln or call Cathy Judd at 318-251-5134, for more information.
