The Handful Diet: How to Lose Weight with Portion Control
When it comes to dieting, it can absolutely be difficult, stressful, overwhelming, time-consuming, boring, and a pain in the ass. It’s no wonder dieting pushing people away from trying or causing them to quit prematurely. In fact, an insane statistic shows that 70-95% of people who start a diet will regain that same weight once the diet is over.
As a coach, this frustrates me beyond belief. How can I get my clients to adhere to a long-term diet plan??
Did you noticed how I said long-term?
Here’s the truth, it’s one thing to prescript a 30 day fat burning program that will give insane physique defining results, yet what next?
What will happen after the 30 days are over?
Once you reach this point, there are two options:
Quit dieting, only to regain the weight and resume the vicious cycle all over again.
Simplify the process.
The key isn't the exact gram or weight of each food you’re eating. Rather, it is more about the type of nutrition you are eating and your nutritional habits.
Creating and establishing sound nutritional habits is what separates those who keep the weight off and those who continue the vicious dieting cycle.
It comes from building a lifestyle around your life, goals, diet, and making the right decisions.
But how can you start making sound long-term nutritional habits, without weighing and counting everything you eat??
Simply start by using your hand!! Yes, really!
By using your hand, you will learn exactly how you can create good habits, reduce stress with dieting, simplify your diet, have more freedom, and most importantly….. get results!!
The Hand Size Methods Works for a Few Reasons:
Hands are portable. Unlike food scales, your hands will always be with you at home, work, restaurants, social gatherings, etc.
Hands are scaled to the individuals. Generally speaking, bigger people need more food and tend to have bigger hands, therefore getting larger portion. Smaller people need less food, tend to have smaller hands, and therefore getting smaller portions.
By using your hands as a guide, it will provide reasonable amounts of nutrition-dense foods and their specific macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and calorie needs without having to weigh your food or using an app, like MyFitnessPal.
Here’s a real quick visual representation of the Hand Portion Control method.
The Basics
The overall structure and foundation of this dietary system are built around creating guidelines for each meal. These guidelines will help create success both short-term and long term. I firmly believe that dieting should be viewed as a tool to help you reach your ideal lifestyle and the body you deserve.
In short, this guide will help you create a nutritional foundation or baseline without making it overly complicated. Most people will start getting positive results by simply sticking to these simple recommendations. As you progress, we can make the necessary adjustments to make your process faster or overcome any plateau that might occur.
By obeying the following guidelines, you’ll begin seeing improvement in the following:
gut health
body composition
immunity system
stress levels
performance
sleep
hormonal system
The overall structure and foundation of this dietary program begin by following a simple list of guidelines. These basic guidelines will create long-term success for this diet and any other diet you decide to follow. Diets shouldn’t be viewed as a temporary program to get quick results, rather as a tool to help you reach your ideal lifestyle and body you can maintain long-term.
This is the start for everyone, no matter what you eat, or what you’ve tired. If you are tired of tracking everything you eat, binging on the weekends, or are confused and hate everything dieting, this is the plan for you!!!
The Hand Portion Guidelines
Each meal must have a handful (or two) of protein.
Each meal must have a handful (or more) of veggies.
You must have a glass of water for every hour you’re awake.
You must have a handful (or two) of fruit every day.
You must have 3-5 meals every day following these guidelines.
You must have colorful veggies, and fruits throughout the day. (Eat the rainbow.)
Everything you eat must have swum the earth, flown the earth, or grown from the earth.
These guidelines will provide you with optimal health and if you utilize the absolute best nutrients the earth has to offer consistency, you’ll not only see significant changes in your body composition but your overall health and athletic performance. This simple diet will ensure we are eating enough to allow your body to properly function and perform optimally.
And the best part? You can achieve all this without need to count a single calorie!!!
Here is another visual rep to help see how an anytime (breakfast, lunch, dinner) plate should consist of:
All rights goes towards Precision Nutrition
In addition, here's a few tips to help you control your portion sizes to maximize progress:
Use smaller plates to subconsciously control portion sizes.
When possible, choose local or organic foods
The majority of your food should be minimally processed.
Save the majority of your carbs post workout to maximize your gains and improve recovery.
Eat slowly and stop when you are 80% full. This is a skill to learn, so don't be surprise when it takes you a few attempts.
At first, it may be a bit difficult to assess portion sizes, but practice makes perfect! After a few meals, this Hand method will become familiar and in no time this will be a breeze. Take it one meal and one day at a time; Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither will your body.
Recommended Food List
Everything you see on this list should be wild-caught, organic locally grown, and minimally processed. This isn’t an exhaustive nor complete list of food items. Click here for a more complete food guide list.
Protein;
Chicken Breast
Lean cuts of steak
Fish
Ground beef/turkey (90% or higher)
Eggs
Whey protein
Veggies:
Any and everything you enjoy cooking and eating!!
Fats:
All natural peanut butter
Avocado
Extra Olive Oil
Egg yolks
Tree Nuts (Almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, etc.)
Carbs:
Gluten free rolled oats
Rice
Quinoa
Sweet potatoes/Yams
Fruit
pumpkin
Squash
This is only a sample of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly foods you should be good eating.
As I mentioned above, following these guidelines will not only help you get the physical results you so desire, but you’ll be able to maintain those results for a long time to come. These dietary plan works because it ensures your day is balanced not only with the correct macronutrients, but also with all the right micronutrients as well.
Now all’s that left is for you to get started!
The power is in your hand.