Does this sound familiar? It’s dinnertime, and by now the fatigue of a full day of work or activities has kicked in. You are hungry; but… good on you, you’ve done all the shopping and meal prep to produce a home-cooked meal. You’ve prepared an intentionally planned dinner designed to fit your plan. Take a bow, you’re a rock star.

Now comes the final step before you eat; it is maybe one of the most helpful things you can do on a weight loss journey and (when you’re hungry) may also be one of the biggest hassles: weigh and measure your portion.

Here are some tips to curve your hunger while preparing dinner, and some “pro-tips” to make it easier to get accurate portion sizes:

• Have some veggie sticks at the ready to nosh on while you cook, this will take the edge off hunger
• Stay hydrated as you cook, sip water – it helps
• Serve dinner from the stove using measuring cups to dole out servings
• Make it obvious and keep your kitchen scale next to the stove to weigh your serving

My hope for anyone reading this post is successful weight loss. If all the work has gone into meal planning and prep, then let’s all agree not to sabotage our efforts. Inaccurate portion sizes (either over or under) are not serving you well. I encourage you to do that last step, weigh and measure your portion sizes.