Contrary to popular belief, diet supplements, the latest diet fad, and even exercise can’t help you lose as much weight as this secret. And I’m going to let you in on it….are you ready?

It’s portion control.

If you can control the size of your food and meal portions, you’re well on your way to looking great – and [bonus] feeling better.

It’s easy to over indulge, especially with those foods that may not be the healthiest for us. But don’t worry. You don’t have to give up your chocolate or lose the carbs.

Here are some tips that will help get your portions down to size [pardon the pun]:

• Drink water instead. If you think you’re still hungry, try having a glass of water first. If, after 20 minutes your stomach’s still rumbling, go ahead and have a little more to eat.
• Check the serving size. Don’t disregard nutrition facts. You might be surprised that you’re actually consuming 3 servings of your favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from the bowl you just scooped.
• Put it on a plate. Don’t eat your food right out of the carton or bag. Instead, put the right portion on a plate or in a bowl. That way, you have to think twice before you get up for seconds.
• Slow down. Eating with chopsticks is how many Eastern populations end up slowing the constant hand-to-mouth routine, but try putting your fork/spoon down in between bites. You’ll be surprised how much sooner you realize when you’re full.
• Forget the clean plate club. Seems silly, but many of us will keep eating after we’re full – whether out of boredom, fatigue, or just plain craving. How do you fix it? Listen to your stomach. Stop when it says it’s full. With the right portions, you should still be able to be a part of the club.

Obviously, you can’t eat the correct portion sizes of potato chips for every meal and expect to drop extra pounds. But with a healthy diet and just a little exercise, portion control could be your ticket to forgetting the latest diet plans forever.

Nicki Hicks is a fitness and nutrition enthusiast with a passion for all things healthy and organic. A web marketing specialist and search geek at flyte new media by day, Nicki works to increase her clients’ search engine visibility. By night, you might find Nicki coaching, practicing yoga, or pretending to be an artist. Nicki regularly contributes to the Guiding Stars blog.

It’s all about portion control.

When you sit down for a meal, imagine dividing your plate into 4 equal parts.

1/2 plate = fill with nonstarchy vegetables like:

• broccoli
• carrots
• cucumbers
• salad
• tomatoes

1/4 plate = protein:

• meat
• fish
• poultry
• tofu

1/4 plate = grains, starchy foods like:

• rice
• pasta
• potatoes
• corn
• peas

Add a glass of nonfat milk and a small roll or piece of fruit and your meal is complete!

Children who build their plates this way will become healthy eaters for life. Make it fun, and remember, by following this model, you’re guaranteed stars on half of your child’s plate.

Jaica is a Web Community Specialist for the Guiding Stars Licensing Company. She is responsible for Internet marketing, community engagement and whatever else is cool and happening on the Interwebs. She designed the website and serves as editor for the Guiding Stars Blog. Jaica is also one of the founders of Social Media FTW.

When my first of three children came along, I made a commitment that I wasn’t going to repeat the sins of the past. I grew up in a household run by a mother whose own mother, a child of the Great Depression, wouldn’t allow anyone from the table without a clean plate. I can only recall a few instances when that dynamic extended to me, but I remember very clearly those times—those tense moments when the prospect of spending the night at the table with visions of starving children in Africa dancing in my head forced me to shovel food in despite the fact that I was full.

Looking back, I understand where she was coming from—where they all were coming from: our heritage was one of hard physical labor, of crack-of-dawn potato picking and bucksaw tree cutting and livestock tending and hot steaming caloric-laden piles of meat and potatoes were the only way a person could cope. But my generation and subsequent ones are a new garde: less active as our world becomes more automated, inundated with cheap and easy foods that make it too easy to eat poorly, and still clinging to Mom’s loving but terribly misguided example.

My kid wasn’t going to sit and slip peas from their skins in defiance like I did. I thought long and hard about what it was that perpetuated this problem and the answer came surprisingly easy: move less, eat less. Smaller person=smaller portion. This seems easy enough to comprehend, but it seems most challenging with our first child because, in my opinion, we’re most used to what we’re used to: serving ourselves. We project our desires onto their plate; and, in my experience, overloading a child’s plate with food overwhelms them. On more than one occasion I’ve seen a child give up and refuse to eat until someone re-plates the food in smaller portions. It’s always better to create a situation where they ask for more. This way, they learn very early on to listen to their own hunger cues and they get the satisfaction of pleasing you with how well they’ve eaten.

A few examples of serving sizes highlight how, when it comes to children, less is best. The recommended serving size of meat or cheese for a 2 year-old is 1oz. One ounce of meat is a 1”cube, a large bite for many adults. ¼ cup, the recommended serving size for grains or pasta, vegetables, and fruit, seems so much smaller when one considers its unit equivalent, 3 tablespoons. Frankly, if one makes the jump to a 10 year-old, the servings aren’t that much larger. A serving of meat is 2 ounces, about the size of half a deck of cards. Starches, vegetables, and pasta jumps to a mere ½ cup or 6 tablespoons.

Once I stopped overloading the plate, my child’s food consumption went up. As it should be, he was in control of how much he ate, and armed with a clarified understanding of how much he should eat, I felt empowered. The final step in conquering my nutritional worries was to start looking at my child’s diet over a period of days, not hours. Balance can be achieved over time, so a little wobble here or there isn’t going to make or break you. Look at what your child eats over the week and if you see a glaring omission or overuse, adjust it next week. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.