Shine by Star Jones Reynolds Read Free Book Online

ever devised for gorgeous skin. Sometimes I’ll drink diet root beer, sometimes grapefruit juice, but it’s mostly water for this gal. Dessert? I’m the wrong person to ask on that. I don’t really crave sweets. But if you crave, for example, giant chocolate-covered strawberries, have one giant chocolate-covered strawberry. One. That’s portion control. I do admire oatmeal raisin cookies, so I’ll have one or two after a meal a couple of times a month.
    How Do You Know if You’re Full?
    Simple. I had to train myself to say, eat until you are full, Star, not until you are tired. If at the end of a meal you say something like, “That was sooo satisfying,” you’re full—not tired. But if you really feel more like saying, “Whew, Lord, I need to go lie down,” you ate too much. This all translates into eat till you’re no longer hungry, not till you’re as bloated as the Michelin Man.
    Ask Yourself, “Is It Worth All That?”
    Say you need a dish of ice cream—you truly need it. You get up, go to the kitchen, put one scoop of ice cream in a dish, wash the spoon you used, put the ice creamback in the freezer, and walk away from the kitchen. Then you sit down to watch a television show or talk to friends. If you are so craving another scoop of ice cream, it means you have to get up from the television show you’re watching or the friends with whom you’re talking, go back to the kitchen, take the ice cream out of the refrigerator, get another spoon and a dish to put the ice cream in, and make yourself the extra portion.
    Ask yourself, “Is it worth all that?”
    If it’s not worth it, you don’t need that extra scoop, friend. And it’s not.
    What about Eating in a Restaurant with Friends: How Can You Control Portions?
    This year, I had to host the international polo championships in Florida, and I invited my girlfriend Jaci along for the ride. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and this is the way we ordered and ate. You can go out with your significant other, your girlfriend, or another couple and do it the same way. Everyone eats well and no one feels deprived. Jaci and I ordered one appetizer and one entrée for two of us. We knew we’d split everything. The appetizer was angel hair pasta with basil and chopped tomatoes in a light garlic sauce. The entrée was a veal chop. Both the pasta and the chop, as we guessed, were pretty substantial. In the old days, I would have ordered both the pasta and the veal chop (aren’t you supposed to order an appetizer and an entrée? The restaurants hope you do) and scarfed down both by myself. But Jaci and I split the pasta and the chop. The meal was delicious and exactly what we wanted; when we finished, we felt satisfied and full but not tired.
    Sometimes, when I go out with Al or friends, no one wants what I want, so there’s no sharing. This is what I do: I order what I really want, and when it arrives, I cut it in half on my plate and send the rest back with the waiter to pack up right away. I eat slowly and appreciatively—I’ve learned to savor my food more when eating in this new way. I’m newly mindful of the flavor and texture of the food. Usually, half is enough when I’m not unmindfully gobbling down what’s been placed in front of me. If I still feel hungry (and I can tell the difference now between being hungry and wanting to finish everything on my plate justbecause someone put it there), I’ll wait for a few moments just to allow myself time to feel satiated and see if I’m really still hungry. I ask myself, am I hungry enough to open that take-out, have it re-heated, and brought back out to me? You know what? I have never opened the take-out to get another portion. Actually, I’ve gotten to the place where once I have it removed from the plate altogether, I’m not even tempted. Once you get used to eating controlled portions, anything else feels really excessive.
    Number one truth: You have to get over the “children are starving