Rosemary Conley Portion Pots > Reviews (1)

For The Blissful Relief Of Less On Your Plate!

62 of 62 Ciao Users found the following review helpful

Rating from

Violet1278 5 Stars

(14/02/2012)

Advantages Controls portion sizes

Disadvantages None at all

Rosemary Conley Portion Pots

From my teens right through to my late thirties I had always weighed the same - just over 9 stone, and despite giving birth to 2 sons and 2 daughters I returned to my normal weight post pregnancy each time. Then something happened in my late thirties that changed this - I gained just under a stone in four years. At first I thought it was because I had developed ME and was less active than before, but many of my friends who were of a similar age to myself then began to experience the same thing.

At first I wasn't too bothered as I was still within the normal BMI for my height. However I soon began to wonder if a stone would become two, and I was concerned as my ability to exercise was limited by the ME, and I didn't want to put extra strain on my heart which is badly affected by the disease. Added to this my ancestors were all very large, and so genetically I am programmed to blossom!

I tried Slimming World once but I feel very strongly that life is too short to diet, so although I did lose the weight it was causing me to become obsessed with food which I had never been before. I was dreaming all day of my sins, and was delighted when I could use them up on a chocolate cream bar or a creme egg, which I never really ate on a daily basis before! I did lose the weight but it crept back on! I also tried Diet Chef which is excellent, and, although I don't use it now, it did teach me portion control and is ideal if you want to learn this as the meals are delivered. It takes away choice but long term is far too restrictive.

So I began to think of another strategy that would enable me to gradually reduce this weight and more importantly keep it off.

I came to two conclusions thanks to an excellent website at www.foodfocus.co.uk. This innovative and free website allows you to lose weight safely and in a controlled manor by charting your calories on a daily basis, balancing protein and fat with carbohydrates. It also enables you to chart your exercise, and this then is factored into your calorie allowance for the day. A few days of charting my intake showed me that my portion sizes were slightly too large, and that I had been eating about 50 calories a day more than I actually needed to stay the same weight. Of course if you do this for a year the result is that you eat 18250 calories more than you need, and this represents four and a half pounds in weight gain. As I put this weight on between the ages of 36 and 40 I soon realised that this was the cause. Also as my youngest child started school in the year I was 37, I actually did less exercise that year onwards as I wasn't walking to playschool at all any more as well as to school. This meant I was doing less exercise on a daily basis. It wasn't rocket science, but I was amazed how such a small change could make so much difference especially as 50 calories is nothing - only half a slice of bread!

Here Come The Portion Pots!

So what I did was to look at portion sizes rather than to diets to just tweak what I ate, and to do this I purchased a set of Rosemary Conley Portion Pots from her website.

I don't follow her diet at all, I just discovered these one day when looking for resources to support my quest to get this weight off, and have been using them every day since.

They are basically a set of four pots in different colours which you use to measure certain foods which traditionally gobble up the most calories in your daily allowance. So, for example, they measure pasta, rice, wine, cereals and oats amongst other things, and with the set of pots you are given a card which tells you how many calories are in each measure. They are especially useful for items like grated cheese which I really enjoy in sandwiches and which reduces the calorie intake considerably over using block cheese.

The Rosemary Conley portion pots come in four colours, and are blue 80ml, yellow 125ml, red 250ml, and green 330ml. They are bright and cheerful in their primary colours, and impart a simple look which I like as this really is a simple way to just take out a few calories each day.

You can watch an informative video about these pots on Rosemary Conley website at
www.rosemaryconley.tv/Shop/Kitchen-Essentials/Por tion-Pots.aspx

In this video Rosemary shows two different portion sizes in two separate but identical meal choices, illustrating the vast difference in calories. This really opened my eyes to thinking about how I ended up gaining weight, even though what I was eating was essentially healthy.

I can't tell you how fantastic these are. I use them several times a day and have done for many years and it takes all the guess work out of portion control. If I am having cereal for breakfast I will use them. This is one area where I have saved a lot of calories as my original bowl was slightly more generous than the one I have now! This is really important as I like granola based cereals but these can be quite calorific.

For dinner I will use them to measure pasta and the great thing is that you can use them to measure the dried pasta either as dried weight or as cooked. This is brilliant if you have a family and just want to pour in the dried pasta from the bag into the pan, and you can worry about your portion size at serving time instead of at the start. The larger green pot has a hole in the handle which allows you to measure dried spaghetti which is really helpful as it can be calorific.

I have found over the years that I know what each colour represents in terms of calories pertaining to each food, and so it is second nature to me to use the pots and rarely do I have to refer to the card that is provided.

There is no doubt in my mind that these are a valuable tool and they have allowed me to regain my normal weight without having to go on diets. My Slimming World experience turned me from a normal food consumer to one bordering on obsession, and my first and last dieting efforts with them left me in somewhat of a chocoholic state! Now I just tweak my portions of everyday food and the pounds stay off and my fear of turning into my ancestors has diminished.

Yes it does demand a little bit of discipline, and I do have lapses, but on a day to day basis I have learnt to exercise moderation in dangerous areas. I was very surprised to learn how many calories were in my normal pasta serving, and having tweaked it I am still satisfied with what I have and have got used to slightly less on my plate.

I have actually also learnt to recognise what is a serving size without using the pots, and so when I go away or eat out I can easily now identify what is acceptable and what will lead me to pile on weight.

I think if you have weight to lose then this method is absolutely ideal and very inexpensive. The pots are only £5.49 plus £3 postage and packing and you can get cash back too if you click through from Topcashback or Quidco.

They are easy to clean and simply rinse under the tap after use, and as they are joined together by a ring you can simply hang them in the kitchen.

Final Thoughts

I am not a dieter. I hate anything that wastes life by making rules, but I knew I didn't want to gain weight as having ME you simply can't exercise as much as you might like to. I also like to wear fashionable clothes and didn't want to lose the ability to go into my favourite shops and purchase things easily, so I knew that something had to be done. I was also horrified to realise that eating 50 calories a day extra and doing a little less walking had given me a stone of a spare tyre in four years! By using these pots to measure my portions and gradually watching the fat reduce I was able to say goodbye to that extra weight without following any regime or diet as I am simply no good with will-power! You do need patience, it doesn't come off in weeks- it took me two years this way, but I have changed what I do for the long haul now and even better no food is banned. On Slimming World I was dreaming all day of my chocolate treat and stuffing myself with mountainous portions of pasta and rice on "Green Days" I couldn't have green days for the rest of my life, or count points - this way you just eat a tad less each day. It works and it's cheap! At 51 I have now kept this weight off for almost a decade using this method.

I would advise anyone considering using these pots to take a look at Foodfocus first and then you can understand your calorie allowance based on your height age and sex. Then you can tweak what you eat to keep within these limits. Then exercise patience and be prepared to wait for results as this is no quick fix - it's just a healthy way of looking at weight management.

Summary: Great if you want to lose weight.

This review is also posted on Dooyoo under my user name Machair1

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Violet1278 since 10 Nov 2008

I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks this weekend so will catch up when I return.x more

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by Violet1278

Member since	10/11/2008
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rosebud2001 06/03/2012 15:41

Rated this review as

Very Helpful

A very good idea!
dawnymarie 03/03/2012 10:27

Rated this review as

Exceptional

Mum would like these x
MrsW2011 29/02/2012 21:54

Rated this review as

Very Helpful
Walowiz 28/02/2012 14:33

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Ri0TT 27/02/2012 01:16

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