A quick way to make sure you're eating a variety of healthful foods at each meal is to "Rate Your Plate." When you sit down for a meal, draw a couple of imaginary lines to divide your plate. About one-fourth of your plate should be filled with carbs. Another fourth should be protein - foods like meat, fish, eggs, cheese, or tofu. That leaves half your plate you can fill with vegetables and salad. Then you can add a small roll or slice of bread and you're ready to eat! Of course, you need to be sure to count the carbohydrates or exchanges in your meal so you can be sure your insulin and exercise are on target. But "rating your plate" will give you a good, balanced meal with plenty of those nutrients, vitamins, and minerals!

Portion Sizes

One of the keys to meal planning with diabetes is portion sizes. It's easy to say there are about 48 carbs in a serving of macaroni & cheese. But how big is that serving? The box says it feeds four people. But lots of people eat the whole box all by themselves. So how do you know? For starters, you flip the box over and take a look at the Nutrition Facts on the back. It'll tell you right there how many servings are in a box, how many carbs are in a serving, and how big a serving is.

So, you've got your macaroni & cheese, and now you know that a serving is a cup. Do you now have to get out a measuring cup every time you eat? Well, no, but it's helpful to start. For the first few months, you probably will want to use a measuring cup (or spoon, or a scale) to measure portions whenever you can. Then after a while you'll get used to seeing one portion in your bowl. You'll know that one portion of cereal goes halfway up the inside of your bowl. Or covers Daffy Duck's head. Or is about the size of your fist. You get the idea. Then after a while, you'll be able to eye those portions just about anywhere.

Here are a few "eyeball" portion measures to get you started:

A serving of… Measures… And is about as big as….
Cheese - 1 ounce -  Four dice.
Rice -  ½ cup - Half a baseball.
Bagel - 4 ounces - A hockey puck.
Meat - 3 ounces - A deck of cards.
Peanut butter - 2 Tablespoons - A ping-pong ball.
Pasta - 1 cup - A tennis ball.