Okay!  So, previously, we looked at two super easy, yet surprisingly effective weight loss hacks: drinking 16oz of water a half-hour before meals, and downsizing your plates.  Either of which, extrapolating from published research, could help you drop 10 pounds over the course of the year.

Fair enough.  Still, while both are effective, they’re also pretty finite in scope.  So, today, I’m sharing a hack with much broader implications, something you can use at pretty much every meal for the rest of your life.

When people get serious about nutrition, they’ll often set out counting calories – both to clock an overall number, and to perfectly balance the macronutrients (the protein, fats, and carbs) in their meals.  And, indeed, that’s an effective approach.  For the very short term.  However, in practice, it turns out to be wildly unsustainable; pretty much everybody quits doing it entirely, reverting to their old ways whether after two days, two weeks, or (if they’re particularly gung-ho) two months.

Fortunately, however, you can get 90%+ of the results, much more sustainably, by using a simpler approach instead: measuring things with your hand.  With a handful (pun intended) of rules, you can figure out the size and composition of optimally healthful meals.  Which has a few big advantages.  First, you take your hands with you most places you go.  And, second, they come already scaled relative to your overall size, which makes them perfectly customized to your specific nutritional needs.

Here’s how it works:

– Your palm (the size and thickness) is a serving of protein.

– Your first (balled up) is a serving of non-starchy vegetables.

– Your cupped hand (or, rather, what you can hold in it) is a serving of starchy carbs.

– Your thumb (length, width) is a serving of healthy fats.

Women need one of each of those to make a meal – one palm of protein, one fist of veggies, one cupful of starches, and a thumb of fat.  Men need two of each.

So, Abigail might eat a palm-sized piece of salmon, a fist-sized serving of broccoli, a cupped hand’s worth of rice, with a thumb of olive oil drizzled on the broccoli and salmon.

Or Bob might have a piece of steak the size of two palms, two fists of sauteed spinach, and two cupped hands of mashed potatoes, mixed with a thumb’s worth of butter.

And maybe they have brunch together, with one or two servings respectively of scrambled eggs (palm), a green salad (fist), a sweet potato hash (cupped hand) and some avocado (thumb).

The possibilities are endless.  And the process is as easy – and handy – as it gets.