Determining Your Food Portion

From the previous two entries on Food Calorie Here and Here, the next most important thing is to recognise what is meant as a serving of the food to prevent overeating and over-justification of what we put into our mouth. Serving size is relative and subjective. If you have been eating a large bowl or plate of rice and justify it as a serving, anything less than that would be half or less than a serving - but you could be already eating the equivalent of 2 servings with your half serving.
Here is an easy guide to help compare against every day's object.

Vegetables
A cup of vegetables is the size of a tennis ball
A cob of corn are usually compared against a typical length of a pencil (8 inches).
A serving of potato is the size of a computer mouse.
A serving of mash potato is the size of a light bulb
A cup of french fries is about a tennis ball (or roughly 10 sticks...)
Dairy Products
A serving of cheddar cheese should not be bigger than the typical 3x3 inches piece
A serving of Yogurts is the size of a tennis ball
Half cup of ice-cream or frozen yogurts is size of a light bulb
A cup of milk is 250ml or a typical mug
Grains
A cup of cereal is a tennis ball size
Half serving of rice is a light bulb size (now, how many light bulb you have on your plate today?)
A serving of pasta (including noodles, meehoon, pan mee, Italian pastas etc etc) is tennis ball size
A serving of pancake is one CD size
Meat and Protein
3oz of meat (beef, chicken, lamb, all lean cut) is size of a deck of card.
3oz of fish is a cheque book
1/4cup of nuts is about the size of a golf ball
A serving of tofu is about the size of a cassette tape (if you still remember how it looked like)
One serving of burger is a deck of card
One slice of pizza is a cheque book
Fruits
One apple/orange is a tennis ball size
Half cup of grapes, berries is a light bulb
One banana, pineapple, papaya and melon is a length of a 8 inch pencil
Fats & Oil
1 tablespoon of any oil and fat is equivalent to a Malaysian old 50sen coin (not the new one yah)
Treats
One slice of cake is a deck of card (yeap, you been taking two servings)
One brownie is the size of a dental floss box (those 50m type, not the 100m big box type ;-))
One serving of chocolate is also a dental floss box

So, there you have it. Look at your food portion today and be honest to yourself if you had overeaten. Bear in mind that the caloric values of the food posted in the previous two posting are based mostly on the serving sizes above.
Now do you see why you are putting on weight easily?
Next: How to still enjoy your food and not put on weight.