measuring portions

when going out to meals, how do you measure portions? I'm trying to log what I eat, but when I eat out I have a hard time keeping track of what's included in things and how large a portion I'm eating. Any tips? Thanks!

It may be a bit dorky, but I head off to the rest room and use the voice recording feature on my cell phone to record what I eat and approximately how much it is.

As for portion sizes, I've gotten decent over the past few months at guestimating the sizes.  If anything, I overestimate just to be safe.

If the restaurant you go to has a website, they may have the nutrition information there.  If they don't, you may be able to find a very similar meal at another restaurant's website that does list the nutrition information. For example, if you couldn't find the information on a 1/4lb cheeseburger for a local joint, you may be able to use McDonald's 1/4 cheeseburger as a way of guessing how many calories.

1 Pasta Serving = 1/3 to 1/2 cup
a serving of pasta is one-half of a cup.
The visual: A tennis ball sliced in half.

1 Meat, Poultry, or Fish Serving = 2 to 3 ounces
The visual: A deck of cards, or a checkbook.

1 Milk or Yogurt Serving
The visual: A yogurt container, or the size of your fist.

1 Serving of Fruit
With whole fruit, a serving is a medium-sized apple, banana, orange, or pear — keep in mind most of what we see in grocery stores are large to extra-large varieties.
The visual: A tennis ball sliced in half.

1 Serving of Grains
If the grains are cooked, like oatmeal, serving size is one-half cup. If it’s cold cereal, a serving is three-fourths to one cup.
The visual: For oatmeal, an ice cream scoop; for cold cereal, a teacup to a fist.

Well it may not be the best thing, but it works for me. I usually eat palm size portions of each thing.

I hold my hand over it and eat the portion that fits in the palm. If it's deep like lasagna I usually half it

Presumably you portion-control when you cook for yourself?  Over time, you should get get a good visual idea of what that looks like sat on a plate.  When you go out, try to match it.  If it's the kind of restaurant that serves side dishes separately you can put your 'usual' amount on your plate and leave the rest.  If it's the kind of down-market place that piles it all up in a heap... ask for a second plate and transfer the parts you don't want to eat onto it.  Or ask for a half-size or child-size portion... many places will do that.