I gotta tell you I'm stressed about veggies

[shrinkdieter]

Do people actually, physically measure out their salad veggies? I have been doing "loosely packed" cups of salad veggies, but it looks so darn SMALL at times.

I had approximately two celery stalks for lunch with my tuna salad, in addition to the pickle with my ham and cheese. The way I figure it, for dinner tonight I could do a 2 and a half cup salad (primarily mushrooms, celery, and mixed greens, not iceberg), and then have my fun with the bacon cheeseburgers I am planning (god I am addicted to those).

But what I'm saying is these salads end up looking so SMALL. And I am so stressed about overdoing the "limited quantity veggies" (like tomatoes, avocadoes, onions...)... anyone have good tips as to how they meter their veggie intake during the day?

Sorry to be posting so many questions but I have already learned a lot from everyone here and it has been really helpful. I will make sure I supplement my questions with lots of re-reading of the book tonight.

:laughing

[not2late]

I measure them out.

It's funny you say the amount is small, because we have some folks who stress out over eating "all that" vegetables. I think it's because some of us are used to seeing those 4-6 cup salads. I was at one high-end restaurant a few months ago. My salad was the size of Mt. Everest! It was easily 8 cups of lettuce--I had to bring the leftovers home because I couldn't finish it.

As long as you are measuring them, you won't go over your daily amounts and you'll have a better idea of your carb counts.

It's really important to measure them too. I stayed on Induction for 4 months. In the middle of month 2, I got too confident and figured I can estimate how what 1 cup of green beans looks like. Well, I was underestimating those veggies by 1/2 cup!

So measure them.

[soliwit]

Well, since I am dutch i have a dutch version of DANDR and since we don't measure in cups, I am used to measuring in grams.
I find that way easier, I can't even imagine that when I move over to the USA (which will happen by the end of the year) I will ever start using cups for measuring, well only for liquids I guess, to me it is very strange to measure something like vegetables in cups, cause well, the way it packs you sometimes have a lot and sometimes just a little.
In that version they talk about 300 grams of salad or 200 grams of salad and 100 other veggies.
I was always planning to ask a question about this but untill now didn't really come up to it, but here is the exact right time and moment to do this.
Cause I really don't understand how you can be consistent in measuring when using cups.
Also one of the reasons why I can't get used to using fitday.com, cause of the weird way of measuring they use in the portions
:confused

[Isabeau]

I measure too. It's helped me a lot once moving to OWL where the accountability is just a bit more. I also worry a little about the carb creep. I'm pretty good at eyeballing lots of stuff now, but I'll still measure just to make sure.

[JESTEROO]

I am one of those people who struggle to eat all of the salad veggies. I love the "other" vegtables we are allowed to eat 1 cup of though.

I often have to choke down the salad veggies - close my eyes, chew and swallow - Thank goodness they are small portions! I wouldn't make it otherwise!

I also believe that most people who are overweight - I am definitely included in this - eat portions that are far to big anyhow. I have been consciously watching what the "skinny" people buy at the grocery store, and what they order to eat in restaurants - as well as how much of the food they actually consume - they are eating "tiny" portions. I know this is one of the areas that made me the overweight person that I am today. I guess the serving size on packages "really" does matter !

[Starmaker]

Yanno its strange, I have lost almost all of my weight NOT measuring my salad greens at all. This of course will vary with some, but I looked at it this way, I got fat from eating processed boxed crap like hamburger helper, rice a roni, mac and cheese etc, I would NEVER buy salad greens and ate them rarely (if at all) before this woe. This morning for breakfast for example, was hungry and opened up a bag of ready made salad, dumped in half to 3/4 of the package into a bowl, topped it up with bacon bits, grilled chicken bites, parm, and dressing and ate til I was satisfied. I had very little salad left in my bowl when I was done. This works for me, I even love salad now, its funny how our tastes change. I even crave it! My staff laugh at me, after a gig we usually all go out for late night/early morning munchies and we always take the crew out after we are done tearing down our own show. The gathering place is subway and I have taken to packing a little cooler bag of jerky, celery sticks, cucumber etc whenever we go there to chow. They think its hilarious, but not one of them can deny I'm now the incredible shrunk DJ lol, and it works!

[2big4mysize]

shrinkdieter this isthe first of the portion control lessons we learn dealing with our foods. see there is a method to Dr Atkins methods. The only way we lose weight on Atkins is we control our calories by controlling our portion sizes to only feed our hunger and not the empty space in our bellies. Geting in the habit of measueing out actual serving sizes of the carb foods controls our natural instint to gorge on the whole container. As we progress on Atkins and get more and more foods we can pick from controling the portoion sizes helps us learn food control while we have appetite control cause when you get to the last 2 stages that deep ketosis appetite suppression is gone and it is you the individual practicing self control by eating only those correct portion sizes to satisfy your hunger and stopping.
In a few days you can move to OWL and add back 5 net grams more of those veggies.
Happy low carbing.

Well, since I am dutch i have a dutch version of DANDR and since we don't measure in cups, I am used to measuring in grams.
I find that way easier, I can't even imagine that when I move over to the USA (which will happen by the end of the year) I will ever start using cups for measuring, well only for liquids I guess, to me it is very strange to measure something like vegetables in cups, cause well, the way it packs you sometimes have a lot and sometimes just a little.
In that version they talk about 300 grams of salad or 200 grams of salad and 100 other veggies.

I hate to break it to you but you have a bad book. Some editor did you wrong. they thought that those liquid ounces that a cup is 8 were the same as the weight ounces and they are not. 1 cup of lettuce does not weight the same as one cup of celery or pumpkin. your book should have the cups translated to a volume measure like ml not grams.
you could be way over eating some veggies and way under eating others.

[290wannabe150onAtkins]

I measure cause Id rather be anal about my veggies then anal about my weight.



Holly :capital
(Ihope that didnt sound too crazy)

[Elizellen]

Well, since I am dutch i have a dutch version of DANDR and since we don't measure in cups, I am used to measuring in grams.

Here is a link to the USDA site where you can search for what a cup of any food item weighs in grams.
You can also download the database from another page on that site.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

[soliwit]

well so that means that everybody in the netherlands is doing it wrong
it is the only translation there is overhere, also I think they tried to standardize it, cause it would else mean they have to put down the weights for each seperate vegetable, people don't measure in cups here
I did lose well enough weight untill now though
so you think I should now change it all, even though I am already 3 months into this woe ?

[Elizellen]

so you think I should now change it all, even though I am already 3 months into this woe ?

I would give it a go! It can't hurt and might improve your weightloss :joy

BTW One US cup is approximately 236 millilitres.

One way to measure if you cant find the gram/cup figures for your veggies would be to use a measuring jug to find how much veggies it takes to fill the jug up to the 236 mls mark, then put the veggies you have just measured out onto your scales and write down how many grams one cupful of that veggie weighs.

It wouldnt take too long to get a list of how many grams to a cup of the veggies you usually use.

One US cup is approximately 236 millilitres.

[soliwit]

Ok, I"ll give it a try I guess.
Still seems weird to me though, I tried it with mushrooms, sliced, I got 50 grams, whole I got 60 grams, that site you mentioned says for slices you get 70 grams in a cup and whole 96.
Seems kinda confusing to me you know that it will never be the same amounts.
Oh, just to note: I never ever exceeded my carbcount when I was measuring it in 100 grams-portions, so in that way I never overeated.

[tickletussler]

2big4mysize wrote:

I hate to break it to you but you have a bad book. Some editor did you wrong. they thought that those liquid ounces that a cup is 8 were the same as the weight ounces and they are not. 1 cup of lettuce does not weight the same as one cup of celery or pumpkin. your book should have the cups translated to a volume measure like ml not grams.

I am not sure I understand. urplequ: If we are supposed to measure using cups, then why does the non-US Atkins site (eg http://atkins-au.com) give gram weights for Induction veggies? It specifies "up to 400 grams" of salad veggies and "You can have a small serving per day of other vegetables if your salad does not exceed 265 grams."urplequ:

I have also noticed that my measuring jug specifies the US "cup" is slightly less than the non-US cup which puzzles me.urplequ:

I am confused as to how the book can be wrong, when Dr Atkins does specify that one cup of certain veggies will not have the same carbs as a cup of other veggies.

I also find "tablespoon" measurements confusing, because the doctor/pharmacist specifies 1 tablespoon as 10ml (approx 1/3oz), you ask a baker and they refer to a tablespoon to be much larger than a standard spoon we use in our households and a tablespoon always has to be a level rather than a heaped tablespoon, and nutritional panels on foods - when these refer to tablespoons, i see variations of either 15ml or 20ml (0.5 to 2/3oz) - I am so confused with cup and spoon measurements - the conversions are so different going from US to non-US standards. urplequ: urplequ: urplequ:

[soliwit]

I know exactly what you mean, there almost seems like no standard size this way, so it seems very unreliable.

Sorry not2late, but it is not that they translated 8 ounces into grams, cause 8 ounces is 236 ml, I really don't understand where they DO get it from, maybe they took like an average :confused
I am measuring in cups now, but it does seem weird, maybe I really have to get used to it. urplequ:

[tickletussler]

*hehe* Soliwit - I don't think I'd ever get used to imperial measurements. It's so easy to think in tens, but 16 ounces to a pound or, a pint? I'm still baffled about exact cup and tablespoon measurements! When using the atkins.com site, go to countries that use metric and if you measure food in grams, then they can't be wrong?