Confused, again
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Message
Tofugirl
New Member
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 8
Locus: Japan
Sat May 17, 2008 2: 24 pm    Post subject: Confused, again
Greetings everyone.
I ' m still on induction, and need your help. I ' m confused again. This time about the amount of vegetable allowed per day. DANDR books states I can have 3 cups of salad vegetable or 2 cup salad and 1 cup of other vegetable. I ' ve logged my intake on to FITDAY com and came up to 6 - 8 carbs for most days ( 2 cups salad & 1 cup other ). I keep seeing on the posts about how one should get 12 - 15 carbs from vegetable per day. My intake is not near 12 - 15. I can get it up to ( maybe ) 12 - 15 if I eat 2 cups of the other vegetable, but that ' s not what book says. I got pretty frustrated with my bowel movement and ended up cheating two days with my vegetable intake. I had 2 extra serving of salad vegetable and gained 2 lb. Bummer. It took me a week to lose those lb.
My questions:
What kind of vegetable you eat that comes up to 12 - 15 carbs that amounts to 3 cups?
How do one measure cup? Are the vegetables chopped? or loosely measured?
What would 1 cup of romaine lettuce amount to gram or oz wise?
Caoimhe
Senior Member
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 226
Location: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Sun May 18, 2008 9: 22 pm    Post subject:
I ' m sure others have more information on the subject, but from what I know lettuce is one of the vegetables that has a very low carbohydrate value. Peppers and tomatoes have a heftier amount.
heyla44
Plain Member
Joined: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 84
Footing: Yorkshire
Sun May 18, 2008 9: 33 pm    Post subject:
Actually the book is a little bit confusing on the vegetable thing.
It says on page 123 you can eat approximately 250g ( 9oz ) of loosely packed salad or 170g of salad plus 80g of other vegetables on the acceptable food list.
It also says on page 125 you can have 230 - 340g per day of salad vegetables ( lettuce, celery, cucumber, rocket, peppers etc ) a day.
And on page 126 it says you can have 140 - 200g per day of other vegetables ( broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, courgetts, tomato, etc ) if salad does not exceed 230g.
So you can have between 250g and 430g of vegetables to get your carbs from. I think I ' m confused now [ / icon_rolleyes. gif]
But I think you just stock up on the vegetables until you hit your carb limit ( and get your bowels moving ). A more informed forum member will probably know more about it than me!
If I were you I ' d measure in grams rather than cups because then you can be more accurate. Also, you really need to direct to the book for the lists of acceptable and other vegetables. That really explains it all.
Sorry if I haven ' t been much help [ / icon_redface. gif]
bluehex
Senior Member
Joined: 03 Dec 2003
Posts: 2663
Spot: Warsaw, Poland
Sun May 18, 2008 10: 31 pm    Post subject:
Actually, I wouldn ' t consume about grams. It really makes no difference whether you eat 230 or 250 grams of lettuce... Its nutritional value, carb count and pretty much anything else count is negligeable. It ' s like eating paper tissue. A cup is a good, easy measure - a cup of lettuce is pretty much a handful. After a while, you will be able to tell how much you are having just at a glance. Comes helpful when you have to eat out - it really IS easier to tell at a glance whether the amount you see would fill a teacup than to tell how much it weighs.
The " carbs in allowed salad " issue keeps coming back over and over and there is no good answer to it. If keeping the pad exact is important to you, you can use higher carb vegetables - tomatos and onions. Onions are really high in carbs, so it doesn ' t take much to get you into higher count. The other option - IMHO, better - is to eat more lettuce and other leafy greens, which are very low in carbs, but high in fiber, and much lower on glycemic index than tomatos or onions.
It is not stated anywhere in the book or anywhere else, but it is my deepest belief that the salad portion was introduced for those people, who believe the only digestible vegetables are potatos and corn, to prevent them from falling into " I only eat meat, eggs and cheese " trap. Since with this diet you really need fiber, Dr Atkins ( I think ) wanted to make sure that those people would eat at least SOME greens. And this belief becomes firmer every time I see a topic title say " I hate vegetables, what is going to happen if I skip them ". There is one at least once every couple of months.
Myself - I shoot for carb count rather than venue. As long as I am close to 20 carbs, I don ' t care if I ate two cups of lettuce or three...
Tofugirl
New Member
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 8
Locality: Japan
Mon May 19, 2008 12: 51 am    Post subject:
Greetings Caoimhe!
I do often use two small maroon tomato a day to enhancement my salad, but I keep it to two and save 3 / 4 cups for other vegetable such as cauliflower and broccoli, and these diversity amounts to 5 - 6 carbs. If I eat one cup of pepper than, it ' s 10 carbs, ( 2cups will take me over my daily carb allowance so, I keep away from pepper ). Plus 1 cup of cooked pepper reduces qty, and leave me craving for more. So, I like to eat my vegetable raw, and use thin slices pepper for salad garnish. Trying to follow the rules to the letter, but, it's so hard to reach carb intake with suggested qty. Yes, I hope here from others too. I hope some will write down typical sample of their daily value / intake to give me more ideas.
Greetings heyla44!
Actually it was your post that piqued my interest. There was a mention that you had 250g of salad. I'm like wow! That's twice of what I eat. I measure my food too. I even invested $15 on US measuring cup so I can have accurate reading. Anyway, cup of lettuce comes up to 45 - 50 gram according to my measurement. So, I average 100 or so grams per day for salad vegetable. I'm also curious which Atkins edition are you reading? I have DANDR, ( written in English ) and I looked up those referenced pages and it doesn't mention about vegetable in grams. [ / icon_cry. gif] Japan uses meteric system so this would help me out alot. Thanks!
Tofugirl
New Member
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 8
Location: Japan
Mon May 19, 2008 1: 36 am    Post subject:
Greetings bluehex!
I missed your post while writing response ( takes me forever to worded right in English ). Thank you for deepest thoughts. Your explanation makes sense to me. I love Atkins, but the bowel movement was killer. I drank lots a water, started to do some exercise. But nothing. I would go 5 - 6 days w / o a visit. I ended up drinking Senna herb tea once a week to get it going, and this is not what I want. I love vegetables and hated to wasting away in fridge and onto garbage dump. I was starting to stress that I trained my body to even lower carb tolerance by eating so little vegetables. I even thought to throw myself out of ketone for a week and start anew. I will aim for carb count, and eat lots of leafy greens. We have plenty of those in Okinawa, and half of the vegetable listed in Atkins acceptable are not available here anyway. If there were, they would be considered delicacy and costs $$$. I love sauteed green papaya ( considered vegetable here before it ripens to fruit ) They have lots a fiber, and 6 carb count for 1 cup. Maybe I can have those for my other vegetables....
P. S. I saw somewhere on post where you mentioned about olive oil. I invested $30. 00 on good 100 % deep green olive oil ( Toscana, Italy, that ' s all I could find ), and they taste great! I now look forward to use it abundantly on my salads and cooking. Also, any thoughts on coconut oil on induction? I never noticed it where I live, but sounds great and wanted to try it for myself.
Can ' t wait to evolve onto another step where I can start having my beloved tofu.
bluehex
Senior Member
Joined: 03 Dec 2003
Posts: 2663
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Mon May 19, 2008 5: 44 am    Post subject:
I think I have good news for you, Tofugirl - if you look at the Acceptable Foods list, in the " Cheese " paragraph, in the last sentence you will see that imitation cheese products are allowed - except for soy or rice cheese, " but check the carb count ". So I think you are OK with your beloved tofu, just not too much.
Bowel movement is extremely important, as constipation may hamper weightloss even worse than wrong eating. You need to get more fiber - find out if there is anything in Japan which is mostly fiber and helps with this issue - senna tea is good as an ad hoc remedy, but it is really not something you should be doing on a regular basis. Better add more fiber to your food. In US, they use something called psyllium husks ( no idea what it is, but quite tasty! ) here, in Poland, I use flaxseed, but I am not sure if either of them would be available in Japan...
Good luck with your efforts!
heyla44
Established Member
Joined: 28 Apr 2008
Posts: 84
Location: Yorkshire
Mon May 19, 2008 8: 14 am    Post subject:
I think you should just eat lots of salad. If it feels like you ' re not eating enough then you should probably add a bit. I used to have minimal salad and then I decided to up the amount I was having and I felt so much better for it. And I have regular bowel movement.
I ' ve never really understood the concept of measuring in cups. It seems a bit vague to me. I just go by grams and then I know I ' m having enough of some things but not too much of others.
I ' ve got DANDR printed in 2003 by Vermilion books.
Good luck!
Tofugirl
New Member
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 8
Location: Japan
Tue May 20, 2008 9: 07 am    Post subject:
I tired to post response but keeps getting error msg about spam [ / icon_cry. gif]
Tofugirl
New Member
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 8
Location: Japan
Tue May 20, 2008 9: 21 am    Post subject:
Well, that worked... l ' m going to try again.
Had a best salad in 7 week, and a movement too. I feeeeeeeel good [ / icon_cool. gif]
Thanks bluehex. I can forgo sweets anyday, but not my tofu. I think about it everyday. I ' ll be visiting States in July, I ' m looking foward to get my hands on flaxseed and psyllium husks.
Thanks heyla. Interesting. Thought all DANDR were same, but maybe not?? Mine says M. Evans and Company, printed in USA. Never noticed anything besides measuring cup on my copy, I ' ll have to go over the book again. ( For your info, page 123 talks about Addiction and Withdrawl ) [ / icon_rolleyes. gif]