Basic understanding

Hi Carrolljk54: I’m not a dietitian as Ossie-Sharon is, but through many years of experience and having 5 weeks into the Trim Down Club program, I think I’m safe saying that we should basically stick to our meal plans. The six meals a day are balanced as far as the food groups go: FRUIT (different fruits are high/low of the glycemic table {natural sugar content} e.g. cherries are low at 22, watermelon is higher at 72., VEGETABLES: (when our menu plans say a serving of vegetables they mean 1 cup), FREE VEGETABLES are: asparagus, beet greens, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, lettuce, mushrooms, spinach, summer squash & zucchini., FREE SEASONINGS are: pepper, garlic, chives, ginger, cilantro and parsley., PROTEIN = lean meat and fish, POULTRY = eggs, nuts and legumes, GRAINS = whole grain breads, cereals, brown rice and wheat/spinach noodles and pastas. Those are the five necessary food groups that are imperative to form a balanced food plan.
I’ve mentioned this before, in an earlier post: QUANTITY is as important as eating the proper food groups, daily. It is important that we stick to the suggested amounts on each menu plan. If we go off the quantity by eating way too much less or more, our system becomes unbalanced in time. So why ask and PAY the dietitians to make up special food plans for us with all the food we enjoy, if we don’t plan to stick to their suggestions.
I do substitute items, on a daily basis. Let’s say the menu suggests 4 1/2 oz. of salmon and I don’t have salmon on hand, I’ll substitute for a fish I do have on hand. I love sardines and kipper snacks and always have them on hand in case I have to fill in for a fish item. Same with meat, if it calls for steak and I don’t have steak in the freezer, I’ll substitute hamburg or chicken (but in the amount suggested for the steak). Hope this helps!

Hi, Lucinda, and welcome! Don’t worry about it – just ease into the changes gradually. If you’re still struggling in a few weeks, please do repost.

Kitchenmoma: You welcome. Hope you enjoy the crab meat salad.

I can have waffles for Breakfast, can we put a little syrup on them? Thanks

JohannaJoy: ha ha meal not meat ha ha. It is not easy being ME! Math was never my favorite subject,so, please bear with me; I’ll attempt to break this down and try not to confuse you even more. OK! Say you make the crab salad with 1 lb. crab meat. Menus usually call for 4 or 4 1/2 oz.of tuna, shrimp,pork etc. 16 oz. = 1 pound. So, if the menu called for 4 oz., you would have 4 servings from a salad made with 1 pound of crab. I would not worry about the extra half oz. I like things to come out EVEN! 🙂 I’d rather eat less than more.
Same with veggies: a usual serving of veggies is 1 cup to 2 cups. If you made soup, let’s say with different veggies, eating 1 cup of that soup would roughly give you 1/2 cup veggies with 1/2 cup of the broth – so to get full value of veggies, I’d have 2 cups of vegetable soup to get 1 cup of veggies. Am I making any sense at all?
Breaking everything down to cups and ounces makes it easier for me to get a rough idea of how much of this that or the other thing I’m eating.

Johannajoy: Don’t quite know what you are asking me about the meat? You mean when I said I buy meat and divide it up into single and double portions? I look ahead on my weekly menu plan to see the amounts suggested for each meal. e.g. Let’s say for Monday lunch it says 6oz. boneless, skinless chicken. I’ll measure out 6 oz., package it and pop it into the freezer (if it is for a meal or two nearing the end of the week. I mark what is in each package and the date I put it into the freezer, using the older ones first. I do the same for other meats and fish. Each day, at the end of the day, I’ll look up the next day’s suggestions, I take them out of the freezer so that they will be thawed for lunch and dinner the next day. Does that help, or have I confused you more? 🙂 I confuse myself most of the time. When I cook chicken and pork, I’ve been covering them with BBQ sauce – gives each a better flavor, or I’ll marinade chicken in creamy Italian dressing.

@Dawnwright, I am new too. 2nd day. Phew! You can find that info on the Menu Planner section. I found it by going to the Home Page. Once you pick your foods, then you go to the Menus. I believe it was repopulated to get you started. but you can always go to the top right hand side of each section and edit. I find it a bit clumsy, not the most user-friendly, so it loot me a lot of dedicated time to figure out basic balance of meals. But that’s how you find out what combinations are recommended.

kitchenmoma: this is the recipe we like: (You can use crab meat or tuna, salmon or lobster etc), Ingredients: 1 lb. lump crab meat, 1 tbsp. Creamy Italian Dressing (for marinade), 1 cup Lite Miracle Whip, 1/4 cup red pepper, diced – 1/4 cup celery, diced – 1 small Spring onion, minced – 1/4 tsp. celery seed – 1/8 tsp. garlic powder – a dash Tabasco sauce (more if you like a spicier taste, optional)
Carefully pick through the crab and remove any extra shells.
Try not to break up meat. Marinate in dressing for 1 hour. Mix all other ingredients together, add Miracle Whip,then the crab meat mixture. Again toss carefully not to break up meat.
Refrigerate for at least and hour before serving.