Food portion guide and breaking the dependence on junk food
**Food Portion Guidelines**
Even during lifelong weight maintenance, judging the amount of food to eat remains important, especially for high-sugar foods.
>
What does 1/2 cup mean? What does a 7.5 cm slice look like? This chart will help you immediately understand the quantity of food when you see it.
**Bread, cereals, and pasta**
1 slice of bread weighing 28 grams
1 serving of 57 grams of Italian bread
1 serving of 85 grams of hard bread
1/2 cup rice, oatmeal, or pasta; 1 serving of 57g muffins
**Fruits and Vegetables**
One medium-sized fruit or 3/4 cup
1 cup of diced fruit and green salad
1/2 cup cooked vegetables
**Egg whites and cheese**
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
85 grams of beef, chicken, or pork; 28 grams of cheese
28 grams of nuts
**Snacks and sweets**
28g potato chips
1 7.5 cm cake and 1 cup of ice cream
**Measuring tools**
1 table spoon, 1 teaspoon, 1 cup
1/4 cup
**Imagine as**
A catalog card and a bar of soap
A can of tuna and half a softball
Packaged cupcakes
**Imagine as**
A ping-pong ball
A fist
A spoonful of ice cream
**Imagine as**
Two tea bags
A small package of tissues or a pack of cigarettes containing a pair of small squares
A ping-pong ball or a child's hand
**Imagine as**
A medium-sized hand, a small stack of commercial cards, and a softball.
**Imagine as**
A bag of tea
A thimble
A fist or a softball or a big egg
To challenge conventional wisdom, carefully observe the quantity of each dish you serve.
>
Just as you used to getting your body used to serving large portions of food, you can also reduce the amount you eat at each meal, especially for those dishes that suit your taste and contain plenty of protein and healthy fats.
>
Conversely, if you find that your weight has increased again after reaching your target weight, the problem may be that the amount of food you eat at each meal is slowly increasing.
>
Listen to your body. Your body's signals are often far more effective than the hunger-driven brain.
>
After eating a moderate amount, you will feel comfortable without feeling bloated or unwilling to move.
A great way to develop a concept of food portion sizes is to spend some time in the “laboratory” of your kitchen.
>
Use a measuring cup or a kitchen scale (or even a post office scale) to measure standard serving sizes of some of the foods you eat most often.
>
Place each measured portion of food on an empty plate, observe them, and remember their size.
>
For example, once we know how much a cup of cooked cauliflower looks like, we can estimate your sugar intake more accurately than ever before when you eat this food.
>
Use the same method to determine the serving size of protein-rich foods such as meat, poultry, and fish to avoid consuming excessive amounts of food.
Break free from dependence on junk food.
Another important step in breaking with traditional eating habits is to eliminate junk food.
>
> This means no longer eating the small cookies, bagels, soda, and candy sticks that you used to eat.
>
These foods are not only incredibly high in sugar, but also generally full of dangerous artificial fats and chemical additives, while their nutritional content is alarmingly low.
>
The problem now is that you are surrounded by these unhealthy things.
>
Imagine yourself in a supermarket, surrounded by a plethora of sugary and refined flour-laden foods beckoning you near the checkout counter.
>
There is no doubt that these foods are tempting.
>
None of the customers showed any desire for asparagus and cabbage, but they displayed a crazy and intense craving for sugar sticks and pretzels.
Breaking the habit of eating junk food is difficult, but it is still possible.
>
If you lose weight using Atkins' method, you can then eliminate all the junk food in your home using our method.
>
If you are new to the Atkins method, the simplest thing to do is to avoid sugar and refined flour products.
>
The method couldn't be simpler: if these kinds of foods aren't around, you can't eat them.
>
You are now in the phase of implementing the Atkins Life Plan, and there is no longer any reason to eat junk food compared to the past.
>
In Atkins’ lifelong weight maintenance phase, the concept is now different from the past. It should be that you must accept the principle of giving up junk food forever, rather than being able to do whatever you want after reaching your target weight.
>
Because just as night and day are inextricably linked, if you resume the habit of eating junk food, you will become dependent on it again, and your weight problems will return.
>
At this point, even all the unhealthy ingredients in junk food and the fact that you've started eating those artificial fats again become unimportant. The most important thing is that your health will be put at risk again because of eating junk food.
>
If children complain, use this opportunity to instill in them the idea of developing good eating habits, replacing junk food with healthy snacks such as nuts, thick slices of cheese, and a piece of fresh fruit.
>
Junk food has just as much of an impact on children as it does on parents.
>
Some effective compromises between parents and children involve allowing them to eat junk food only when they go out.
**Discovering Potential Sugars**
Simple sugars lurk in many foods. They are masked by manufacturers using many misleading names.
>
When deciding whether a food's sugar content is restricted, you can find its potential sugars on the food's label.
>
Regardless of what sugar in food is called, sugar is sugar, and 1 teaspoon of sugar weighs approximately 4 grams.
>
Even if a food has a low sugar content or contains other types of sugar, you should still carefully check the sugar content on the food label.
>
The amount of sugar is determined by the size of each serving. The amount per serving is usually much less than you might think.
>
You should stop consuming far more sugar than you intend to.
>
Here are some alternative names for sweet sugars:
◎ Brown sugar ◎ High fructose cereal syrup
◎Grain sweeteners ◎Honey
◎Grain syrup◎Inverted sugar
◎Cereal syrup solids◎Lactose
◎Dextrose◎Maltose
◎Fructose◎Malt
◎Concentrated fruit juice◎Malt syrup
◎Glucose◎Moscone
◎Natural sugar◎Sucrose (table sugar)
Some people can eat cake, regular spaghetti, and a small amount of fries, but that's about it.
>
If you lack self-control, it's best to stay away from foods that have harmed your health in the past.
>
Does this mean you can never have a piece of birthday cake or a few crackers at a party? Of course not, but you have to understand how far you've strayed from the proper measure.
>
Some people have the metabolic and psychological capacity to stop enjoying a small piece of cake and two crackers.
>
However, some people know that even if they only eat a little of these foods, they will let their guard down.
>
Most people fall somewhere in between.
>
Fortunately, the ever-increasing restriction on sugary foods doesn't mean that accepting Atkins therapy is a lifelong punishment, forever depriving you of sweets like chocolate or delicious, crispy potato chips.
**Best Drink**
In the race to stay healthy and manage your weight, some drinks may be your friends, while others are your rivals.
>
Next time you feel hungry between meals, think about when you last had a drink.
>
If the time exceeds 2 hours, this feeling of hunger may actually be thirst.
>
At this time, you don't need to eat anything, but drink some filtered or bottled water.
>
Sugar-free drinks are always the best choice.
>
If you like the squeaking sound, you can try drinking Cerdoz mineral water, lime juice, unsweetened original Club soda, or sweetened meal soda.
>
> Or you can make your own unsweetened syrup-flavored soda.
>
Try not to drink too much soda.
>
The bubbles in your drinks can quickly make you feel inflated, and these bubbles can prevent you from maintaining your daily intake of 8 cups (227 grams per cup, totaling 1816 grams) of high-quality fluids.
**Sugar-free sweeteners**
To replace sugar or other syrup-like sweeteners with Splenda brand saccharin, you can use a sugar-free sweetener.
>
Sugar-free sweeteners are very sweet, and a small amount can last a long time.
>
We prefer sucralose, but you can also choose sugar-free artificial sweeteners and other saccharins.
>
The type of sweetener you prefer is a matter of personal taste.
>
Although the herb stevia can be sold as a supplement in health food stores, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not recommend it as a sweetener.
Unsweetened iced tea and lemonade are also good choices.
>
Avoid adding sugar, cereal syrup, or other sugary sweeteners to beverages; replace them with sugar-free sweeteners.
>
Fruit juices such as orange juice, grape juice, and apple juice are high in natural sugars, but other sugars are also added. These juices do not contain fiber, which slows down the absorption of sugar in our bodies, so they should only be consumed occasionally in small amounts.
>
Alternatively, try adding pure water or soda water to 60 grams of fresh fruit juice.
If you prefer hot drinks, you can have decaffeinated coffee or tea, or herbal tea. If you want a change, you can have chicken or beef broth.
>
Dilute your tea or coffee with cream, then add a sugar substitute to your liking.
>
Hot drinks are ideal beverages because they can reduce your appetite.
>
If you tend to overeat, you can drink some clear broth or meat juice or have a cup of tea half an hour before eating-these will soon make you feel full.
>
If you crave a sweet treat after a meal, try a cup of caffeine-free tea or herbal tea instead.
For some, high concentrations of caffeine in everyday beverages can have health consequences. Excessive caffeine intake may cause a drop in blood sugar, leading to intense cravings for sweets.
>
Caffeine is not only found in coffee and tea, but also in cola and even some herbal teas.
>
Many people enjoy the taste of green tea (or black tea) which has no side effects and its properties that have a positive effect on health.
>
If you find that caffeinated beverages make you feel sluggish, shaky, or nervous, and make you crave a bagel to eat, try switching to caffeine-free drinks.