Hi everyone. It's been a while since I've been around. Fell off the wagon and got out of the habit of checking in to this website daily. So now I'm stuck in a rut physically and emotionally and feeling desparate to get back on board.

Here's my question. When I did Weight Watchers, about 20 years ago before the whole Points thing started, they had these food journals that you had to fill out daily. They listed food categories and how many servings you were to have each day.

For example:
Breads/Carbs - 4 servings
Fruit - 2 servings
Vegetables - 3 servings
Fats - 2 servings
Protein - 3 servings
Water - 8 servings

It really helped me to track what I was doing each day. I would like to apply this same method to the SBD, but I'm a bit confused by the food lists and how much of each thing I'm suppose to be consuming each day.
Can anyone help me to break this down so that I feel like I'm following the SBD correctly?
Thanks in advance.

I am a huge WW failure so their methods never, ever worked for me.

But the SBD Meal Plan Guide was just the right tool for me to finally learn to eat a new way:



This one is for phase I....
it tells you what you need to include at each meal and snack.
Protein, veggie, fat.....its all right there.
If you don't understand it, ask me more questions and I'll try to help you.

So...trying to pull from this Meal Plan Guide, here is what I come up with:

Per day:
Milk/Dairy - 2 servings (1 cup each)
Vegetables - 4 to 6 servings
Fruit - 0 on Phase I
Lean Protein - 6 or more ounces a day
Beans - 2 servings (1/3 - 1/2 cup each)
Nuts/Seeds - *Not sure what min./max. should be
Sweet Treats - 75 calories a day

And does an egg count as a dairy or a protein?

Per day:
Milk/Dairy - 2 servings (1 cup each)
Vegetables - 4 to 6 servings
Fruit - 0 on Phase I
Lean Protein - 6 or more ounces a day
Beans - 2 servings (1/3 - 1/2 cup each)
Nuts/Seeds - *Not sure what min./max. should be
Sweet Treats - 75 calories a day

Good and I'll now give you more info.
Milk/dairy- up to 2 cups daily (this can include yogurt too)
I count all cheese in the dairy category and keep my hard cheese to 1-2 ozs a day. I eat 1/2 cup yogurt as my breakfast and sometimes have 1/2 cup of cottage cheese as my late afternoon snack with soem tomato and onion.
SBD doee allow for cheese to be an unlimited protein but I do not agree and have been using the 2 cup dairy daily as my total. You get to chose how you use the allowance...it can be milk if you want.

Veggies
Yup! 4-6 servings a day and here is where I will allow myself to overeat if I'm very hungry. Very BIG SALADS!!!

Fruitnone in phase I but do you really need to be phase I now? how about you allow yourself 1 fruit a day after 3 days of phase I?

Protein 3-4 ozs per meal or more if you are still hungry....so that'll get you up to 12 ozs a day at least... and eggs are considered a protein...*see the food lists*

beans/legumes
Yes, 2 servings daily 1/3-1/2 cup is a serving
this can be actual beans...or things like hummus made from chick peas....or split pea soup.

nuts'/seeds
We are allowed 1 serving in this category daily---you get to decide which one or split the serving between 2 ....2 tbs peanut butter is a serving or 30 pistachios in the shells is a serving *see the food lists for quantities per item** I used to save my nut allowance each day for my late night snack...30 pistachios in the shells took a long time to eat and made me a happy camper!

sweet treat has been upped to 100 cals a day....I still like to no suagr added fudgsicles as you can have 2 of them and meet the cals.....2 x 40 cals= 80 cals.

You can view the food I ate in my first journal here as I logged it daily for 20 months...link is on the 1st pagew of my current journal. My food wasn't perfect but it is logged.
Hope this helps!

Thanks Judy! You are always so helpful.
BTW - I did WW twice. The first time I lost 14 lbs, the second time I lost 10 lbs. While that is nice, I never got past that and I have A LOT of weight to lose.

Here's my final break down:

Per day:
Milk/Dairy/Cheese - 2 servings (1 cup each)
Vegetables - 4 to 6 servings
Fruit - 0 on Phase I, 1 serving on Phase II
Lean Protein/Eggs - 6 or more ounces a day
Beans - 2 servings (1/3 - 1/2 cup each)
Nuts/Seeds - I serving a day
Sweet Treats - 100 calories a day

I think I will print this up and put it on my fridge.

Good...just a couple of notes:
1-You and I have both left out good fats...which are important so don't leave them out. **olives, avacodos, evoo and others are all on the fats list.**
2-6 ozs of protein daily is not enough for you so please be sure to get more, up to 12 ozs each day.

One thing that I did and still do is not eat all parts of each meal at one time and have parts of meals as snacks...this is a lot of food if eaten all together. For example: hummus and or split pea soup as snacks.....make a big pot of veggie soup to have as snacks also. I use a hand blender to puree all my soups now.

From the looks of the food lists the servings of fats seem to work out to 7 servings (based on a 1 tsp serving).

You can correct me if I am wrong.

Great thread, btw.

If you counted 7, then that is probably correct.
I have never counted and maybe I should.

I just make sure to add a handful of my favorite olives and a piece of avocado to my salads each day in addition to the evoo in my dressing.
I also try to eat fatty wild salmon a few times a week but that gets kinda pricey for me.

The things that I do count are my starches....that is where I have to keep very close control so I count. 2-3 good starches daily...if that.
Last night I had roasted sweet potato fries with my dinner of pan seared salmon filet and roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Here's an updated break down:

PER DAY:
Milk/Dairy/Cheese - 2 servings (1 cup each)
Vegetables - 4 to 6 servings
Fruit - 0 on Phase I, 1 serving on Phase II
Lean Protein/Eggs - up to 12 ounces a day
Good Fats - 7 servings (1 tsp per serving)
Beans - 2 servings (1/3 - 1/2 cup each)
Nuts/Seeds - 1 serving a day
Sweet Treats - 100 calories a day

Good Renee!!
I'd just like to add that when we start our phase II, we begin with 1 serving of fruit per day first week in addition to all the other phase I food.

We then build on that each week as we continue to lose trying new fruits and starches eventually working upwards to about 2-3 fruits a day and 2-3 good starches per day. If you are not doing a lot of moving, you will not be able to lose on 2-3 fruits + 2-3 starches per day and that is in my experience.

This is key to building a food plan that you can live with after you reach your goal weight. When we don't do this and stay too phase I, our bodies do not adapt to burning these good carbs. I also found that upping my carbs did help my body to lose at a good rate when I was near my goal. In my experience, good carbs did help my metabolism to burn better.

Hello,
I have been on a diet for the past fifteen years so i know the ins and outs of most programs

The most success I have ever had on South Beach, was actually following WW's general health guidelines (little boxes you check off each day). Even with the points system, they encourage you to check off the boxes and let me tell you, its super easy when following SB.

Veggies - 5

Dairy-2 (3 for men, teenagers and nursing mothers)

Lean protein- atleast 2, 3-4oz servings

Good Fats- 2 tsp

Water - 6 (I always try to get atleast 8)

Hopefully this was helpful and not confusing.

Regarding the vegetable servings.....is it a half cup serving or a one cup serving?

One cup is a serving....1/2 cup if you use tomato juice or V8 for breakfast.
But one thing that you need to is simply that all phase I veggies can be eaten freely....we can't ever not eat them and 5 cups daily is a minimum, not maximum.



We get way more fats that 2 tsp and as I just wrote, 5 cups of veggies daily is a minimum not maximum.
The meal plan guide will tell you all. **see above**

The General Health Guidelines on WW are all minimums as well. I should have made that clear.