I've been busy reading Life Plan for the past few weeks, trying to absorb it all. I love Dr. Mike and the way he explains things so clearly!

I'd like to start Protein Power, but because of family issues right now, I'm not emotionally equipped to start weighing and measuring everything. I would be on the 27g per meal intervention level. I know it's 4 eggs, but I was just wondering if there was an "eyeball" method---like eating a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards or the palm of my hand (which I think is a little bigger than the deck).

Does anyone have any tips? I hope I would be motivated to start weighing my food at the end of the summer, if necessary.

Hi Sara,

Here are some tips I found online. I'd looked this up to help when I'm at parties or traveling. BTW, I also found a good tip for 1 oz. cheese is about the size of an ice cube (from a tray):

1 oz. meat: size of a matchbox
3 oz. meat: size of a deck of cards or bar of soap
8 oz. meat: size of a thin paperback book
3 oz. fish: size of a checkbook
1 oz. cheese: size of 4 dice
2 Tbs. peanut butter: size of a ping pong ball


While those are helpful, I also use packaging to assist me. Either buying at the counter pre-measured (and then portioning it out based on that) or looking at the pre-packaged measurements. For example, if I get a pound of ground meat, then I know quartering it will yield me 4 oz. burgers pre-cooked (probably close to 3 oz cooked). With steak I tend to go the deck of cards route or based it on the package weight. (I also weight my foods to learn but since it's not an option for you, I'm trying to give you other ideas.) With cheese I pick up either 8 oz. packages or 10 oz. and I half, quarter and so forth until I have 8 equal portions. Then I know the 8 oz now is portioned into 1 oz. pieces and/or the 10 oz. into 1 1/4 oz. pieces.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much, Lisa! That's very helpful. One thing I'll have to do is make myself eat protein at every meal! Lately I don't think I've been getting enough protein, which is unusual for me. And doing things Atkins-style, I didn't always try to have it at each meal.

I agree with Lisa, I do that a lot!

But, I have something to suggest also.

Anyway, in 'Staying Power' Dr. Mike suggests using Protein Powder. Whey protein powder is an easy way to get a protein serving also.

In their book "The 30-day Low Carb Diet Solution" they have protein shakes for a breakfast choice all the time. They call them 'Power shake', '.
yogurt power cup'...same difference IMO. It is a quick and easy breakfast.

Just another idea. HTH.

I use my thumb for ounce of meat and my palm for 4 ounces. Eyeballing is a GREAT way to do it. The more you can eyeball, the better, IMO. Too much weighing and measuring feeds my obsessions and doesn't allow me to listen to my body, either.