Do you have to eat the two cups of veggies at lunch...can I save them and use them with my two cups at dinner?

Hmmm that's a good question. I'm not completely sure. I personally wouldn't want to, because that's a lot of veggies all at once for me. Sometimes I'll have 1 cup at breakfast, 1 at lunch, and 2 at dinner. I know that others have just 1 at lunch and 3 at dinner. Is there a reason you're asking? If you don't feel that your dinners are big enough, maybe you can try that instead, or split up your protein and veggies at lunch so you have them an hour or 2 apart.

I'm a bad one to ask....I usually skip the afternoon veggies and just eat 2c at dinner---I really dislike veggies, so I only make myself eat them once a day. Hasn't seemed to have affected my weight loss, though. Might mean you are more hungry as veggies tend to take up a lot of tummy space.

It doesn't really matter when you get them in, as long as you do. I've found, though, that 1 at lunch, 1 in the middle of the day, and 2 at dinner keeps me satiated and "regular." Make sure you're getting some lettuce in, too, if you're feeling extra hungry add more of that. Try the bagged salad, eat it out of the bag, and dip it in some WF or lemon juice. It helps, not only to fill you up, but to keep everything moving, and even lose more weight.

True, and they also have a bunch of essential vitamins and minerals!

I've experimented with ways of "hiding" my veggies in order to get all 4 cups in, and usually it's been working really well! Like 2 cups of spinach, once it's sauteed, is more like half a cup. And I put 2 cups of boiled shredded cauliflower in my meatloaf, can't even tell it's there!

With me, I sometimes have no choice but to eat my all my veggies for dinner-like today I have back to back conference calls at my customer site with no time to go out to grab my lunch veggies. I will have my shake and water but will be hungry than normal by the time dinner rolls around-normally I am not hungry for dinner (my stomach isn't sending hungry messages but I am ready to eat)

Yes....well, have you ever eaten a vitamin? They taste TERRIBLE, right? That's why veggies taste bad....they're full of vitamins!!!

Why couldn't the healthy foods taste like chocolate-chip brownies????

Yeah.... that'd be GREAT!!!

Shame on you!!! Now I'm craving chocolate chip brownies!!!! tee hee

Just find that having my whey protein at lunch is all I need. Find that I am not hungry. I don't eat lettuce. should I and is there benefits?

Definately eat the lettuce! It does make a difference in regularity, and I think it makes a difference in losing as well. I eat romaine, but had some iceberg (non food ) when I had the bigmac in a bowl.

[QUOTE=Treena;3842020]Like 2 cups of spinach, once it's sauteed, is more like half a cup. [QUOTE]

I don't think it works that way. If you're going to have cooked spinach, it needs to be 2 cups of COOKED spinach.

Also, I do think it's important to have something *close* to 2 cups of veggies with lunch and dinner. If you do like 1.5 and 2.5, that's one thing, but if you're having all 4 cups at once, I think that's bad. Too many carbs all at once, not enough throughout the day.

One thing I've found with this diet (85 pounds down and a year in) is that you have to follow it pretty closely. Even the things that don't make sense to you (like why I can't have diet soda) have an impact. You can fudge certain things (extra veggies won't kill you, for instance) but for the most part you have to do what they say or you don't lose.

Wow! Do you have before and after photos?

I have a before picture, but I haven't quite gotten to 'after' yet. ;-)

I should post some. Thanks for the encouragement! Every bit helps.