Good morning, Raffi!
(Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring...Bananaphone!
![laughing :laughing:](./images/smilies/laughing.png)
Sorry...couldn't help myself!)
First of all, don't be worrying about "portions" at this point. Well, yes, you should take enough time to eat, and pack enough to stay satisfied, but it's MOST important that eat enough to be FULL! You've got to convince your body that you're not going to deprive it. THEN you'll lose your cravings, and your food needs will change naturally, without any concious portioning.
Your food choices for the day were fine, except, perhaps for the RF cream cheese. Roger Troy considers ALL dairy as fattening, even the FF type (since they replace the fat with sugars, or starches) and they should be very limited. If you had cream cheese on all 8 corn thins, that was probably more dairy than you should have in a week. Sorry if that bums you out, but you could have problems if you keep eating that much cream cheese.
(psstt...I'll tell you a secret....the first couple weeks I was doing LDL, I ate 1 oz goat cheese, with pepper and balsamic vinaigrette, split between two corn thins, with a big serving of corn almost every night for supper....and lost weight....of course in the beginning, all the other changes I was making were considerable, so the weight DOES come off. If you just love that cream cheese, limit yourself to one or two corn thins, a couple times a week.)
You can eat those corn thins with your chili, or make LDL compliant hummus, or refried beans, or salsa....you'll find all kinds of uses for them!
A note about the corn thins...you mentioned elsewhere that you bought the Flax variety....the food police will tell you that seeds aren't allowed, so avoid the flax because of the added fat. Stick to the Original corn thins, or I think the lemon-pepper is OK, too. I've tried the flax ones, too, when my store was out of original...I couldn't tell the difference...so buy the Original, if you can.
Tomato soup is on the "grocery list" because it's used in one of the recipes in the book (RM's Made Rights) but canned soup usually has ingredients that aren't LDL friendly. Don't eat it as "soup." It's really easy to make excellent tomato soup, especially now when tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes!
Orange juice is fine in small servings, or in your smoothies, as long as you're not buying any with added sugar. Because juices don't have all the fiber and filling power as whole fruit, they shouldn't replace your fruit servings. You're getting more calories in a glass of OJ than in an orange or two, so eat the whole fruit when you can, and use juice as an ingredient, or a small serving.
And BEAAANNNSSSSSS can be eaten for any meal...or snack! Refried beans for breakfast are fine....try a fried or scrambled egg on top, with a slosh of salsa, or a sprinkle of FF cheese, scooped up with a corn thin. Again, check labels on those cans....get the FF refried beans, or make your own and season them as you like.
You're absolutely right about the corn thins....it would appear that you can eat as many as you want, as long as you're not topping them with less-than-friendly toppings. It's likely that you'll just WANT fewer and fewer as time goes on. If you can afford them
![wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.png)
eat as many as you want, just put away the cream cheese for a while.
In general, you're doing great...just plan ahead a little better for breakfast/lunch so you don't leave yourself short at lunchtime, and keep asking questions!
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