Pulling through Your Plan’s First Few Months
In This Chapter
� Updating your goals and planning your next steps
� Staying motivated
� Trying new menus
If you’ve been following the low-calorie menu plans and diet advice included in this book, then pat yourself on the back. You’ve not only lost some weight or, at the very least, managed to stop gaining weight, but you’ve also figured out that living a low-calorie lifestyle means more than eating less food. That lesson is the most important one a dieter can discover! (If you haven’t been following the low-calorie menu plans, don’t worry. Just go to Chapter 6 to get started.)
Read this chapter after you’ve been on a low-calorie diet plan for at least a month and you’re ready for your next steps. After a month or so, you can pause and assess your plan to see if you’re satisfied with the results.
If the plan is working for you, if you have no complaints, and you’re happily losing weight, you may not need this chapter yet. Stick with what you’re doing and just remember that this chapter is always here when you need it. Come back to it when you start to get restless, bored, frustrated, or concerned that your diet just isn’t doing it for you. You can find solutions here.
If you’re starting to fall off track, this chapter provides plenty of new ways to approach your diet day to day. You also find ideas for rewarding yourself for a job well done and for distracting and entertaining yourself when you’re tempted to overeat. These pointers can help you to avoid falling back into your old routine of overeating and underexercising.
Reassessing Your Low-Calorie Plan
You’ve prepared yourself in every possible way to live a low-calorie lifestyle now and forever, and to lose weight by following the food plan in Chapter 6. Are you happy with your plan? Is it working out for you? You’ve stayed on the plan for at least one month, and now is a good time for a self-check! If you can answer, “yes” to all or most of the following questions, then you’re definitely on the road to weight control.
� Have you been meeting your short-term goals? Keep in mind that a short-term goal can be as simple as getting into the habit of carrying a water bottle or working out for 5 extra minutes. Be realistic and keep your goals doable. Check out Chapter 4 for details on setting goals.
� Are you sticking to your menu plans? If you need more interesting or more focused menu plans, you can find them in the “Getting into Fun Menu Plans” section, later in this chapter.
� Are you eating nutritionally balanced meals? Why live a low-calorie lifestyle if it isn’t healthy? You’d just end up skinny and sick! If you want to review what eating a balanced low-calorie diet means, flip to Chapter 3.
� Have you replaced unhealthy eating habits with healthier new ones?
For long-term weight loss, you need to understand that consuming fewer calories isn’t enough. You must change your eating habits, which includes everything from eating more regular meals, to eating more slowly, to making sure you sit down every time you eat. You can find more information on paying more attention to how you eat, otherwise known as mindful eating, in Chapter 4.
� Have you been exercising as much as you promised yourself? Your exercise goals need to be as realistic as your other goals, or they’ll never come to fruition. Chapter 8 is full of exercise info.
� Have you found nonfood ways to deal with stressful emotions such as anger, anxiety, and disappointment? Many overeaters eat in response to their emotions. If you’re an emotional overeater, you can find help in Chapter 9.
� Are you maintaining a positive attitude toward your low-cal lifestyle?
If you’re having attitude problems, check out Chapter 4 for more on positive, or mindful, thinking.
� Have you developed a reliable support network? Asking for help is part of taking care of yourself. If you need more help than you’re getting, turn to Chapter 11 for advice on reaching out.
� Do you still feel resolved to follow a low-cal diet plan and lose weight?
If you need a motivational lift, you may find it by reading the section “Motivating Yourself, Bit by Bit” later in this chapter. If you need more help, review Chapter 4.
Review your plan at least once a month during the first six months of following a low-cal diet to be sure that your eating, exercise, and behavioral pat- terns are in line with your original goals. Revisit your goals (as described in the next section) and, if necessary, update some of your goals to reflect any adjustments you need to make to your plan.
The following sections contain tips and advice on adjusting your original goals, evaluating your diet’s makeup, and making any changes necessary to ensure that your low-calorie plan is compatible with your lifestyle.
Revisiting your goals
Many health experts believe that your best weight is whatever weight you can maintain by eating approximately 2,000 calories a day — a little less for most women and a little more for most men — and exercising often. That weight may be something other than what you have in mind for a long-term goal. Just for now, think about a time when you were at a comfortable weight and make that weight your goal. Even if that weight is at the top of your healthy weight range or outside your healthy weight change, it’s still a good goal for now. (To find your healthy weight range, check out Chapter 2.) When you reach that goal weight and you’re able to maintain that weight for several months, then consider setting new goals for losing a little more.
Chapter 4 shows you how to set weight goals, food goals, fitness goals, behavior goals, and psychological goals. You may choose to focus on one goal at a time or you may decide to dive in and reset any number of goals. Either way, you’ll be updating your goals from time to time because they’ll change for all kinds of reasons. You’ll reach your short-term and intermediate goals and have to set new ones. You may be too ambitious when you estab- lish your goals and find that they’re impossible to meet within the timeframe you’ve given yourself. If your goals turn out to be unrealistic, change them.
While you’re revisiting your initial goals, now may be a good time to think about what’s realistic for you. Are you trying to get to a weight you were at 20 years ago? Are you trying to get to a weight you can’t remember staying at for more than a couple of days? You may not realistically be able to get to the weight you were in your teens, twenties, or even your thirties. Sticking to the very low calorie level required to get to that weight may be impossible. Even if you do reach your desired weight, staying there may be next to impossible. You may even be jeopardizing your health by trying.
What about other goals? Have you been too hard or too easy on yourself when it comes to exercise? Have you been paying as much attention to your eating habits as you have been to the food you eat? If you’ve already established goals in those areas, update your goals. If you’ve been taking it slow and focusing only on your diet, now may be a good time to switch gears and set some exercise goals. (You can get some help in Chapter 8.) If you’re having trouble setting or reaching behavioral goals or psychological goals, flip to Chapter 9 for some help. And if you feel you simply can’t lose weight alone, Chapter 11 can guide you toward the right kind of help.
Taking stock of your diet
This section focuses strictly on your low-calorie diet. Taking stock of your diet means pausing to look at your diet, questioning what you’re doing and how you’re eating, and determining whether or not you need to carry on the same way or if you still need to take steps to improve your diet plan.
The following questions can help you reevaluate your diet so that you can be sure it leads to long-term weight loss success.
� Are you watching your serving sizes? Portion control is key to a suc- cessful low-calorie diet. In Chapter 3, you can find tips for measuring and eyeballing standard serving sizes of different types of food.
� Do you feel you’re eating enough food? If not, perhaps you need to plan your diet to include more low-calorie vegetables and other foods that you can eat in larger quantities on a low-calorie diet.
� Are you eating often enough? Eating every three to five hours is impor- tant to keep your energy levels up and to prevent hunger and overeating at your next meal. If you find yourself getting hungry in between meals, try breaking your menu plans down into mini-meals you can eat more frequently throughout the day. (You can use the “Grazing day” menu plan later in this chapter as a guide.)
� Are you enjoying the food you’re eating? If not, you may need to add more variety to your diet by experimenting with new foods and new recipes. Perhaps you need to find a way to include more of your favorite foods in your low-calorie diet. Check out the alternative menu plans in the “Getting into Fun Menu Plans,” later in this chapter for some variety. Chapter 3 also has info on the importance of keeping your diet balanced and varied.
� Are you losing 1 to 2 pounds a week? If you’re losing more, your calorie allowance is too low for the amount of exercise you do every day. Although you may find it motivating to lose more than a pound or two a week, the faster you lose weight, the less likely you are to keep it off. If you’re not losing at least a pound a week most weeks, cut back on the amount of calories you consume. (You can also consider increasing your physical activity; see Chapter 8 for exercise info.)
Making changes to fit your lifestyle
The closer your diet plan fits to your lifestyle, the better the chance you’ll stick to it, so when your lifestyle changes, your diet and exercise plan may have to change, too. For instance, if you get promoted, you may not have time to work out on your lunch hour anymore. If you move or get a new job, you may be shopping in different supermarket chains, frequenting new delicatessens and convenience food stores, and eating in different restaurants. If you get married, you may be spending more time eating with your in-laws or more time eating “real” meals at home. The food routines you’ve established so far on your low-calorie plan may have to change.
If what you’re doing is working for you, keep doing it. If the overall plan you’ve set up for yourself feels good and shows promise, don’t change any- thing. And if you’ve stopped doing something that was successful in the past, start doing it again. For instance, if you were watching your diet, and at the same time you were walking for half an hour every day on your lunch hour, and you lost or maintained weight, then that combination worked for you. If you’ve stopped walking or you’re still walking but not watching your diet as carefully, get back with that same program! You may want to add more exercise to your day to lose more weight, but don’t stop doing what you were already doing to keep your weight under control.
On the flip side, if you’ve started doing something that doesn’t help you lose weight, stop doing it! If you joined a weight-loss program and you’re not following the program, quit. Now is probably not the right time for you to take that approach, so why waste time and money? If you’re down to 1,000 calories and you’re so hungry that you’re driven to distraction, come up with a new plan. Add a couple of hundred calories to your menu plan and try to do ten more minutes of exercise every day.
Motivating Yourself, Bit by Bit
If, in the first six months of your plan, you’ve lost some of the initial motivation you felt when you started thinking about losing weight, or you can feel that motivation starting to slip away, first remind yourself why you wanted to lose weight in the first place. Then figure out why your motivation is slipping. Are you hungry all the time? Are you bored? Are you tired of going at it alone? Get to the root of the problem and tackle it right away.
In the following sections, I show you how to reward yourself, create diversions to avoid overeating, and get help from family, friends, and diet buddies. Chapter 9 has additional info to help you battle long-term challenges and everyday frustrations.
Reaping rewards for sticking with your plan
The biggest and best rewards for losing weight and getting fit are your own good health and the sense of accomplishment when you lose weight. Ideally, those rewards would be enough to keep you motivated to continue until you reach your long-term goals. But, hey, you’re only human. Everyone needs tangible rewards once in a while to keep going. You can try giving yourself a hug, but if you’re anything like me, that won’t cut it.
Reward yourself for changes in your behavior, attitude, and weight. For instance, if you exercise ten minutes longer, or you start substituting positive thoughts about yourself and your diet for any negative, self- destructive thoughts that have been blocking your success, then celebrate!
Many dieters reward themselves with fabulous new clothes to fit their fabu- lous new bodies after they’ve lost a substantial amount of weight. But you certainly don’t have to wait until the end is in sight before you start giving yourself motivational rewards. Think about other nonfood rewards, big and small, that you can look forward to and bestow upon yourself along the way. Give yourself a reward every day, if it helps you stay motivated.
Refer to the following list whenever you feel you need some added incentive or when you reach a milestone (otherwise known as a goal) and feel like celebrating. You can also add your own ideas to this list. (Just scribble your thoughts in the margins; you can write in this book!)
� Pick up a bouquet of flowers or a flowering houseplant.
� Get a manicure and a pedicure.
� Get a massage.
� Have a facial.
� Pick out a new piece of jewelry.
� Buy a fashion accessory, like a trendy scarf or belt.
� Splurge on beauty products.
� Find an attractive blank book for keeping your journal.
� Look for an interesting cookbook that features foods that are naturally low in calories.
� Buy a newly released, bestselling book.
� Hire a cleaning service.
� Buy yourself a new wallet.
� Buy a fun magazine.
Match the size of your reward to the specific accomplishment, so you don’t run out of ways to reward yourself. If you think small at first, you can reward yourself for achieving the many short-term goals you set early on. A small reward may be as simple as a long bath or a day without housework, or it can be a little bit bigger such as a piece of costume jewelry. As the months go by, and you start to reach your intermediate and long-term goals, you can start thinking about that new dishwasher or car, that gold bracelet, or that African safari you’ve always wanted to take.
Most likely, you’ll also want to come up with a few rewards that don’t challenge your budget, such as taking a mental health day or attending a free concert. Another free reward is to let yourself spend some time planning bigger rewards you can redeem when you reach some of your longer-term goals.
Carry a wish list in your wallet or someplace where you can always find it, to remind yourself of the rewards that lie ahead and to keep yourself motivated. A list is handy for those in-the-moment decisions you often have to make about whether or not to eat a particular food, or to spend an extra ten minutes at the gym, or even to eat or exercise at all. If you have your list on hand, you can choose a reward that provides the most motivation, in that moment, to help you make the best diet and exercise choices.
Even though rewarding yourself for a job well done is great, the opposite doesn’t hold true. Don’t punish yourself for sneaking a snack or even going on an all-out eating binge. Forget about your backslide! Guilt is a very common form of self-punishment employed by dieters. If you want to make amends with yourself, eat a little lighter the next day or bike an extra mile. What makes the most sense is just starting again wherever you left off, get- ting back on track, and moving forward. Anything else just gets in the way of your long-term success.
Finding diversions to avoid overeating
After a while, you’ll probably find that you don’t need as many rewards to stay motivated as you did. Instead, you may need distractions to help pre- vent you from eating when you’re not really hungry. Instead of buying your- self something, you may want to try new activities and hobbies that provide the diversions you need.
The following list may not provide any revolutionary new ideas. However, I include it to remind you of the many things you can do with your time instead of eating, thinking about eating, or handcuffing yourself to the bath- room door so you don’t eat. I include this list because sometimes, when your mind is so narrowly focused on food, you can’t think of a single thing to do except eat. You probably know you could go for a walk instead of eating, pop in an exercise video, or go out and discover how to play a new sport, but you
can’t spend every spare minute exercising. Some of the rewards listed in the previous section can double as diversions. In addition, the activities in the upcoming list can distract you from overeating. When you get other ideas, add them to this list.
� Plan a weekend getaway.
� Get away for a weekend.
� Set up a fish tank.
� Clean your fish tank.
� Plant a garden.
� Weed your garden.
� Legally download some new music.
� Go for a drive and listen to some new music in your car.
� Read up on how to take better photographs.
� Take pictures of your kids.
� Take pictures of your pets.
� Write in your journal.
� Start a scrapbook.
� Visit a museum.
� Take a guided tour at a museum.
� Browse in a bookstore.
� Browse in a library.
� Buy or borrow a good classic book that takes awhile to read.
� Take a painting class.
� Paint a self-portrait.
� Paint a portrait of your mate.
� Sneak out to the movies by yourself (avoiding the food concession).
� Buy a new address book and fill it in.
� Give your dog a bath.
� Wash your car.
� Call a friend.
� Take up knitting, crocheting, or another form of needlework.
� Brush and floss your teeth.
� Chew gum or suck on a mint-flavored hard candy.
You need diversions to get you through moments of temptation so that you don’t make choices you’ll regret. If the temporary distractions you’re using aren’t enough, take time to master some relaxation techniques to help con- trol your moods and impulses. Turn to Chapter 9 for information on mind- body exercises, such as yoga, t’ai chi, and pilates, that can help you relax and ultimately cope with the emotional issues that often underlie overeating.
Using the buddy system
The motivation you need to stick to a low-calorie diet and build a lifestyle around it ultimately has to come from within you. You’re the only one who can really drive yourself to do whatever it takes to reach and maybe even exceed your weight-loss goals. But you can still reach for outside help to maintain your motivation along the way. Family and friends who are familiar with and support your weight-loss efforts can help you stay motivated by giving you positive feedback and new ideas to help you reach your goals. Ask them for help when you need it.
One of the reasons a buddy system works so well for dieters is that you may be more motivated to stick to your diet or get out and exercise if someone else is counting on you to keep them on track. If you don’t already have a diet buddy, think of the people you know in your neighborhood or at your job and ask someone if he or she is interested in a team approach. When you have an official “buddy,” you have someone to share diet and exercise tips with, help you get through your low points, and celebrate your successes.
You can find out more about finding a buddy in Chapter 11. And in Chapter 17, you find a great example of how the buddy system worked for two teachers who dieted together and helped each other stick to a low-calorie plan.
Getting into Fun Menu Plans
Fad diets — especially the ones that encourage you to eat a lot of one type of food or avoid another —usually aren’t nutritionally balanced, and they don’t teach you anything about normal eating. You won’t stay healthy if you stay on this type of fad diet for a long time, and if you can’t stick to a diet for the long term, it won’t work.
Another reason fad diets don’t work, even some of the healthier ones, is because you can only eat so much of any one type of food without getting bored and restless. How long has anyone ever stayed on a cabbage soup diet? Not long, I assure you. How many days can you eat lean meat and salad without having a piece of bread or a potato on the side? Some very deter- mined dieters may go for several months or even years, but most people, including myself, wouldn’t make it through one day.
If you take the following “fad” diets for what they are — one-day diets — then they aren’t that bad. Just stay on them for a day at a time, just for the fun of it. For instance, you may hear that dairy products can help you lose weight. No single type of food can help you lose weight, but you may be interested in following a dairy diet anyway, because you love dairy foods and because, for most people, there’s no reason not to include reduced-fat dairy foods in a low-calorie diet.
All of the following menu plans provide 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day, and, for the most part, they’re as nutritionally sound as possible for that calorie level. These menus can help you take a “one day at a time” approach toward your diet and provide ever-changing themes. (And you don’t have to wait until you’ve followed every menu plan in Chapter 6 before you try some of these menus!) They let you try out different types of fad diets without committing to any of them, and they may inspire you to come up with theme menus of your own, just for the fun of it. Diet plans that focus on specific themes also give you an opportunity to discover how to include just about anything you like to eat or drink on a low-calorie diet, as long as you stay within your calorie limits. With that kind of flexibility, how can you go wrong?
Whenever you’re on a low-calorie diet plan, however, especially a plan that eliminates any food groups or focuses on one food group in particular, con- sider taking a multivitamin and mineral supplement that supplies up to 100 percent of the daily requirement for most nutrients.
High-protein day
This day mimics the many high-protein diets that promise fast weight loss. In this case, even though every meal has high-protein foods, these menus are still balanced with a variety of low-calorie carbohydrates.
Breakfast
2 scrambled eggs
1⁄2 cup skim milk
1⁄2 cup blueberries
Lunch
2 slices light bread 2 ounces lean ham
2 ounces reduced-fat cheese 1 roasted red pepper
Dinner
3 ounces smoked turkey
1 cup steamed spinach with garlic and lemon
1 cup tomato salad with 1 tablespoon light dressing 1 mini breadstick
Snack
3⁄4 ounce (2 generous tablespoons) dry roasted peanuts
High-fiber day
Chapter 3 gives you plenty of reasons to fill up on fiber from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. This menu plan provides more than 30 grams of fiber, which is a bit more than the minimum amount that nutrition experts recommend for healthy people to consume each day.
At each meal, you can easily add extra fiber to your diet by sprinkling foods you normally eat with wheat bran or oat bran, adding more fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet, and combining high-fiber, whole-grain foods with lower-fiber, processed grain foods.
Breakfast
1 cup oatmeal sprinkled with 2 tablespoons wheat bran 1 sliced pear
1⁄2 cup skim milk
Lunch
1 cup mixed fruit salad over 2 cups salad greens 1 tablespoon light poppy seed dressing
Dinner
1 cup cooked whole-wheat spaghetti mixed with regular spaghetti (1⁄2 cup whole wheat and 1⁄2 cup regular)
1⁄4 cup marinara sauce
1 cup steamed broccoli
1⁄2 cup orange sections
1⁄3 cup bean dip
1⁄4 cup salsa
8 baked tortilla chips
Dairy day
Dairy substitutes, such as soy milk, soy cheeses, soy yogurts, and rice and almond beverages that have been fortified with calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients normally supplied by dairy products, can easily fit into the plan for this day. This day supplies more than 1,600 mg of calcium, which is more than the daily requirement for many people.
In these menus, you can find plenty of good examples of how to boost the amount of calcium you get at every meal. These menus include not only dairy products but also other good sources of calcium, such as canned fish that has been processed with its bones intact and certain leafy green vegetables.
Breakfast
1 cup honeydew melon cubes
1 cup lowfat coffee-flavored yogurt sprinkled with 1⁄4 cup high-fiber cereal
Lunch
2 slices light bread toast
2 ounces reduced-fat cheddar cheese or 3 ounces sardines canned in water, broth, or tomato sauce
1 cup broccoli florets
Dinner
1 cup cooked pasta tossed with 1 teaspoon olive oil and topped with 1 ounce grated Romano cheese
2 cups steamed kale with lemon
Snack
1⁄2 cup chocolate pudding or chocolate-flavored yogurt
Fruit fast day
This day isn’t exactly a day of fasting, but just a fruit-filled day that shows you a variety of ways fresh fruit and fruit products can add flavor to other foods and be served at every meal.
Breakfast
1⁄4 cantaloupe
1 slice light whole-grain toast with 2 tablespoons apple butter
1⁄2 cup fruit-flavored lowfat yogurt
Lunch
1⁄2 cup fruit salad
1⁄2 cup pineapple cottage cheese 6 wheat crackers
Dinner
2 cups spinach leaves topped with 1⁄2 cup grapefruit sections
3 ounces pork loin chop or chicken breast simmered in 1⁄4 cup orange juice
1⁄2 cup unsweetened applesauce 1 cup steamed broccoli
Snack
1 cup sliced banana and blueberries
Grazing day
Today you break your calorie allowance up into 6 mini-meals, eating the same amount of food you normally eat, but eating more often than usual. Doing so is a good solution if you find yourself getting hungry and tempted to overeat in between meals.
Breakfast
1 cup raisin bran
1⁄2 cup skim milk
2 mini blueberry muffins
1⁄2 cup skim milk
Lunch
2 ounces reduced-fat cheese
1⁄2 apple, sliced
4 wheat crackers
Snack
1 cup snow peas or green beans
1 tablespoon light ranch dressing (for dip)
Dinner
1 cup beef vegetable soup 1 thin slice Italian bread
2 cups green salad with 1 tablespoon light dressing
Snack
3 cups light popcorn
1⁄2 cup cranberry juice diluted with 1 cup seltzer or club soda
Snack day
Unlike the grazing day in the previous section, where you plan to eat six mini- meals instead of three regular meals, this day consists of normal sized meals designed to include chips, dips, crackers, and other favorite snack foods. This day shows how you can fit a few potato chips and a frozen fruit pop into a low-calorie diet plan.
Be careful with this day! It only works when you have enough willpower to eat small amounts of snack foods. Even if you’re feeling strong enough to meet the challenge, don’t tempt yourself by buying big bags of junk food and leaving them around the house. When you shop for this day, buy only individual-size bags of snack foods, or portion out what you need and give the rest away — immediately!
When you choose the more sensible snack foods that are available — potato chips that are baked instead of fried, chips and puffs that are made with healthier fats (such as canola oil or olive oil), air-popped popcorn instead of
oil-popped, canned fruits packed in juice or light syrup rather than in heavy syrup, frozen fruit bars instead of fruit-flavored ice pops — you can easily justify including them in a low-calorie diet. Just remember that these munchies are still snack foods and they generally don’t contribute any important nutrients to your diet. That’s why nutrition experts recommend that you eat them in small amounts.
The key to including snack foods in your diet is to have enough other, health- ier foods available and ready to eat so you’re not as tempted to eat more than a small serving of less nutritious foods. Make sure you have a glass of water with your meal because it helps fill you up as well. The less room you have
in your stomach by the time you get to the chips, the less tempted you’ll be to overindulge.
Breakfast
1 cup dry cereal
1⁄2 cup skim milk
1⁄2 cup canned mandarin oranges
Lunch
2 ounces sliced honey-baked ham
1⁄3 cup coleslaw
12 baked potato chips
Dinner
1 cup tomato soup topped with 1⁄2 cup air-popped or light popcorn 3 ounces lean beef
1 cup steamed zucchini
Snack
1 frozen fruit pop
Shake it up day
If a liquid diet appeals to you, today is your day! You can enjoy delicious shakes and smoothies from morning to night. The recipes yield a single serving, but you can make double, triple, or quadruple batches if you’re sharing with family or friends, or you want to keep a second serving on hand for the next day. (See Chapter 12 for additional smoothie recipes.)
Breakfast
Orange Creme Eye Opener: In a large glass, stir together 1⁄2 cup orange juice and 1⁄2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt until blended. Add ice, if you prefer.
1 small corn muffin
Lunch
Berry Good Shake: In a very large glass, stir together 1 cup cranberry- raspberry juice, 1⁄2 cup apple cider, and 1⁄3 cup lowfat plain yogurt.
3 wheat crackers
Dinner
Tangy Tomato Smoothie: In a blender, combine 1⁄4 cup lowfat plain yogurt and 1 cup stewed tomatoes or seasoned, diced tomatoes in juice. Whirl until smooth. Serve over cracked ice.
3 ounces skinless roast chicken breast
1⁄2 cup cooked rice
1 cup steamed asparagus with sweet red peppers
Snack
Mocha Freeze: In a blender, combine 1⁄2 cup cold coffee, 1 tablespoon “light” chocolate syrup, 1⁄2 cup skim milk, and a couple of crushed ice cubes. Whirl until smooth.
The New York dieter’s special
If you happen to have grown up in or around New York City, you know what a chocolate egg cream is, and it may even be on your list of all- time favorite soda-fountain foods. To the uninitiated, however, an egg cream can be off-putting, tasting like nothing more than watered down, carbonated chocolate milk. I’ve heard that opinion, and respect it, but as a New Yorker who grew up drinking chocolate egg creams, I’m thrilled to have discovered this 100- calorie version. Try it and see what you think.
In an 8-ounce glass, stir together 1⁄4 cup skim milk and 2 tablespoons “light” chocolate syrup until well mixed. Slowly, fill the glass with seltzer or club soda. There you have it!
For anyone who drinks diet sodas, you can make an egg creamlike drink that many chocolate-loving dieters seem to favor. Pour 1 cup of skim milk into a very tall glass. Fill the glass with diet chocolate soda. Enjoy!
Salad day
At each meal you have a salad, but this day isn’t an all-green day! Breakfast is a mix of fresh fruit, and lunch is Greek salad, which is usually sprinkled with feta cheese and sometimes served with olives and stuffed grape leaves. For dinner, the usual fare is tossed together to make a salad of warm sliced meat served over cool crisp greens with tomatoes and onions. You don’t even need salad dressing. Try the same thing another night with roast pork, shrimp, or poultry.
Breakfast
1 cup mixed fruit salad
1 small pumpkin raisin muffin
Lunch
11⁄2 cups Greek salad 1 mini breadstick
Dinner
3 ounces grilled steak over 1 cup shredded romaine lettuce greens with 1⁄2
cup finely chopped tomato and 1⁄3 cup sliced red onion 1 thin slice Italian bread
Snack
3⁄4 cup cucumber-yogurt salad
International food day
You can handle this day in several different ways. You can eat out or eat in. You can stick to one cuisine all day or mix it up, as in the following menu. The idea is to have fun with it. This menu includes a Mexican breakfast, Middle Eastern lunch, Asian snack, and an Italian dinner. These are some of America’s favorite ethnic foods.
Breakfast
1 serving Huevos Rancheros (see Chapter 12 for the recipe)
1⁄2 cup sliced mango
Lunch
1 cup lentil soup
1⁄3 cup hummus
1 toasted mini (4 inch) pita
Dinner
1 cup minestrone soup
1 cup linguine with clam sauce
Snack
2 small almond cookies 1 cup jasmine tea
Dessert day
Years ago, I saw a chocolate lover’s cookbook written by a physician who had what I considered a brilliant strategy for chocoholics trying to lose weight. According to his plan, you could eat something chocolate and low-cal about half an hour before each meal. The doctor’s rationale was that you never deprive yourself, you get your chocolate fix three times a day, and eating the chocolate half an hour before a meal allows enough time for your stomach to send a signal to your brain that you’ve been fed, so you’re not ravishingly hungry when it comes time to eat your meal and you’re more satisfied with the amount of food you’re limited to on a low-calorie diet.
Following the good doctor’s lead, this menu plan puts something sweet into every meal. You can decide whether it makes more sense for you to have it before or after your meal.
Breakfast
6 ounces hot chocolate 1 small (4-inch) pancake 1 tablespoon light syrup
1⁄2 cup sliced strawberries
Lunch
2 chocolate drop candies
1 large vegetable salad with 2 tablespoons light salad dressing
Sandwich with 2 ounces sliced turkey, 2 slices light bread, and 1 table- spoon reduced-calorie mayonnaise
1⁄2 cup baby carrot sticks
Dinner
1 thin (2-inch) slice angel food cake
1⁄2 cup raspberries
1 cup cooked pasta with 2 teaspoons pesto sauce
1 cup tomato salad with 1 tablespoon light salad dressing
Snack
1 small oatmeal-raisin cookie
1⁄2 cup skim milk
Wine with dinner day
By using your snack calories and borrowing a few calories here and there from each meal, you can fit an alcoholic drink or two into a low-calorie diet plan from time to time.
Breakfast
1 small toasted bran muffin 2 teaspoons fruit spread
1⁄2 cup skim milk
Lunch
2 cups mixed green salad with 1 tablespoon light dressing 2 ounces reduced-fat cheddar cheese
2 saltine crackers
1⁄2 cup orange sections
Dinner
1 (5-ounce) glass red or white wine 4 ounces broiled salmon
1 cup steamed broccoli tossed with 1⁄2 cup chopped tomato 1 mini breadstick
Most health experts believe that drinking alcoholic beverages in moderation — defined as one drink a day for women and two for men — probably won’t harm your health and may even help. If you enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, a beer when you’re eating outdoors, or a cordial at the end of a long day, your low- calorie diet doesn’t have to get in the way. You can use your snack calories. In Table 7-1, you find out what counts as one drink, and how many calories that drink accounts for.
You probably don’t need me or anyone else to tell you what’s wrong with drinking too much alcohol, but just remember that too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing liver disease, high blood pressure, heart dis- ease, certain types of cancer, and brain damage. You’re also at higher risk of having an accident, getting arrested, and dying from any number of causes. You also increase your chances of gaining weight from alcohol and some of the mixers used to flavor it. If you substitute alcohol calories for food calories, you may not gain weight, but you’ll miss out on some very important nutrients and you’re likely to become ill.
Fast-food day
This menu plan is based on the types of food found in most fast-food restau- rant chains so that you can go into any chain in your area and choose food that fits into your diet. This menu shows you how any meal at a fast-food restaurant can fit into your low-calorie diet plan if you limit the amount of food you eat.
Choose water or another calorie-free beverage to have with your meal. (If you add milk to your coffee or tea, keep it to a splash!) If you think you’ll give in to the temptation to eat more, pick up your food to go.
The best tip I can give you overall for making smart choices in fast-food restaurants is this: “Think small!” Many fast-food main dish salads, such as chicken caesar, chef, or BLT salads, contain between 600 and 800 calories per serving and sometimes more. One way to enjoy this type of salad, or other higher-calorie fare like fried fish and chips, a large hero sandwich, a deluxe double burger with the works, or any larger entree that comes in one-size only, is to split a single serving with someone else and have a side salad with light or fat-free dressing on the side.
Breakfast
1 egg on a muffin, biscuit, roll, or half bagel Coffee or tea with just a splash of milk
If you want egg and cheese, discard half the bread, whether it’s a biscuit, roll, muffin, or toast and eat your breakfast sandwich open-face.
Lunch
1 slice pizza or 1 taco or 1 soft taco or 1 small grilled chicken sandwich or 1 small hamburger
Keeping score at fast-food restaurants
The only people who go to fast-food restaurant chains to eat veggie burgers and tossed salads are people who wouldn’t be there to begin with if they weren’t accompanying small children or hungry friends and relatives who aren’t watch- ing their weight. If you’re headed for one of the chain restaurants by your own choice, you’re either going to cheat on your diet or you’ve been starving yourself and banking calories all day to earn that superburger you’re about to devour. (Unless, of course, you’re strictly following the fast-food menu plan in this chapter.)
Most fast-food chains provide nutrition information in their stores and on their Web sites, so if you really want to know the specific calorie
count of the double deluxe cheeseburger you’re craving, check the nutritional listing. Ask for the information and look at it before you order. It may make you think twice. (For calorie counts on select fast-food fare, flip to Appendix A.)
Unless you’re sharing, watch out for any burger, sandwich, or other entree with the words Market Fresh, Ultimate, Deluxe, Whopper-size, Thick, Triple, Supreme, or Meat Lover’s in its title, or any food that’s served in a basket. The same goes for anything that resembles a shake, malt, doughnut, biscuit, or curly fry. When it comes to condiments, ask for reduced-calorie sauces, mayonnaise, and salad dressings.
If you want to eat a cheeseburger, discard half the bun and eat the burger like an open-face sandwich.
Dinner
1 small (3-inch) piece batter-dipped fish or chicken breast 3-inch corn on the cob
1 side salad with light or fat-free dressing
If you’re in a fast-food restaurant that only serves fish sandwiches, discard the bread or choose grilled fish over batter-dipped.
Snack
1⁄2 cup soft serve ice cream
Convenience food day
Unlike a fast-food day, where you go out to fast-food restaurants to get your meals, a convenience food day is a day when you’re cooking your meals at home, but you don’t really feel like cooking. On this day you can take advantage of canned, bottled, frozen, packaged, and fresh-prepared foods found in any supermarket. Check out the listings in Chapter 5 for other convenience foods that fit into a low-calorie diet plan.
Breakfast
1 cup skim milk mixed with 1 package breakfast powder mix 1 cup cut-up watermelon
Lunch
1 cup cheese tortellini
2 tablespoons marinara sauce 2 mini breadsticks
Dinner
2 ounces rotisserie chicken
1⁄2 cup spinach soufflé, from frozen
1⁄2 cup baby carrots
Snack
3⁄4 cup pears in light syrup
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