These are some guidelines how to turn your daily diet menu in to a healthy plan to lose weight. At this point, I assume two things – one, that you are obese and two, that you need to cut down on the quantity of food you are presently eating.
I never create a menu for my clients because I found such an approach never works. When it comes to food, people have too many preferences not only about the type of food but also when they prefer to eat. So creating a daily menu for someone and expecting them to stick to it would be like telling a kid to keep off chocolates – we know it won’t work.
Instead, my healthy diet plan to lose weight follows a radically different approach – one that is easily understandable and more importantly, achievable. So tuck right in.
Day 1:
Breakfast
In our healthy diet plan to lose weight, let us start with breakfast. Assuming you prefer eating a healthy American breakfast (or its equivalent), sit with your breakfast plate in front of you, and remove roughly a third of the food on it. You may eat the rest (2/3rds). Eat one spoonful at a time and chew slowly. Try and identify the flavors. Concentrate on the food you are eating. Distractions such as reading the newspaper or watching the news while having breakfast should be avoided – at least for the first 7 days by which time hopefully, this will be routine and require no special effort.
Brunch
Having eaten a slightly smaller breakfast than usual, you are going to feel hungry in a couple hours. Don’t fight it because your new daily diet menu has taken it into account. Instead, have a small meal – something like a 2-slice healthy sandwich (whole grain bread) or a fruit. Drink as much water as you like but no other beverage.
Lunch
At lunch, follow the same formulae as breakfast – sit with the normal quantity of food that you eat at lunch and remove a third. Avoid any sugary fizzy liquids. Eat slowly and chew your food well. Identify the flavors. Also watch out for the “I am full” signal that your stomach will issue. In recent years, we seem to have trained ourselves into ignoring all except the “I am hungry” stomach signals.
Snack
A small bowl of vegetable soup or 8oz glass of fresh fruit juice or low fat milk if you like it or a small bowl of non-sweetened low-fat yogurt – you may add a pinch of salt for taste.
Dinner
Dinner should be had no later than 8 pm. Follow the same formulae as you did for breakfast and lunch i.e. remove a third of the quantity of food that is on the plate.
Avoid any post-dinner snacks. Your last meal of the day should ideally be completed two hours before you hit the sack.
Day 2
The quantity and manner you eat your food is now set and will be the same as day 1.
Exercise
Apart from food, you also need to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise daily during the first week and gradually increase it to one hour a day. Any form of exercise that burns 300+ calories per day will do quite nicely. Do not overdo anything. Drink at least four to six glasses of water a day.