Planning & Preparation
A co-worker of mine is HUGE into fad diets. Does she do them? Yes. Does she ever complete them? NO! lol. The other day, she mentioned a very simple eating plan she saw on Dr. Oz’s (made famous on the Oprah show) tv show. It was based on his book “YOU: On a Diet”.
Of course.. I could just go pick up the book at the library, but queen procrastination is my name, and I have yet to get the book. She offered to write the simple plan down for me.
Breakfat: steel cut oats, juice
Lunch: spinach salad, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, celery, protein
Dinner: whole grain (brown rice, couscus, or quinoa), broccoli, colorful vegetables, protein
Snacks: popcorn (no salt or butter), apples (to and from work), walnuts & seeds
Exercise
The menu is very repetative, so it is NOT for everyone. I’m the type of person that could literally eat the same thing over and over and over again and not get sick of it, so this may work well for me.
I am also the type of person that does not like to come home everyday and cook lunch and dinner for the next day.. that irritates me so much. I like to cook everything in 1 day.. or once every 3 to 4 days. I feel more prepared when I can just grab and go and not think so much; I don’t have time to make a bad decision, there’s no prep time – so I don’t snack on bad things, I know how many calories – fat – protein – etc I am eating without even thinking about it.
Also, saves me a ton of money. All the fresh ingredients I purchased for $30 at a farmer’s market.. That’s Lunch AND Dinner, for a week, for almost $30! I purchased chicken as my lunch protein for the week; $7. Steel cut oats; $3. I had 7 days worth of tilapia in the freezer; Orange Juice & apples were the only other things I already had.
Breakfast
7.30am – The steel cut oats have been getting alot of great reviews. If you like oatmeal, you may enjoy this option that is higher in fiber. I found a 20 serving can, for $3 at Whole Foods.
I cooked 8 servings (8 cups of boiling water, 2 cups of oats) and stored them in a container in my fridge. A serving is 3/4 cups hot.. so.. in the morning, I grab approx 1/2 CUP of the cold cooked oats, put them in a bowl with a smidge of soy milk, a tease of ‘i cant believe its not butter’, and a jiggle of craisins.
I eat that on the way to work, so I don’t have time for an “apple on the way”. So…
Snack
10.30am – As my snack I have 1 honeycrisp apple and 1/4 cup of pepita seeds. I LOVE these apples and I LOVE these seeds. The pepitas are so addictive and the best part? It’s hard to eat more than one at a time, which is great for people like me that like to munch and munch and munch.
Lunch
1p – I grabbed a couple bags of baby spinach and put in freezer bags. I got some YUMMY Japanese seedless cucumbers, 4 large tomoatoes, 7carrots, and bag of celery stalks. I cut all of that up and put inindividual serving bags.
I LOVE Aldi’s frozen chicken breast. Just another way to make delicious quick protein. I bought the Teriyaki chicken for $7.
Snack
4pm – As my afternoon snack I have 1 honeycrisp apple and 1/4 cup of walnuts. I’m thinking of staying away from the popcorn option.. but we’ll see!
Dinner
For my first week, I just wanted to get everything coordinated in my mind, so I went with simple simple simple! No elaborate recipes just yet.. need to get a hang of this first.
7p – I broiled 14 small pieces of tilapia.1/3 I made with paprika and some other spices; 1/3 I made with lemon pepper; 1/3 I breaded with plantanko bread crumbs.
I broiled some fresh broccoli. I used some brown rice cooked with chicken stock as my whole grain. I already had the rice, but want to try quinoa soon.
As my colorful vegetables, I made 2 options:
1) 2 green, 1 yellow, 1 orange, and 1 red pepper sauteed with 1 onion.
2) 2 yellow and 2 green squash sautéed with 1 onion.
SO delish UH!!! I LOVE sautéed squash!! I didn’t cook ANYTHING TOO much.. Just enough so that when things are reheated, they don’t dry out.
Exercise
As my exercise, I’m using ChaLEAN Extreme. I lost over 20 pounds in 2 months when I followed the ChaLEAN menu and exercise plan. The menu plan was very descriptive, so I got a little too exuberant and spent way too much money on ingredients!! I needed a lower cost option. I know how to eat well on my own, but I’ve fallen off the wagon for a while, so I figured I’d try something a bit more strict to get back on track. So.. we’ll see how this goes!
How does this plan work nutritionally?
I utilized a sparkpeople.com account to gauge how this will fit in my normal eating goals.
I’ve lost over 100 pounds \o/. See my story here. I am NOT a nutritionist or a doctor. This blog is NOT meant to be a substitute for any professional guidance or counseling. The information I provide merely reflects my own personal experiences and is NOT meant to take the place of medical or nutrition advice from professionals. But it’s helpful and pretty…so enjoy! 😀
My BodyBuilding Boo and I like to live an 80/20 lifestyle; 80 percent of our foods are clean, healthy, whole natural foods and then we allow ourselves to indulge in processed food varieties 20 percent of the time. We like to KISS our recipes (Keep It Simple Sweetie); Easier to track, monitor, and meet our MACROS that way!
– Estee D. Ratliff
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