A simple diet that actually works
Written on February 9, 2009 – 11:44 am | by David Windell
Coming back from the land of milk and honey (well, more like Burgers and Fries), Andrea and I decided it was time to go on a diet with a difference, no more “fads”, nothing complicated, just healthy lifestyle changes.
I spent the best part of two days reading about all sorts of techniques from Calorie Shifting to Fasting and eventually decided the simplest thing for us would be to collate the general tips from a variety of healthy living sites and write our own.
We’ve been on this “diet” for three weeks now and are both feeling great, losing weight and fitting it around our lives. Even more importantly we’re not feeling hungry all the time or starving ourselves.
So, three weeks in and I’ve already lost 8lbs and decided it was time to share it with the world. Before you read on, don’t expect anything complicated or detailed. The diet is simply a bulleted list of tips and rules to follow along with a general meal plan guide.
- Eat 5/6 small meals per day
- Reduce portions and serving sizes
- Eat the recommend calories for 2lb per week weight loss based on activity, age and gender
- Drink 4 pint glasses of water a day with and between meals (1 squeezed lemon added).
- Do not add salt or sugar to food/drink
- 30 minutes daily aerobic exercise (walking, running, swimming, bikeriding, stairs.)
- Choose low-fat, low-sodium products (more potassium than sodium is good).
- Eat 3 fish portions per week
- Use extra virgin olive oil (two servings per day)
- Use skimmed milk
- Eat wholemeal bread
- No more than two egg yolks per week
- Use vingarette dressing on salads
- Good proteins to eat are eggs, chicken (skinless), turkey, fish, lamb, lean beef and whey protein powder.
Meal Plan
Breakfast - 1 bread or cereal, 1 fruit, 1 dairy
Snack - 1-2 fruits or vegetable
Lunch - 3 vegetable, 1 bread, 1 fruit, 1 protein
Snack - 1 fruit (or unsalted nut’s/seeds)
Dinner - 3-4 vegetable, 1 fruit, 1 protein, 1 bread, 1 dairy, 1 fat