The Diet

2006-12-18T10:42:00.001-05:00

I decided to stop thinking about it and just do it...start the diet....today.

The way it works:

Fruits, vegetables, beans: They don't count ...eat as much as you want.

Grains: Whole grains are 1 point per serving. Anything else would be 2 points per serving.

Dairy products: 1 point for every gram of fat, 1 extra point for being an animal product.

Meat & Seafood: 1 point for every gram of fat, 1 extra point for being an animal product.

Candy: 1 point for every gram of fat, 1 extra point for being loaded with sugar and not having any real nutritional value.

Alcohol: off limits.

Anything else is 1 point per gram of fat and an extra point if it contains sugar, honey, or any other high calorie sweetener.

The idea is to stay under 20 points per day for 6 days in a row. Eat whatever you please the 7th day. Then repeat.

The best way to break this down would be 3 meals a day and 1 snack...each limited to about 5 points.

Now before you just jump up and say "I can do this!", I must warn you, it's not as easy as it sounds and the first week is the toughest.

You will be thinking of all the things you can't have...thinking there isn't anything you can have. You will get frustrated, feel deprived.

But soon you will change the attitude and fall into a different sort of thinking, and focusing on what you can eat instead. That's when the fun begins. You will start getting quite creative with your cooking.

Another warning: It is almost impossible to keep this diet and eat meat. This works best as a vegan diet, or at the very least, a vegetarian one.

If you are worried about getting enough protien, remember that there are other sources of protien in this world other than meat, and you can eat all the beans you want. Dairy products kill 2 nutrition birds with 1 stone, so take advantage of low fat & fat free in that category, in place of meat.

If you find yourself having a serious craving for something, and you don't want to blow it, and you can't limit yourself to just a tiny taste, just put it off till your treat day.

That's right...it's a TREAT day...not a cheat day. This is the key to success. Taking that 1 day off a week allows you to have all the things you are depriving yourself of and makes your chances of sticking to this diet greater. You can't undo 6 days of super healthy eating in 1 day! So don't worry about it on day 7 and just be happy treating yourself. This is the day without guilt! It would be a great day to go out to dinner to a restaurant with family or friends and not have to worry if there is anything on the menu you can actually eat. Your social life shouldn't have to suffer just because you are on a diet. Social drinking is allowed on treat day, as long as it's done in moderation, so go ahead and have a beer or glass of wine with dinner.

And yes...you have to take that day off each week. You can't skip that or make it less frequent. The idea isn't to become some super hero known as "Diet Woman" or "Diet Man". The idea is to be serious about being healthy, and serious about not setting yourself up for failure.

A note about eating out: If you want to eat out with friends and family on a day other than your treat day, consider Chinese food. You can always get stuff that is steamed rather than fried at most Chinese restaurants. Or pick some place that has a fantastic all you can eat salad bar packed full of healthy stuff, like Charlie Brown's (I don't know if you have this restaurant in your area, most locations are in NJ)

Now I haven't decided if I am going to post my daily menu, because then I would feel like I have to provide all my recipes along with it and that would be a lot of work putting it all together to post every day.

Cranial Soup

The Diet