For over 5 years after college I struggled with my weight. I tried diet after diet and pill after pill only to fall into a yo-yo diet effect where I would lose 10 pounds but gain 15 back. Then lose 15 and gain 20.
I couldn’t afford a personal trainer or nutritionist and it wasn’t until I found a program that taught me how to eat right and dispelled some myths I was following but getting me nowhere.
In this article, I will describe a daily healthy eating plan to help you lose weight. These are the most important things that helped me lose weight. Remember that this will not apply to everyone. I was about 50 pounds overweight and using some of these guidelines I was able to drop from 222 pounds to 196 pounds in just 30 days. Although I had a program that spat out menus for me to follow, you can create healthy meal plans on your own with a little trial and error and patience.
ALL of these tips should be used together in your dietary eating plan.
1. Every night, before going to bed, write down the meals that you will prepare for the next morning. You don’t need to go crazy and write everything down, just an outline that you can follow.
2. Start drinking more water. Drink half your body weight in ounces. Drink ONLY water. Neither soft drinks, not even diet drinks, nor fruit juices. 1 cup of black coffee or tea per day is fine.
3. I don’t care how hectic your schedule is, eat 4-6 small meals per day instead of 3 big ones.
4. Eliminate almost ALL sugar and canned foods. Nothing in cans. Buy frozen vegetables, not canned ones.
5. Cut out the white things and put the brown ones. Brown rice, whole wheat bread and pasta.
6. Stop eating when you are 80% full. There will be a learning curve with this one, but it’s important.
7. Have one cheat day per week (this doesn’t mean eating ice cream and cake all day). It means you don’t need to be so strict. Don’t plan the night before. Just eat 2 or 3 meals maybe. Add your favorite desert. But still eat some healthy foods.
I am going to include one of my personal eating plans that I used on a daily basis.
Breakfast: 2 scrambled egg whites, whole wheat toast
Snack: small bag full of different unsalted nuts
Lunch: 3 oz salmon and some brown rice
Snack: apple or grapefruit (grapefruits are VERY good for you)
Dinner: 4-6 oz chicken breast with some broccoli and a little butter
This is a somewhat normal day for me. You may need a lot more or a lot less food. That’s one of the downsides of not having a nutritionist or someone who can tell you exactly what to eat. It may take some trial and error.
If you are not losing weight within the first 12 to 14 days, try a different meal plan or combination.
