Monday, August 6, 2007

The 4 Meal a Day Eating Plan.

Hi everyone,

After many, many years of trying out different approaches to weight loss, I found all were simply too restricting in some ways and eventually just gave up. In the end I came up with an eating plan of my own, which incorporates some elements of other diets I tried.

For this eating plan to work efficiently you have to eat 4 meals a day and allow four hours between meals. Eating regularly in this way ensures your metabolism remains revved up and that calories are burned continually and uninterrupted - even while sleeping!

Going too long without eating slows down your metabolism and it takes a long time for it to get going again. Bit like a fire that has been allowed to go out.

Morning meal (usually 8 am)

Two slices of wholegrain toast (Preferably granary bread)
Two triangle cheese & ham (Kerry Low-Low) One triangle spread over each slice. No butter.
One large mug of tea with milk, but no sugar.

Midday Meal. (12:00 clock)

One full jar of black olives. [330g]
Coleslaw (low fat if available) Eat no more than three large fork full.
All of the following goes into a large salad bowl.
Cherry tomatoes (half a carton or more)
One full head of butter head lettuce. Make sure you wash it before eating. Remember to try and eat the whole head (!)
12 slices of cucumber.
5 slices of either; ham, chicken or turkey.
3 slices of granary bread (cut in half to make 6 small slices) Scraped with low-low butter.
2 ice cold diet cokes.

Important: Other than a small amount of low fat dressing don’t add salad cream or mayonnaise to any meal on this plan!

Evening meal: (4: 30pm/5:00pm)

Half a cooked chicken or 2 large legs (with skin removed)
Home-made soup (recipe below) (2 or 3 large bowls)
One small boiled potato (no butter)
2 ice cold diet cokes.

Recipe for the soup:

1 carton of stir fry with broccoli. (can be bought in places like Dunnes Stores)
1 small can of chickpeas (drain these before cooking)
1 cup of frozen peas.
10 mushrooms (sliced)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes.
4 vegetable stock cubes
1 big spoon of crushed chillies.
Place all ingredients in a saucepan with 5 bowls of water. Boil for about 40 or 50 minutes until vegetables are soft.
Note: Remaining soup can be heated up and used the following day.

Please note: you can change the chicken for one large steak, mushroom and onions. Or if preferred, 5 lamb cutlets, mushrooms and onions. You can also change the soup for any large salad if desired.

Important: Remove all visible fat from any meat before cooking and always fry steak or cutlets in either; one-cal spray or virgin olive oil spray.

Late evening snack/meal (9 pm)

2 slices of wholegrain, granary bread with a very thin scraping of Kerry low-low butter.
Place a slice of ham, chicken or turkey on each slice of bread. Slice one nice size tomato and place over the bread.

Finish off with an ice cold diet 7 up or water. Having diet coke or any drink containing caffeine late in the evening can interfere with sleep.
Repeat the whole eating plan the next day and every day.

Some additional advice.

No snacking between meals. Doing so will only ruin the plan.
No sweets, biscuits, chocolates, cakes, ice-cream, chips, burgers, milkshakes, milk (except for small amounts in tea), white bread, white rice, pizza, buns, etc.
Fruit is very high in sugar so its consumption should be limited.

Remember too to eat all the food suggested in the main diet and stick to the times indicated or else the plan won’t be as effective.

Advice for eating away from home.
The diet as described must be stuck to as much as possible but occasionally you will need to eat away from home and if so the following advice will help. But remember it is best to eat in accordance with the main diet.

McDonalds have lovely chicken salads that are a perfect occasional replacement for lunch or evening meals when away from home. Any time I go there I eat one of these along with a box of 6 chicken nuggets and a large diet coke, and it has never had a negative effect on my weight loss.

A wholegrain, chicken salad sandwich (or two if really hungry) with a diet drink, bought from any shop that sells them is OK in an emergency, too.

Here’s an example of what I occasionally eat from a Chinese restaurant to replace evening (5pm) meal: 1 Chicken Curry. 1 Mixed vegetables. 1 portion of spring rolls.

From a chippers (in an emergency) I would eat a chicken breast (even with the skin left on) and two sausages. Diet Coke. But no chips, burgers or pies.
Sometime I will chose a piece of cod instead of the chicken but I have found the weight loss is much slower is this case.

That’s it for now but it should be enough to get you started on the road to a much healthier lifestyle.

Have faith in the diet, be consistent and rest assured your weight will continue to drop. I have lost the best part of 7 stone in 12 months, the first 4 without any exercise. I now walk a couple of miles every second day with great ease.

Good luck!