1. Breakfast is fruit. I usually have an apple and a cup of coffee. This is so much better for me than the cereal, kolache, Sonic Breakfast Burrito, or pastry. If I am really hungry that morning, I can mix in an extra piece of fruit, like a peach or grapes or something.
2. Either lunch or dinner must be a salad. And that salad can be as big as we want. Vegetables can be eaten and eaten and eaten. There is no limit.
3. The other mean (that is not a salad) can be a reasonable meal of whatever we usually like. For example, today we are heating up a lasagna for lunch. We will take Aidan to McDonalds after karate tonight and we'll both get a salad.
4. Snacks must be healthy ones. Fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc.
McDonald's Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad is pretty good. I usually substitute the dressing for low fat.
I think this is a realistic diet. We still can have a meal a day that is one of our favorites. But, we sacrifice for breakfast and the other meal. The sacrifice is one that I usually get used to (I've tried this diet before and it works - so I know it's worth it). We love our chinese on saturdays. We get Chinese take out every Saturday. And when I say EVERY Saturday... we haven't missed in years. We have Chinese every week. So we'll keep doing that. But the other meals that day will be responsible.
It has only been about 5 days and I am already feeling a difference. More energy and I am losing some of the areas of fat that I put on this summer. It's hard to explain but I lose weight easy in certain areas (other areas come off much, much later).
Of course, exercise is vitally important with any diet. We have been taking long bike rides with Aidan in the bike trailer. We stop off at parks throughout Kingwood so that Aidan can play. We also have been running to the park some nights with the jogging stroller. This way Aidan gets some exercise, too.
This has made for a much better summer. We have slowly but surely been making some changes and now we are kicking it into gear. So far, so good.
