Ask any nutritionist, physical trainer, or doctor and they'll tell you the key ingredient to losing weight is DIET. Obviously an active life style helps, but you won't lose weight if you eat poorly all day.
After researching and talking to people who were successful in losing weight, I spent time developing a daily meal plan. YES. Every day. Every meal. Every snack. It takes time, but with tools like MyFitnessPal and Googling "<item> nutrition" I was able to easily put numbers to the big 4 macros of every dish: Carbs, Fat, Protein, Calories. I put together a weekly meal plan over the weekend, make a grocery list and then go buy the food I need on Sunday. Food prep for the next day takes me
~15-30 minutes every evening.
I'm a bit old school, so I used Excel to list out my food items and sum up values (copy/paste is a big help!). A friend suggested I take my target weight and multiply by 10 to get my daily calorie limit. She then recommended my total calories for the day be 100-150 below that number, so I can (guilt free) have a cup of coffee in the morning or even the occasional small glass of wine in the evening. My target calorie intake for a day is ~1200 and I had 30 lbs to lose to get to my target weight.
There are 5 meals throughout the day: Breakfast, Morning Snack, Lunch, Afternoon Snack, and Dinner - each meal is 175-250 calories. The calories total ~1050 a day. There are many opinions about the Carb-Fat-Protein Ratio. Most will tell you that to lose weight you should increase the Protein you eat, reduce the Carbs and especially Fat. I do not have a ratio goal, but I do try to have less Fat intake vs. Carb or Protein every day.
I don't like to eat the same food every day or every week, because then I'll get bored and cheat. I try to switch things up within the calorie ranges for every 'meal'. For the first week, which I just finished, I stuck to very generic items. For example, I had baked (seasoned) salmon for dinner with steamed cauliflower. After just 1 week I got the hang of portion sizes and types of food I should be eating and started looking into some other healthy options. Skinnytaste is helpful since the nutritional information is already completed for you! I also found recipes online and used MyFitnessPal to make sure I stayed within the ranges I needed.
Here is an example of 1 day (portion sizes removed):
Breakfast: Egg+egg white omelette with spinach, tomatoes, and low fat cheese
Morning Snack: 1 orange and raw almonds
Lunch: Chicken Wrap (roasted chicken, lettuce, tomato, low fat cheese on a whole wheat tortilla)
Afternoon Snack: Grapes and Yogurt
Dinner: Baked Salmon and Steamed Cauliflower
I also did a lot of reading about how to jump start your metabolism. I have no idea if this is contributing to anything, but I did buy B-Complex Sublingual Liquid and take that 2-3x a day.
Throughout the day I drink coffee with flavored creamer in the morning (not the healthiest, but I am pretty stubborn with my coffee!), water, and maybe an occasional Bai drink (10 calories and 18g Carbs per bottle).
I lost 4-5 lbs in the 1st week, but did not always eat the full meals in the day. I need to work on that. I did not work out this first week. I will add that in as I go. Fingers crossed for continued progress!
If you have a significant other, try to get them on board with your healthy plans! In the past I sometimes failed at eating healthy because I was eating plain baked chicken and my boyfriend might be eating pizza. My boyfriend is currently eating the same meals I am (slightly bigger portions) and has also seen some weight loss. He is even coming up with creative dinner ideas within the calorie limits. :)
Other Meal Plans: Over a year ago I tried the 21 Day Fix, but I didn't plan very well. 1.5 weeks into the plan I went on a long weekend trip and also got a pulled muscle. I started cheating pretty quickly. I did see results in the 1.5 weeks, but felt the plan cut back on items I really enjoyed eating and are relatively healthy in moderation (hummus and avocado, I'm talking about you!). Consequently, I had food cravings and it was a struggle. It's not a bad plan and worth trying.
After researching and talking to people who were successful in losing weight, I spent time developing a daily meal plan. YES. Every day. Every meal. Every snack. It takes time, but with tools like MyFitnessPal and Googling "<item> nutrition" I was able to easily put numbers to the big 4 macros of every dish: Carbs, Fat, Protein, Calories. I put together a weekly meal plan over the weekend, make a grocery list and then go buy the food I need on Sunday. Food prep for the next day takes me
~15-30 minutes every evening.
I'm a bit old school, so I used Excel to list out my food items and sum up values (copy/paste is a big help!). A friend suggested I take my target weight and multiply by 10 to get my daily calorie limit. She then recommended my total calories for the day be 100-150 below that number, so I can (guilt free) have a cup of coffee in the morning or even the occasional small glass of wine in the evening. My target calorie intake for a day is ~1200 and I had 30 lbs to lose to get to my target weight.
There are 5 meals throughout the day: Breakfast, Morning Snack, Lunch, Afternoon Snack, and Dinner - each meal is 175-250 calories. The calories total ~1050 a day. There are many opinions about the Carb-Fat-Protein Ratio. Most will tell you that to lose weight you should increase the Protein you eat, reduce the Carbs and especially Fat. I do not have a ratio goal, but I do try to have less Fat intake vs. Carb or Protein every day.
I don't like to eat the same food every day or every week, because then I'll get bored and cheat. I try to switch things up within the calorie ranges for every 'meal'. For the first week, which I just finished, I stuck to very generic items. For example, I had baked (seasoned) salmon for dinner with steamed cauliflower. After just 1 week I got the hang of portion sizes and types of food I should be eating and started looking into some other healthy options. Skinnytaste is helpful since the nutritional information is already completed for you! I also found recipes online and used MyFitnessPal to make sure I stayed within the ranges I needed.
Here is an example of 1 day (portion sizes removed):
Breakfast: Egg+egg white omelette with spinach, tomatoes, and low fat cheese
Morning Snack: 1 orange and raw almonds
Lunch: Chicken Wrap (roasted chicken, lettuce, tomato, low fat cheese on a whole wheat tortilla)
Afternoon Snack: Grapes and Yogurt
Dinner: Baked Salmon and Steamed Cauliflower
I also did a lot of reading about how to jump start your metabolism. I have no idea if this is contributing to anything, but I did buy B-Complex Sublingual Liquid and take that 2-3x a day.
Throughout the day I drink coffee with flavored creamer in the morning (not the healthiest, but I am pretty stubborn with my coffee!), water, and maybe an occasional Bai drink (10 calories and 18g Carbs per bottle).
I lost 4-5 lbs in the 1st week, but did not always eat the full meals in the day. I need to work on that. I did not work out this first week. I will add that in as I go. Fingers crossed for continued progress!
If you have a significant other, try to get them on board with your healthy plans! In the past I sometimes failed at eating healthy because I was eating plain baked chicken and my boyfriend might be eating pizza. My boyfriend is currently eating the same meals I am (slightly bigger portions) and has also seen some weight loss. He is even coming up with creative dinner ideas within the calorie limits. :)
Other Meal Plans: Over a year ago I tried the 21 Day Fix, but I didn't plan very well. 1.5 weeks into the plan I went on a long weekend trip and also got a pulled muscle. I started cheating pretty quickly. I did see results in the 1.5 weeks, but felt the plan cut back on items I really enjoyed eating and are relatively healthy in moderation (hummus and avocado, I'm talking about you!). Consequently, I had food cravings and it was a struggle. It's not a bad plan and worth trying.
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