YOU on a Diet .....

[jezzie]

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My YOU plan .....

1. Starting on Friday I am going to follow a strict menu, six days a week, for three weeks.

2. Then I will go to ''pick and stick'' for breakfast and lunch and vary my dinner each night.

(Pick and stick means I will have only two or three choices for both breakfast and lunch.)


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[jezzie]

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Three Week YOU plan menus


Tuesdays and Fridays:

Pre-Breakfast:
2 cups half decaf with evaporated milk
12 almnds

Breakfast:
1 cup oatmeal (dry measure) w/cinnamon, SF syrup
orange

Snack:
Dan Active smoothie
1/2 cup Fiber One

Lunch:
PB & J sandwich on organic 7 grain w/flax bread
1/2 cup sliced cucumber w/spritz french dressing

Snack:
hb egg w/LF mayo
4 oz. 100% cranberry/concord grape juice

Dinner:
brown rice and beans
a green vegetable
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[Patlaf]

Jezzie, what is a Dan active smoothie.

Pat

[jezzie]

It's a smoothie made by Dannon called Dan Active.

[jezzie]

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Three Week YOU plan menus


Wednesdays and Saturdays:

Pre-Breakfast:
2 cups half decaf with evaporated milk
12 almnds

Breakfast:
1 cup Fiber One w/evaporated milk
orange

Snack:
8 oz. soy milk
banana

Lunch:
whole wheat pasta w/sauce and parmesan
salad or green vegetable

Snack:
fruit or 6 oz. 100% concord grape/cranberry juice
6 walnut halves

Dinner:
salmon (baked in garlic, olive oil/vinegar)
green vegetable

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[jezzie]

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Three Week YOU plan menus


Mondays and Thursdays:

Pre-Breakfast:
2 cups half decaf with evaporated milk
12 almnds

Breakfast:
1 cup oatmeal (dry measure) w/cinnamon, sf syrup
orange

Snack:
8 oz. soy milk
banana

Lunch:
whole wheat pasta w/sauce and parmesan
salad or green vegetable

Snack:
fruit or 6 oz. 100% concord grape/cranberry juice

Dinner:
grilled cheese sandwich on 7 grain w/flax bread
sweet potato

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[Patlaf]

Jezzie,

On the other side of the Pond we have Dannon Activa plain yogurt--full fat or 0% fat, but no smoothies. If I whipped the yogurt with some ice and protein powder would that be the same as your smoothie?

Pat

[jezzie]

You: Tip


Where Fat Lives

Fat is like real estate: It's all about location, location, location. And when it comes to body fat, the belly is the least desirable location.

We all have fat in three places: in our bloodstream (called triglycerides), just below the skin's surface
(called subcutaneous fat), and in a layer of tissue located inside the belly that hangs underneath the muscles of your stomach (called omentum fat).

Because omentum fat is so close to your vital organs, it's property you want to unload. It greedily intrudes on all the other structures around it, squishing the diaphragm and lungs, which makes breathing difficult, and squashing the kidneys and their blood supply.

More: Because the omentum can store fat that is quickly accessible to the liver, it can cause lousy (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels to rise. It also sucks insulin out of circulation, which makes your blood sugar level climb.

But the good news is that as soon as you reduce waist-expanding omentum fat, your body starts seeing the effects. In other words, once your body senses it's losing that fat, your body's blood-related numbers -- cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar -- start traveling in a healthy direction.


Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

YOU Tips

* Make Your Eating Plan Automatic
Over a 14-day period, train yourself to make good-for-YOU menu choices. You’ll reprogram your body so YOU will be in charge of what you’re eating.

Eat three main meals, plus snacks, so you’re never hungry.
Eat the same things for breakfast and lunch almost every day. Yes, every day. People who minimize food choices lose more weight.

* Remember That Waist Is More Important Than Weight
Because of its proximity to vital organs, belly fat is the most dangerous fat you can carry, and it is one of the strongest predictors of health risks (heart disease, diabetes, and more bad stuff) associated with obesity.

Ditch the scale in favor of the tape measure.
Measure your waist and aim small: Ideal is 32½ inches or less for women and 35 inches or less for men.

* Stay Satisfied
To lose weight, you need to eat.

Eat often -- five or six times throughout the day -- so you’re constantly satisfied. Slipping into starvation mode makes your body want to store fat.
Eat plenty of fiber in the morning; it helps control afternoon cravings.

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[jezzie]

YOU Tips

* Add Support
Enlist a friend, family member, or new online buddy as your partner. Everyone needs encouragement -- or an occasional prod.

After finishing your 30-minute walk every day, call a buddy or post on the YOU board for a pat on the back.
When you start the 20-minute workout, do the same thing.

* Know That It’s OK to Make Mistakes
As long as you quickly get back on the right road, you won’t travel too far down the wrong one. Just make a YOU-turn to change course.


A Few Final Tips . . .

Check food labels: Don’t buy anything with more than 4 grams of saturated fat or 4 grams of any sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup) per serving. Sat fat is an aging fat that’s bad for your whole body, and simple sugars make you crave high-calorie foods.
Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Fatigue also makes you crave sugary foods. Why? They release the brain chemicals that a lack of sleep leaves you short on.
[b] Eat a little healthy fat [/B ]-- like a handful of walnuts -- about 20 minutes before a meal. It will take the edge off, so you won’t be tempted to overeat.
Choose elegance over force: Weight-loss battles are won when you diet smart, not hard.

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[Sweeter-than-Splenda]

Hi Jezzie!

Thanks for starting this thread! I was doing YOU: On a diet for a few weeks and did wonderful....but...sadly fell by the wayside and got off track.

Good news is I am BACK on track and I know this thread will help me be more accountable.

I love this book! IT is full of great ideas and information!

Looks like you are doing great with your menus! Would you mind if I posted my menus on here too and help motivate each other to keep on track?

How long have you been doing this eating plan and how have you been doing? Do you walk the 30 min everyday? I just started back today after eating too much junk on my vacation.

Today:

Brkfst: 1 cup Kashi WW cereal
1/4 c. raisons
1/2 skim FF milk
coffee made with cinnamon ( I thought I wouldn't like it that way, but now I love it and can't drink it plain!)

Lunch: Slimfast High protein shake
1 cup fresh strawberries w/ 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese w/cinnamon on top.

Dinner will be : grilled chicken
lettuce salad
SF jello w/ fruit and FF cool whip

Lots of water, one Diet rite soda (I'm weaning my way off sodas all together)

Exercise: 30 min walk

Tonight I'm making a batch of Steel Cut oats w/flax seed so I can have that every morning for breakfast. I find it very filling and I love it!

Here is to success! We CAN do it!!!

[jezzie]

Hi

Your menu looks very good.

How long have you been doing this eating plan and how have you been doing?
Do you walk the 30 min everyday?

I started on March 7th and I've lost thirteen pounds so far.
Not as fast, or as dramatic, a loss as I had with Atkins .....
but I think I can stick with the YOU plan. I couldn't with Atkins.

I'd say I walk about 80% of the days. I'm working on that.

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[jezzie]

YOU tip ...


What Should You Eat?

As you choose from the five major food groups, focus on foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients. Eating this way helps you get the necessary vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fats without getting more calories than you need to maintain your weight.

And eating this way can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger!

After you've kicked out nutritional felons like simple sugars and trans fats, stock your fridge, freezer, and pantry with these items: Fruits and veggies: Aim for four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables daily. A serving fits in the palm of your hand.

High-fiber fruits and veggies like broccoli, apples, and raspberries will help satisfy your hunger longer than low-fiber produce. Are you getting enough fruits and veggies?

Whole grains: Whole-grain breads, cereals, rice, and pasta are high in fiber and B vitamins. They slow digestion and help keep blood-sugar levels steady.

Low-fat or nonfat dairy: Yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk provide calcium for strong bones.

How many years younger could you be if you ate 25 grams of fiber -- instead of just 12 -- per day?

Lean meats: If you eat meat, choose skinless chicken and turkey for lean protein options. Fish is another wise choice because it's a great source of heart-healthy fats. Check out the top five low-mercury, heart-healthy fish.

Nuts: Crunchy, satisfying, and full of healthful fats, an ounce of nuts per day makes the perfect snack for people managing their waists. Read why.

The best diet meets your nutritional needs and provides just enough calories to fuel your day. So if you're satisfied with your current weight, balance your daily calorie intake with your physical activity level.

If you're trying to shed a few pounds, making the kitchen switches outlined above is a great first step in getting more of the healthy-but-still-fills-you-up foods into your diet.

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[Sweeter-than-Splenda]

Originally Posted by jezzie

I started on March 7th and I've lost thirteen pounds so far.
Not as fast, or as dramatic, a loss as I had with Atkins .....
but I think I can stick with the YOU plan. I couldn't with Atkins.

I'd say I walk about 80% of the days. I'm working on that.

.

Good morning! Sounds like you are doing great so far! Remember what Dr. Oz says too "it's not the lost weight that counts the most, but the inches around your waist." Have you measured lately? I bet you have lost many inches too! Congrats and keep up the great work!

I dug out my YOU book last night and am starting to re-read it. I agree with you, this way of eating is much easier than Atkins. I LOVE fruit so I am so happy I can eat it and still lose pounds and inches! I'm not much of a veggie eater though so that is one area I need to work on. I tend to just eat salads and green beans. But, at least it's something!

Here is my menu for today:

Breakfast: 1 cup cooked steel cut oats w/ flax seed, cinnamon and Splenda Topped with fresh strawberries

Morning snack: Medium sized apple

Lunch: Turkey on once slice of WW bread w/ mustard, low fat cheese and lettuce.

Afternoon snack: 1/2 c strawberries topped with 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese w/ cinnamon and a few nuts on top.

Dinner: Grilled lean hamburger (no bun) salad and fresh cantalope

Well, I'm off to the gym to walk my 30 min walk around the air conditioned track!

Have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

[jezzie]

I LOVE fruit so I am so happy I can eat it and still lose pounds and inches!
I'm not much of a veggie eater though

Me too. I'm getting better.
I do like corn, cauliflower, lima beans, asparagus, cooked spinach and summer squash.

I've lost 2.5 inches in my waist. ... I really should measure once a month but I forget.

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[jezzie]

Pre-Breakfast:
2 cups half decaf with evaporated milk
12 almnds

Breakfast:
1 cup oatmeal (dry measure) w/cinnamon, SF syrup
orange

Snack:
Dan Active smoothie
1/2 cup Fiber One

Lunch:
PB & J sandwich on organic 7 grain w/flax bread
1/2 cup sliced cucumber w/spritz french dressing

Snack:
deviled egg w/LF mayo
4 oz. 100% cranberry/concord grape juice

Dinner:
brown rice and beans
spinach
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[jezzie]

YOU tip ...


Restock Your Fridge

The first step to getting on the path to better eating is to take stock of your pantry! Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen say there are five ingredients that should be banned from your diet forever.

The first ingredient to avoid is hydrogenated oil, which often masquerades as partially hydrogenated oil. Dr. Roizen says we should also eliminate sugar and high fructose corn syrup from our foods. "We eat 63 pounds of [high fructose corn syrup] a year, which puts 33 pounds on the typical American," he says.

Enriched flour is the fourth ingredient to avoid. "[Enriched] means they took all the good stuff out and put a little back," Dr. Roizen says. In 1960, Americans didn't use enriched flour, but today we consume 63 pounds a year, he says.

The fifth offenders are white foods —including bleached flour. The only white items you should have in your fridge are egg whites, cauliflower and fish, Dr. Roizen says.

Finished clearing your kitchen of bad fats, sugars, and carbs? Start shopping for the good-for-your-waist foods that make it easy (and automatic!) to eat right.

Include fire-extinguisher munchies -- good foods that will put out three-alarm starvation fires. Pick up ready-to-eat snacks for those times you're likely to reach for waist-killing chips or sweets.

Our list includes almonds, peanuts, or walnuts; bags of prechopped fruits and veggies; dried fruit (apricots, cranberries); and edamame (soybeans -- look for microwavable bags in the frozen-food section).

Plus, snacking on edamame will boost your bone health, and munching on a handful of nuts will promote heart health.
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[jezzie]

YOU tip ...

Food Shopping

Whole grains (bread, cereal, rice, pasta) provide the foundation of a healthful diet.

You should consume 6 to 11 servings a day from this food group.

Not only are whole grains nutrient-packed but they are also high in fiber that aids in the prevention of colon cancer and other digestive disorders.

Overall, the trick to navigating through grocery store aisles is to look for less . . . on the label. Generally, fewer ingredients equal better foods.

For instance, natural foods that come from the ground usually don't require labels. That's why any produce is basically OK for you.

One caveat: Make sure it has a great feel, a healthy smell, and has not been waxed.

Also, we believe in working from the inside of the store out, so that heat and bacteria have less time to sap nutrients from your produce before you get home.
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[jezzie]

Make Eating Automatic

To lose weight, start each day knowing when and what you're going to eat. Then, don't think about it again.

Plan three main meals plus snacks, so you're never hungry. That way, you'll avert the 180-degree shift between starving and gorging that occurs when you skip meals. Eating often and automating your eating are two keys to waist management.

Stick with the YOU plan for 14 days and you'll learn to do both, which will start reprogramming your body so that you never again have to sweat over what you're eating.

More: Two more key elements of waist-loss success: Don't eat within 3 hours of bedtime, and make dessert an every-other-day treat.

Also, since research shows that your surroundings affect how much you eat at meals, give some thought to your dining environment. Specifically, to create a mood that discourages indulgence and overeating, use a little dining room feng shui:

Choose bright lights, not soft lights.
Choose a warm room temperature, not a cool one.
Choose conversation, not music or TV, which can distract you into eating more.
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[jezzie]

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Pre-Breakfast:
2 cups half decaf with evaporated milk
12 almnds

Breakfast:
1 cup Fiber One w/evaporated milk
orange

Snack:
8 oz. soy milk
banana

Lunch:
whole wheat pasta w/sauce and parmesan
salad

Snack:
6 oz. 100% concord grape/cranberry juice
6 walnut halves

Dinner:
salmon (baked in garlic, olive oil/vinegar)
chopped broccoli
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[jezzie]

•All About YOU: Be Artery-Smart

How artery-smart are you? In other words, how well do you understand the aging effects that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other health threats have on your arteries?

Here's a one-question quiz to help clue you in. Which of the following poses the greatest threat to your arteries?

1) An elevated blood pressure of 160/90 mm Hg
2) An elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL
3) An elevated helping of fried zucchini sticks
4) An elevated amount of time spent on the couch




The answer is . . .

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Blood pressure of 160/90 mm Hg is more than three times more of a threat to make your arteries dysfunctional than any of the other conditions.

That doesn't mean you should go ahead and stay camped out on the couch or ignore unhealthy cholesterol values. It just means that your blood pressure may be the most important number you know, other than your spouse's birthday, especially if your blood pressure is higher than 160/90.

Optimally, you want to keep your blood pressure at 115/75. That's the level at which you'll see the least aging.

Of course, there are many ways to lower your blood pressure, including medications, physical activity, and diet. Losing weight helps, too. Being overweight not only increases blood pressure but also puts you at risk for diabetes.

[jezzie]

•Why Salads Make You Smart

What do vintage cars, sterling silver, and your brain have in common? They lose their brilliance without enough TLC.

Keeping your car tuned and your silver polished is pretty straightforward. To buff up your brain? Spinach. Leafy greens help slow the rate at which people's minds naturally lose their edge due to aging. Eat three or more servings of these veggies each day and you'll slow mental decline by as much as 40 percent.

Spelled out another way: Eating leafy greens can make your brain function more like the brain of someone who's 5 years younger! Someone pass the vinaigrette. Here's why veggies are so great for gray matter . . .

Like everything else, brain function declines with age -- unless you do something about it. Staying physically and mentally active helps preserve brainpower, and so can the foods you eat, if you make the right choices. In a study of people age 65 and older, leafy greens (spinach, kale, collard greens, lettuce) were declared the hands-down produce winners when it came to preserving brain function. Also near the top of the list were zucchini, squash, eggplant, and broccoli.

What makes these veggies so super for saving your smarts? Probably brain-friendly nutrients like vitamin E, carotenoids, and flavonoids. Eat your leafy greens with a little fat (such as olive oil or a sprinkling of nuts) to help your body absorb and use all those good-for-you, fat-soluble nutrients.

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[jezzie]

•How Low-Carb Diets Affect Your Ticker

So maybe you love your low-carb diet like Mickey loves Minnie. But is it good for your heart?

Actually, low-carb diets appear to have little impact, one way or another, on heart disease risk -- unless you make one important adjustment: Favor veggie-derived fats and proteins.

We're talking beans, tofu, nuts, legumes, olive oil, and the like. Women who did this as part of their low-carb lifestyle had up to a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to the other women in the study.

Heart benefits notwithstanding, there are other issues to consider when eating low-carb, including . . .

Researchers are still investigating a multitude of issues associated with eating a low-carb diet, such as whether it will affect renal function, bone strength, or cancer risk over the long term. The jury is still out on all of that.

But researchers looking into women's diets and heart disease risk did reach a verdict: At the end of a 20-year study, low-carb diets in general did little to affect the risk of heart disease.

But if the low-carb eaters tended to nix steak, eggs, full-fat dairy, and other saturated-fat-filled foods in favor of vegetable sources of protein and fat, they did enjoy healthier hearts as a result.

And a surprising find: The body mass indexes of the women in the study increased an average of 2.5 units over the 20-year period, regardless of how their carb, protein, and fat intake was divvied up.

So it may serve you well to obsess less about whether the stuff on your plate contains more fat, protein, or carbs, and focus more on whether it comes from flora or fauna.

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[jezzie]

3 Ways to Lick the Salt Habit

Is your blood pressure just a little high? Taste your food before you salt it.

Seems that letting go of the shaker provides big ben