Breakfast
Remember that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is actually where you want to consume the most calories. Breakfast ideas for a diet include cereal that is unsweetened such as Special K and Cheerios. Measure the cereal into a bowl and watch your calorie intake. Use skimmed milk for your cereal and, if possible, add fresh fruit. Blueberries are not only low in calories when compared to other fruits, but they are also very nutritious and high in antioxidants.
Eggs are often criticized for being high in cholesterol, but they are an excellent source of protein. You can have an egg for breakfast as long as you cook it properly. Soft boiled eggs are as good as hard boiled eggs. Though remember that you will not want to eat fried eggs or use butter in any way.
If you like toast, you can eat a slice of whole grain wheat toast with fruit preserves. Use a teaspoon to measure the preserves so that you do indulge too much. You can also spread the toast with low fat peanut butter. Again, use a teaspoon and measure the calories. You will want to keep your calorie intake to about 300 calories for breakfast.
Oatmeal is very good and can be sweetened with honey, which is low in fat, or even maple syrup. Pure maple syrup should be used and not corn syrup, which is high in calories. Oatmeal is very good for maintaining good cholesterol, if filling and works well to get your morning started off on the right foot.
Skip the breakfast bars. They are high in calories, preservatives and fat. If you truly do not want to take time to make breakfast and eat it at home, then take a banana with you on your way to work. A nutrition bar has about 250 calories, a banana has about 70.
You will find, after you have eaten a breakfast, that you will be hungrier for lunch than you would be if you skip breakfast altogether. This is good - it means your metabolism has kicked in and that you are burning calories. Your body is looking for fuel.
Snack
Have a mid morning snack. You can have a number of different things, but they should be measured and the calories counted. An apple is a good source of vitamins, takes a few minutes to eat and can be filling. Be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the morning to continue to keep your metabolism going.
Raisins are also a very good healthy snack, but be mindful of the sugar content. Many so called healthy snack packs like trail mixes are actually very high in calories. Sunflower seeds, unsalted, are a good source of protein. A mid morning snack will take the edge off of your hunger and help you so that you do not overindulge in your lunch.
Lunch
Salads are good for lunch. By this time, you have probably consumed about 400 calories. Your lunch should be something that you brought from home or a salad at a local restaurant. Use a vinegar salad dressing instead of ranch as it is lower in calories. If you can, try eating a salad with just vinegar. I did this once for a week and lost 5 pounds without doing anything else. Vinegar has hardly any calories at all. Salad dressing, on the other hand, can totally wreck your diet.
Oranges are a good source of nutrition and can be good for after lunch. The sweet flavor of the orange will top off the meal and give you a feeling of satisfaction and because they take a while to peel, this will also keep you from being tempted into eating more. Again, you will want to continue drinking water throughout the day, especially with your meals.
Low fat cottage cheese or, better yet, Ricotta cheese, is an excellent source of protein and can be eaten for lunch. The same with low fat yogurt. You have a variety of choices when it comes to you lunch and you can have up to 400 calories. At the end of lunch, you should not still feel hungry.
Snack
Although people scoff at “rabbit food” diets, raw celery and carrots are not only good for you, but they have hardly any calories at all. You do not even have to worry about the calorie intake of celery raw as you burn more calories chewing it than it contains.
When you are snacking after lunch, be sure to stay away from salty snacks such as crackers, as they can cause you to retain water. You will notice the weight starting to come off in the first two days of the diet, although much of this will be water weight. You will also notice that you will be making more trips to the bathroom. This is good as you are flushing the fat (and toxins) out of your system.
Dinner
You want to keep your calories down during dinner and it should be your last meal of the day. You will find that the more you eat in the morning, the less you will feel you need to eat for dinner. You can have a normal dinner with the family, just watch the portions. Keep your calorie intake to the limit and skip dessert. Be mindful of how the meal is cooked. Substitute olive oil for other fats and broil instead of other fats.
One way that you can enjoy dinner without feeling as though you are depriving the entire family as well as yourself is to simply cut your portions in half. Drink a glass of water before the meal to make yourself feel the need to eat less. Eat slowly and chew your food more instead of wolfing it down. This will take you longer to eat and will allow you to feel content in a shorter period of time.
You should, after each meal or snack, feel satisfied and not full. Many people feel that in order to be satisfied with a meal, they have to feel full. You do not want to feel full, you simply do not want to feel hungry. The secret to successful dieting, especially when you are seeking to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, is to eat until you are no longer hungry but not until you are full. By understanding how many calories you are consuming as compared to how many you need, you have a leg up on losing weight. The more you are aware of the calories in the foods that you are eating and the foods that you need to avoid, the easier dieting will become.
I did not want to write a book that gives you details on exactly how much to eat and what on which day as this rarely works. Not everyone has the same tastes when it comes to food and not everyone needs the same amount of calories. The trick is to eat foods that are good for you and will provide you with the nutrition that you need to maintain your body. If the foods that I have listed do not appeal to you, then eat the foods that you normally eat and simply cut the portions in half. Eat breakfast, drink plenty of water and exercise. You will lose the weight if you follow this outline.
To make it even simpler, here is the blueprint of what you have to do to lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks:
1). Find out how many calories you need to sustain your self based on your body type, height, activity
level and gender.
2). Use the sedentary scale for calories you need and cut it by 200.
3). Eat breakfast!
4). Increase your exercise level by performing cardiovascular exercises such as speed walking for at least 10 minutes each day.
5). Eliminate fast foods, fried foods, processed foods, sweets, and frozen foods from your diet.
6). Drink water or unsweetened green tea instead of any other drink and avoid alcohol.
7). Drink 6-8 glasses of water or green tea each day.
8). Consume steady calories throughout the day instead of all in one meal.
This is pretty much all you need to do if you want to lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks. Stick with this routine for three weeks and you will have dropped at least 20 pounds. Some people who have used this diet routine have lost up to 15 pounds in two weeks.
Remember that this is meant to be a short-term diet. If you want to continue to lose weight after you have lost the 20 pounds, you should look to a long term diet and do not expect to lose 7 pounds a week. It is safe, when dieting on a long-term basis, to lose 2 pounds a week.
Stick with the diet and remember that your desire to lose 20 pounds has to exceed your desire to eat. Think of how proud you will be of yourself when you have achieved your weight loss. It is a good idea, to keep yourself motivated in losing weight, to give yourself some sort of reward when you have accomplished your goal.
Remember that if you get sidetracked and end up falling off the wagon, to just pick your-self up and get right back on track. Do not beat yourself up over a mishap - it is in the past and there is nothing that you can do to move time backwards. Concentrate on the future and moving forward.
Tomorrow Ill list the last part of my system: Keeping The Weight Off
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