4 Meal Planning

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Planning Meals or “Eating in the Real World"
Far more important than learning how to follow a diet is the idea of

learning to eat well in the real world. "Eating well" means:

 Satisfying the nutritional needs of your body.

 Eating foods you like.

 Fitting meals into your current lifestyle.

 Getting the results you want.

You probably don't have much trouble with the first three points. Most

Americans easily satisfy (and usually exceed) the nutritional needs of their

bodies for energy, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. You probably eat

foods that you enjoy and the way you're eating probably fits comfortably

into your current lifestyle; but what about the fourth point? Are you as thin

and lean as you would like, do you feel as energetic as you could, is your

cholesterol and blood pressure (sugar) where you want it, are you as healthy

as you would like to be? If you can't answer yes to these questions, then

it's time to examine your eating behaviors. How can you make small changes

which will allow you to eat foods you like, will fit into your lifestyle, will meet

your nutritional needs, and will get you the results you want?

There are five easy to follow rules to "eating well." You can use these

rules at fast food restaurants, fine dining establishments or in your own

kitchen. As long as you are following them the best you can, in each place,

you will get the results you want.
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Rule 1: Plan your meals throughout the day.

There are two parts to this rule; the first part is the PLAN. If you're

like most of us in the U.S., you give very little conscious thought to eating

well. You'll eat foods that are convenient (like donuts at the coffee station

or drive-thru meals at McDonalds) or you may eat what you ALWAYS eat

(habit!). Even though you may like a wide variety of foods, you probably buy

the same foods each week at the grocery store or order the same meals

over and over when you go to restaurants. Try this; quickly try to remember

what you had for dinner one week ago from today. Could you immediately

recall what you had or was your first response to simply blank out. To eat

better, you must start to think about what you're going to eat. With eating,

(as with most of life), if you fail to plan, plan to fail. The rest of the

rules will teach you what to plan, but for now just realize that if you don't

have a plan, you will fall into old habits.

The second part of this rule is THROUGHOUT THE DAY. It's really

quite simple, eat the most when you are the most active and eat the least

when you are the least active. For most of us, this means eating more on the

days you are most active and less on the less active days. On a daily basis

this means eating more, early in the day and less late in the day.

Unfortunately, the opposite is usually true. Your rationale is probably; if

I'm not hungry for breakfast, why eat? And if you're busy during lunch, why

stop to eat? Research has proven that if you eat most of your calories late

in the day, then there is a greater likelihood that more of those calories will

turn into fat. There is a very appropriate name for this eating pattern. It's
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called what I call "Sumo Wrestler Meal Planning." Sumo Wrestlers want to

be fat, so they eat very little during the day when they are training, and eat

most of their food late at night. This way they are assured that those

calories will turn into fat! Even though your food intake may resemble this

pattern, it is just the opposite of what you want.

There are many research studies that prove this point. Individuals

eating most of their calories early in the day, lost more weight than those

who "saved" their calories for the end of the day. Here are the reasons

why. First, if you remember from the nutrition chapter, when you don't give

your body enough energy (blood sugar), it simply reacts by slowing your

metabolism (using less energy) and getting tired so you do less physical

activity. It's essentially saying, “you're not giving me enough energy, so I'd

better learn to survive on less”. It's the same principle that prompts you to

slow down your car and turn off your air conditioner if you find yourself very

low on gas. You're attempting to conserve the gas you have by using less.

Your body is doing the same thing.

Second, when you do give your body food energy, it will try to make up

for everything it didn't eat previously. In other words, once you start to

eat, it is difficult to stop. When you don't eat, your body secretes

hormones, which suppress hunger. That's why individuals who have been on

fasting type diets say they are not hungry after a few days. When you do

finally start to eat, your body secretes other hormones that will keep the

appetite stimulated so you will continue to eat. Your body thinks it is being
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starved and doesn't know when the next meal will be available, so it wants

to stock up! Hence it learns to STORE the energy and as FAT.

Rule 2: Eat a variety of foods at each meal

Eating a VARIETY OF FOODS at each meal will help you in two ways.

First, there are many nutrients and chemicals you need to be healthy.

Obviously all these nutrients can't be found in any one food. So just to meet

your nutritional needs to stay healthy, you should eat a variety of foods.

Second, and perhaps even more important for some one attempting to lose

weight, is the idea of deprivation. Eating small portions of many different

foods is much more satisfying than eating a larger portion of one food. For

example, if you were having broiled chicken for dinner, how much would you

have to eat to feel satisfied? Well, have you just overeaten chicken? What

if you had a garden salad, green beans, baked potato, and sliced fresh

strawberries; now how much broiled chicken would you need to eat to feel

satisfied? Get the point! There is no magical calorie intake or specific

serving size that will guarantee that a person will lose weight (or gain) but

common sense says that the meal with more variety is a more nutritious meal

and that if I were trying to lose weight I could eat more salad or green

beans or strawberries if I were still hungry. A general guideline on adding

variety is to add foods with more color. If you observe most meals you’ll

notice they are made up of foods that are predominately white and brown;

Brown chicken, white rice, brown steak, white potato, etc. Add color!
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Rule 3: Center your meal around the carbohydrate Foods.

When you ask the question "What's for dinner?", what do you expect to

hear? Probably a meat (or protein), such as steak, chicken, fish, ham, or

meatloaf. However, the CARBOHYDRATE FOODS are the foods that

contain the most nutrition and the most usable energy, while providing the

least amount of total calories. Carbohydrate foods are fruits, vegetables,

breads, cereals, grains, pasta, and potatoes.... i.e., from the plant kingdom, or

in other words, any real food that never had a mother. These are the

foods that we now generally call the side dishes but for many years made up

the balk of our diet. These foods contain no cholesterol and very little fat

(and the fats they do have are the better ones called unsaturated fat). They

contribute most of the vitamins and minerals your body needs, and they are

high in fiber and water (which make them very filling). They are generally

the lowest calorie foods in our diet. The only question left is this, are there

any of these foods that you like and would fit into your lifestyle? If so, plan

these foods first when putting a meal together. Consider this rule the

important rule when you are trying to answer the question “what am I
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supposed to eat"? Many of these foods like bread, potatoes, pasta, have

been labeled as the ones that make you fat, and perhaps if eaten in large

amounts they may. Though I have never known anyone personally that has

sat down to eat a meal of 8 baked potatoes, or 12 apples, or a dozen cups of

cooked broccoli. I am sure that some one has actually eaten too much bread

or pasta at one meal, and this is why we would include the rule to add plenty

of variety to each meal. Important to this is to implement rules one and two

before rule three. In terms of ‘other’ carbohydrate foods like soft drinks,

pastries, candies, cookies, “Do these sound like real foods to you”? The

problem that most people have is they prefer to eat the pastries or candy,

and then when they want to lose weight they think first of giving up the

bread and potato. This just doesn't make good sense. After you've put

together a variety of carbohydrate foods, comes the important rule four.
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Rule 4: Minimize fat all the time, sugar and alcohol at any one

time.

After you've planned your meal and the carbohydrate foods are the main

part of the meal, the first part of next rule, MINIMIZE FAT, becomes

important as a way of controlling total calories. Dietary fat has no choice

but to be stored as body fat, so when you are eating that pat of butter, the

oily salad dressing, the cheese sauce, the fatty meat or dessert, you might

as well be putting the fat right on your hips, thighs, stomach or buttocks. In

fact you might as well just visualize all of your dietary fat going to your hips

stomach and butt, directly, and cutting you out is the middleman in the

process. It makes sense that reducing the amount of fat in your diet

could make an impact on the amount of fat you store on your body.

Once the fat is stored on your body the only good way to get rid of it is

to exercise. You do NOT get rid of fat by trying to under eat the next meal

(or day) as your body still has nutrient requirements (see previous section)).

It is not possible to eat a zero fat diet and that is not what is being

suggested. It is important, however, to choose foods and ingredients that

are as low in fat as possible. Low fat is not synonymous with low calories so

use common sense when you use foods with this label.
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The second part of rule four is MINIMIZE SUGAR AND

ALCOHOL at any one time. Though sugar is not the worst thing you

could eat, it's not the best thing either. The problem with sugar is you

can take in a lot of calories with very little food. For example, you

could have 16 jellybeans or a whole baked potato for the same number

of calories. Which is more filling? Which is more nutritious? (I

know, you want me to ask,” which taste the best”?). Another reason to

minimize sugar is the company it keeps. With few exceptions (like the

jellybeans), foods that are high in sugar are also high in fat, i.e.,

cookies, candy bars, donuts, cakes, brownies, ice cream, etc. (stop me

when I get to your favorite).

All dietary fat must be stored as body fat, but some of the

calories from sugar can be used before the storage process.

Therefore, if you must choose between the two, choose sugar. This is

not to say that sugar is good for you it is simply to say that it is

better for you than fat, and if used in a small amount your body may

be able to use it. That's why the rule reads: Minimize fat all the time

and sugar and at any one time. The same is true for alcohol. Alcohol

is not a problem in small amounts (one alcoholic beverage per day).

There is even some research, which indicates this amount of alcohol,

can have a positive effect on your HDL cholesterol levels (the "good"

cholesterol). However, as you probably realize, alcohol has negative

effects if consumed in larger quantities.
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Rule 5: Don't worry about protein.

As you may recall, your body is very good at saving and reusing

proteins; therefore, very little dietary protein is needed each day.

Protein is found in both carbohydrate foods (like vegetables and pasta,

beans bread etc.) and animal products. One way of meeting your

protein needs is to eat a variety of carbohydrate foods each day.

However, since most of us associate protein with meat and other

animal products; it is possible to have a healthy diet that includes

them. The problem with animal protein is that it is usually very high in

fat and is the foods that contain dietary cholesterol. To minimize the

fat, it is necessary to add protein to the diet LAST, LEAN, AND

LESS. If you de-emphasize or add meat last in the meal planning

process you'll be off to a good start. Then try to add leaner proteins,(

i.e., chicken, turkey, fish, and low fat dairy products) and simply use

less of them. Or not at all.
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Selecting the Right Foods
Here is the Food Pyramid. This pyramid is a guide to what foods to
eat and the quantity of foods of eat in order to eat healthier. Here
are the examples of the amount of foods to eat.

Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese

1 cup of milk or yogurt 1 ½ ounces of natural 2 ounces of process
cheese cheese

Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs, and Nuts

2-3 ounces of cooked ½ cup of cooked dry beans, 1 egg, or 2
lean meat, poultry, or tablespoons of peanut butter count as 1 ounce
fish of lean meat.

Vegetable

1 cup of raw leafy ½ cup of other ¾ cup of vegetable
vegetables vegetables, cooked or juice
chopped raw

Fruit

1 meduim apple, ½ cup of chopped, ¾ cup of fruit juice
banana, orange cooked, or canned
fruit

Bread, Cereal, Rice, and Pasta

1 slice of bread 1 ounce of ready-to- ½ cup of cooked
eat cereal cereal, rice or pasta
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This should give you a better picture of what to eat and how much to

eat. However the tables below should give more of a planner of what