Designing a Menu

Designing a Weight Loss Menu
That Is Healthful and Delicious

Keep in mind when you design your menu that each of us is different concerning the pattern of our meals. Some want to eat the same foods every day. Others want a lot of variety. Either way works. You don't need to conform to someone else's diet plan if it is not the way you like to eat. Design meals that are nuitritious and still fit your taste and your way of life.

Start your menu planning using the chart below. I plan four items per meal, but you may want to do three or five. It will depend on your weight and how big your servings are. Let your scale tell you if you need to make adjustments.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

__________________ __________________ __________________

__________________ __________________ __________________

__________________ __________________ __________________

__________________ __________________ __________________

Begin filling it in with healthful foods that your like. Don't try to force yourself to eat foods that you don't like just because they are good for you. There are enough choices available that you should never have to eat something that is distasteful to you.

Start with low-fat proteins

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

1 c cereal with
1 c ff milk

__________________

4 oz shrimp sauteed
in 1 t olive oil

2 T chopped nuts

1/4 c ff cheese

__________________

1/4 c garbanzos

__________________

c=cup, T=tablespoon, t=teaspoon, oz=ounces, ff=fat free

After adding proteins to your food plan menu chart,the second item to enter is avegetable or fruit

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

1 c cereal with
1 c ff milk

2 c lettuce

4 oz shrimp sauteed
in 1 t olive oil

2 T chopped nuts

1/4 c ff cheese

1/2 c pineapple chunks

1/2 banana

1/4 c garbanzos

1/2 c green beans

__________________

2T dried cranberries

__________________

The last line for each meal on your menu chart, should there be one left, is for optional items. It can be for a caloric beverage such as an alcoholic cocktail, a sweetened soft drink, latte, coffee with cream, sugar-sweetened tea, sugar-sweetened lemonade, or fruit juice; OR a bread such as a dinner roll, white sliced bread, english muffin, bagel; OR a dessert. Watch your calories and fat content on these optional items. Be aware of the carb count if you are watching that.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

1 c cereal with
1 c ff milk

2 c lettuce

4 oz shrimp sauteed
in 1 t olive oil

2 T chopped nuts

1/4 c ff cheese

1/2 c pineapple chunks

1/2 banana

1/4 c garbanzos

1/2 c green beans

coffee & cream

2 T dried cranberries
(12 oz diet soda)

1/2 slice key lime
(unsweetened iced tea)

You can have a calorie-free beverage with your meal. I recommend that if you have diet soda, you pour it over ice and sip it slowly at the end of your meal as a dessert. Otherwise, all those bubbles can make you think you are full before you really are. Try the vanilla flavored diet sodas. They taste like dessert!
Now that you have a handle on menu planning, it is time to add exercise to your regimen
return to meal planning
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Designing a Weight Loss Menu That Is Healthful and Delicious

Designing a Weight Loss Menu
That Is Healthful and Delicious