Food Plan for Learning to Eat Clean
1. Have a plan for healing your body and work your plan. You will be creating a list of the foods you enjoy. Be sure to list the food, portion of food, calories, and other nutrients you care to record. You will be designing your list to add variety and choice to your daily food plan. I know that you think it would be easier to pick out “good” foods. Any food that you can control the portion size is a good food for you. Don’t sabotage yourself by choosing foods you already know that you can’t or won’t control the amount you eat. You may choose to add them in the future after your weight loss. Also don’t choose foods that you think you “should” like. Eat only foods that you enjoy.
Your list will have 6 columns listing the food, portion, calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fiber. If you have a gmail account, you can easy create this table on Google drive for free. Open a new doc, name it, and then insert table. Choose 6 columns across and 20 rows down. Put in the column titles and list your foods.
The following link is to a sample table I use. It has a few of the foods I love — Google doc for measuring my foods.
2. Decide your heaviest eating time period. Be sure to have healthy foods on hand for those craving periods. Learn about cravings and use chickpea salad recipe to curb cravings and give you a feeling of fullness (plus it is good for you). In the chickpea salad, I don’t use red onions but use small green onions or chopped up sweet onion. Nor do I use any lettuce. I use sweet onions.
3. Don’t ever go on a diet. Diets are deprivation. Life is to be lived and enjoyed. Instead develop your own food program. Your food program should include the things you love to eat. Choose to eat from a small plate. Eat half as much as you used to eat. I use a 1 cup measure. Try eating 4–6 small meals (calories 100–300) instead of larger meals. Turn into a healthy snacker.
4. Remove food temptations from your home. If you are eating right, you will never be uncomfortable after eating. Give away all processed food. Canned foods are OK but no chips, etc.
5. Develop a list of 20–30 healthy things that you like to eat that are 100–300 calories each. Be sure to include several of these daily and always have them on hand. Put cooked lentils into several of your food choices for added fiber.
6. Break away from people who aren’t supportive of your choice to be healthy. Criticism is not support. You need to be around people that love and support you. From time to time, you may have someone around you who is draining your energy. They “yes, but” you about everything. I say about these people that I can’t emotionally afford them. How can I help anyone if I allow one person to drain me? Our energy is like a battery — drain the battery, no energy. You can gain support from one of Facebook pages- Emotional Sobriety.
7. Weight loss is 90% what you eat no matter whether you exercise or not. Overeating is a mental problem. Find healthy ways to feel good about yourself. Helping others fills your heart and your soul. It also makes you feel good about you. Just don’t reward yourself with food.
8. Find others to help with their food plan. Sometimes, you may reach a plateau. What happens as we lose weight is that the body adjusts to the smaller weight so we have to recreate what we have been eating Always use the calories needed chart to determine the calories you can intake. Adding exercise at this point may aid in the weight loss.
9. Always, always maintain a healthy, well-stocked pantry of canned foods that help you; the beans and vegetables that you enjoy. All beans will be your best friends as they are high in protein and fiber. My two main protein sources are beans and fish. I follow a pescatarian food plan. “What is a Pescatarian and What Do They Eat?”
