1200 Diet Menu: Day 3

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With the exception of dinner, the 1200 Diet Menu for Day 3 of the latest 7 day plan is the same as Day 1. This saves you both time and money. I don’t know about you, but I feel better when I make good use of the fresh food in the kitchen that I already have and not let anything go to waste! As with Day 1, both breakfast and lunch will require a few minutes of meal preparation but that’s it. I’ve included the recipes on this page as well as Day 1 so you won’t have to go hunting for them. For dinner, I’ve chosen a Spa Cuisine Classic from Lean Cuisine of Salmon w/Basil. This is a healthy choice but it needed a little rounding out for balanced nutrition. So I added a serving of green peas and a slice of whole wheat bread with a little fresh avocado for a tasty and nutritious spread. To modify today’s menu for a 1300, 1400, or 1500 calorie diet, look for my comments below. 1200 Calorie Diet Menu (Day 3) Breakfast 2 Kashi Honey Oat Waffles (160 calories) Yogurt Peanut Butter Spread 1?2 cup Orange Juice (55 calories) (For the spread: Simply mix 2 oz. of fat free plain yogurt and 1/2 tbsp. of peanut butter. This is an easy and delicious way to add a little more calcium and protein to your diet. And it eliminates the less healthy butter/margarine and/or syrup. Might save you some calories also!) Snack 1 piece Sargento String Cheese (80) Lunch Whole Wheat Sandwich with Turkey & Pear 1/8 cup (2 Tbsp.) 4 Cheese Mexican Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese (38 calories, Sargento) 1 6 oz. container low fat Stonyfield Farm yogurt (your choice of flavor, 130 calories) Water, unsweetened tea, or coffee (Make a sandwich with Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins. Add 6 oz. of shaved turkey, 1/2 ripe pear sliced, and 2 tsp. of spicy brown mustard. Add cheese for a little extra flavor and calcium.) Snack 1 medium apple Supper 1 Lean Cuisine - Spa Cuisine Classic - Salmon w/Basil (220 calories) 1/2 cup green peas (frozen, boiled and drained) 1/2 roll Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin (50 calories) 1/4 avocado Water, unsweetened tea, or coffee (Always remember to get plenty of water throughout the day. Read Water, Weight, and Women to learn more about your water needs.) Total Calories = 1229 Total Fiber = 30.2 g Fat = 23% Carbs = 55% Protein = 21% (U.S. Dietary Guidelines Recommended percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, Protein 10-35%) Calcium = 1000 mg (Women between 19 and 50 years need approximately 1,000 mg a day, 51+ need 1,200 + mg a day) Iron = 8.2 mg (Women 19 to 50 years need 18 mg of iron, 51+ need 8 mg) 1300, 1400, or 1500 Calorie Diet Menu This menu has a fairly good balance of nutrients. However, it is low in iron for younger women with regular monthly menstrual cycles. This might be a good day for a supplement. The menu is also a little short on calcium for postmenopausal women. If this describes you, you may want to supplement this menu with another serving of a low fat milk product. Or be sure to take a calcium supplement (with vitamin D). Otherwise, for women of all ages, simply add an additional serving or two of one of the menu items or other food of your choice to bring the total calories up to the level you need. (I encourage you to read my article on how to determine the minimum SAFE caloric intake for you: 1200 Calorie Diet: How to Get Started! or How Many Calories Per Day Do I Need? ) If you’ve read this far, good for you! Here are the links for day one and two of this latest weekly plan: Diet Menu Plan Weekly Diet Menu: Day 2 My sincere apologies for the delay in getting the newest menu plan up on the website! In addition to some big changes coming up in my personal life (we might be moving and I need to get my house ready!), I’ve also been putting a lot of time and effort into getting my notes together to write more articles, reports, and hopefully one or more books to make the challenge of weight loss with healthy eating a little bit easier. Hope this latest 1200 Diet Menu Plan helps. Till next time watch those calories and eat healthy food! calories weight loss calories, weight lossmenu plan day 3 healthy nutritious healthy foods diet weight loss

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Recent Weight Loss News

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I want to share with you my thoughts about some of the newer developments in our knowledge about weight loss and weight management. When it comes to healthy eating and weight loss, Nutritionists, dietitians, and other health professionals can only share the best information we know based on the latest in science-based research. At any given point in time our knowledge is incomplete. That’s simply the nature of how research works. Please be cautious about believing what you read and hear about in the news! All too often you may learn about a new method, product, or service in the media that promises “the answer” to YOUR challenges in achieving your goal weight and better health. Always pause to ask if it’s the real deal. As the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Weight management is very complicated. You know that. I know that. However, it is nice to hold on to the hope for an easy solution. Let’s take a look at some of the latest information about weight loss in the news. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted by Dr. Daniel Amen A fascinating television program about the newest book written by Dr. Daniel Amen was aired recently on PBS festival week (fund-raising week) in Iowa. I was intrigued by the information he shared. He claims that differences in brain function from one person to the next influences not only a person’s mental health BUT ALSO that person’s ability to lose weight. He is, of course, the owner of the solution for you to assess what your brain might be like as well as the specific remedy. All for a price. I have no difficulty accepting that the brain and in turn the way we think influences the ability to succeed with any weight loss program. That there might be a specific and unique remedy for each person is intriguing. On the other hand, as with almost any other recommendation for any weight loss program, Dr. Amen stresses the need to eat a healthy diet, restrict calories, get exercise, and be sure to get enough sleep. These are all the same things I cover on this website. If you follow these recommendations you are likely to lose weight regardless of any other change. What troubled me most was learning more about the story behind having such a program aired on PBS. Like many people, I have a tendency to be more trusting of programs on PBS. It turns out however, that PBS had nothing to do with the production or content of this program. Each local PBS station (315 or so in the United States) is independent, locally owned, and operated and can get material from sources other than PBS. The only way in which you can know for sure if a program is indeed from PBS is to look for the PBS logo at the end of a program. But it isn’t always easy to catch. Will Dr. Amen’s methods work? I don’t know. Had the program been vetted by PBS, I would have been confident his information was supported by peer-reviewed research studies. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any well-documented follow-up studies for Dr. Amen’s program. I will have a wait and see approach to learn if there is any research by other scientists to support his conclusions. His books may make for interesting reading but you may want to hold off before you invest heavily in Dr. Amen’s products. Weight loss efforts may be dependent on genes to work Another piece of fascinating news relates to research performed by Stanford University Researchers. In a study of 133 overweight women, these researchers learned that a genetic test may help people know in advance which diet works best! The women with a genetic predisposition for a low-carbohydrate diet lost 2 ½ times as much weight as women lacking this predisposition. On the other hand, women with a different genetic makeup that evidently favored a low-fat diet, lost significantly more weight than women who reduced their intake of fat calories but lacked the same gene tendency. If you have always felt like one diet or the other works better for you, this may be the evidence to support your conclusion! I look forward to seeing more research to back up these findings. Low-fat diet seems to be a better choice in the long run than low-carb The results of yet another study seem to negate the results I just reported on about genetic predisposition. Which one is right? Researchers associated with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania followed the weight loss and maintenance efforts of a group of 132 obese people (the study seems to have included both men and women) for over three years. The study participants engaged in either a low-fat and calorie-restricted diet with less than 30% of daily calories from fat or a low-carb diet with fewer than 30 grams of carbohydrate per day for 12 months. The group on the low-carb diet experienced the greatest weight loss after six months; however, by 12 months there was no significant difference in the two groups. These results match what has been found in previous studies. What may be more interesting is what the researchers found two years after the diets ended. Both groups had regained some weight, however, a subgroup of 40 people on the low-carb diet weighed an average of 4.9 pounds less than when the diet began. Whereas in a subgroup of 48 participants from the low-fat diet, people weighed an average of 9.5 pounds less. The researchers speculate that the weight regained may reflect how quickly the weight was lost initially. The participants who lost more weight during the first 12 months tended to regain more weight over the next two years. Which study is right? Is low fat better than low carb? We cannot directly compare the results of these two studies because the sample groups were not the same and the variables (characteristics) measured were different. The study on genetic predisposition involved overweight women only, whereas the other study included both women and men who were obese. In addition, the later study did not include any assessment of possible genetic differences. So it is not clear if this study might have been biased toward individuals with a genetic predisposition that favors a low fat diet. You see how research works? When we compare and contrast different studies we find at we have new questions. This leads to opportunities to fill in the gaps with more research. We now need a study of both overweight and obese individuals with different genetic predispositions. Such a study also needs to include both men and women. I wish it were easier to do research and come up with the answers people need. Unfortunately well-designed research studies are difficult. They are time consuming and expensive. We have to be patient. My advice for you is to choose a healthy well-balanced diet with a reasonable calorie restriction for your age and weight (See 1200 calorie diet plan and 1500 calorie diet plan). If low fat suits you better, then choose menu plans that fit that choice. Just be sure to get some healthy fat from sources such as fatty fish, olive oil, canola oil, and avocados in your plan. If you prefer low carb then that may be the better choice for you. I recommend getting a minimum of 20-40% carbohydrates in your diet. Be sure to choose whole grains to be sure you get enough dietary fiber and antioxidants along with all the other important nutrients these high carb foods have to offer. (To learn more you may want to read: Dietary Fiber: Can it help you with weight loss? and Whole Grains are a Weight Loss Winner.) Till next time watch those calories and eat healthy food! Maintenance weight loss Maintenance, weight lossweight loss news Dr. Amen low fat low carb diets diet success weight loss success

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Healthy Granola Bar Recipe: Low Calorie Too!

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I have a healthy granola bar recipe for you that could make a great “grab and go” breakfast or a filling midday snack. It’s easy to prepare and reasonably tasty. Honestly, if you choose granola or other food bars on the basis of taste alone, chances are good you’ve chosen something that is more akin to a dessert than a healthy meal bar or snack. Look at the nutrition label and you may find it’s loaded with calories from fat, sugar, or both! Not so with this recipe. It’s a low calorie choice that’s packed with healthy nutrients. I developed the granola bar recipe by modifying one I discovered for a healthy breakfast cookie on the Calorie Count site of About.com. I chose to include craisins rather than raisins because I like them! Craisins also have the potential to contribute to urinary tract health. I chose to use a cereal with whole grain flakes such as Wheatabix rather than bran flakes as called for in the original recipe. Have you tried Wheatabix? It’s a nutritious low calorie whole grain choice but I didn’t care for it as a breakfast cereal. I found it turned to mush all too quickly after I added milk. So I used the cereal instead to make muffins, cookies, and granola bars. Another option for the cereal might be Organic Flax Plus by Nature’s Path. Organic Heritage Cereal by Nature’s Path would also make a good choice if you can find it. It’s a flake cereal made with a wide range of whole grains including wheat, oats, barley, and quinoa. I remember it tasting good when I had a chance to sample it but it doesn’t seem to be available where I live. Another change I made to the original recipe was to include ground flax seed rather than the suggested wheat germ. By using a whole grain cereal such as whole wheat instead of bran flakes you’ll get the benefits of the germ without having to add more. I like ground flax seed because it has a pleasant nutty flavor and it’s good for you. It may help reduce inflammation in the body and keep your arteries clear of plaque buildup. Both benefits will reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. Low Calorie Healthy Granola Bar makes about 8 bars Ingredients 2 cups of cereal made with whole grain flakes 2 cups oatmeal 2 tbsp. ground flax seed 1 ½ tbsp. cinnamon ½ cup plain yogurt 1 cup unsweetened applesauce 1 tsp. vanilla 1/3 cup honey 1 egg, beaten ¼ cup skim milk powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder ½ cup craisins (soak about 15 minutes in warm water first then drain well) Instructions Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Crush the whole grain flakes and place in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the oatmeal, ground flax seed, and cinnamon. Set aside. In another medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, applesauce, vanilla, honey, beaten egg, and skim milk powder. Add baking soda and baking powder to this mixture. Mix well. Gradually stir the crushed whole grain flakes and oatmeal into the yogurt mixture. Add the craisins and mix well. Make the granola bars by scooping three heaping tablespoons for each bar onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Shape into bars about 4 inches long. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Makes 8 bars. Remove the granola bars from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Wrap each bar in saran wrap or foil, refrigerate and eat within a week or so. Or freeze the wrapped bars in a zip lock freezer bag. The granola bars should keep well for several months. Freezing the granola bars works best for me. I’ve found I can take a bar with me to eat in the car if I’m in a hurry. To make a complete meal I have ½ cup of juice for some vitamin C before I leave and I make or buy some coffee with nonfat milk (for example a tall Starbucks cafe au lait with nonfat milk) to round out the meal and keep the calorie count low. Low Calorie Breakfast 1 homemade granola bar (222 calories) 4 oz. orange juice (Florida Natural, 55 calories) Starbucks Coffee with Nonfat Milk (1 tall, 60 calories) Total calories: 337 Protein: 13.6 grams (16%) Fat: 3.2 grams (8%) Carbohydrates: 66.4 grams (75%) Vitamin C: 37.6 mg Calcium: 336 grams Iron: 4.4 mg Dietary Fiber: 5.7 grams This is a high carbohydrate meal with lots of filling fiber! However, I would recommend getting some more fat in a mid-morning snack with a nutritious choice such as a low calorie cheese or some slices of avocado with whole grain crackers. Or you might choose 2% milk instead of nonfat milk for your coffee (80 calories rather than 60 for a tall cafe au lait at Starbucks.) For those of you who would rather not make your own granola bars, I will be taking a look at what seems to me be an overwhelming number of choices for commercially made food bars. Originally all you had were granola bars. Now there are breakfast bars, meals bars, snack bars, and energy bars as well as granola bars. Are these actually good for you? And if so, which ones make a better choice? I’ll cover what you need to know to pick a healthy low calorie food bar if you need a nutritious low calorie meal substitute or a snack. Till then, I hope you enjoy the healthy granola bar recipe. Do you have any low calorie nutritious recipes for meal or snack bars to share? If so, let me know in the comments section! Thanks. More low calorie healthy breakfast ideas Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy food! calories Health calories, Healthgranola bar healthy granola bar recipe low calorie whole grain oatmeal breakfast cereal

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