300 Calories Every 3 Hours

Since I've just finished having my afternoon snack, and it wasn't what I had planned for, I thought this would be a good time to share the first of the three-step approach to my getting fit and healthy - my food intake.

Lord knows I've been on every diet there is with the exception of the South Beach Diet or Sugar-Busters. I've paid lots of bucks to people like Nutri-Systems, L.A. Weight Loss, Weight Watchers, and I briefly participated in the much ballyhooed "Cookie Diet." I took the phen-fen pills and counted calories back before they found out these drugs were potentially fatal (a trip to the doctor and one echocardiogram later - I found out I was fine), I've tried the Dr. Atkins high protein/low carb diet which is the only diet that truly appealed to me in terms of taste because I could have all things loaded with fat! However, I also discovered with this diet that by reducing the carbs so drastically I was also losing brain function - my memory during that time was shot all to hell and I often couldn't put a coherent sentence together. And I've done the low fat diets, but didn't always pay attention to calories or sugar content.

So there you are, I've done it all! My trainer (Jenn) has had the most success with eating 300 calories every 3 hours, which in a normal work day would be around 1200, maybe 1500 calories. I'm trying to stick with the 1200 calories because that's a good number of calories for me to begin losing the pounds. There are no rules about what kinds of foods to eat - just only eat 300 calories at a time. Obviously, the smart person would focus on low fat and low sugar snacks, but it's not required - it's just limiting calories.

There is some logic to this, for me anyway. Yes, I will try to eat healthfully and lowfat for most meals and snacks - the more low fat and healthy the food, the more I can eat and be fuller with that 300 calories. But for those times when I'm just REALLY craving something sweet, I can have it - as long as I don't eat more than 300 calories worth. This should go a long way in satisfying cravings and not feeling deprived. I can still participate in work luncheons, parties, or other functions where I have no control over what is being served, and still eat just enough to cover the calories. That means I'll have to start learning the caloric value of a lot of different foods, or figure out how much of something I can eat that stays within that range - but that's doable. For example, my boss just came back from a reception that her mother catered, and true to form, she brought back all the left over canapes that had been served there. And there are a lot! I had been planning my snack all day, and fully intended to snub the smorgasboord of food in the kitchen. But being assured that there were "healthy" things in there I checked it out anyway. "Healthy" is a relative term, but I did find small ham and cheese rollups that I felt comfortable eating two of, feeling confident that I stayed below the 300 calories. So I added a few pretzels to round that out. I indulged my need to have the food, but kept it "legal." Next week we're having our monthly staff lunch - and pizza is on the menu. I'll have to figure out how much pizza (likely a small sliver!) I can eat that is only 300 calories. That'll be a heavy salad day.

Figuring out how many calories are in various foods and planning meals and snacks now could potentially be fun. For example, I discovered that I can have 2 boiled eggs and an English muffin with jam and be within 300 calories! That's more breakfast then I usually eat, but it's heavy on protein. So I can be filled up legally and not be starving before lunch and being tempted to snack. Oh, and I should explain that not being an early riser, I can't get up in time to eat my breakfast at home, necessitating having a mid-morning snack. After I get to work, between 8 and 9 a.m. I have my first meal of the day. Fortunately we're a pretty informal office, so that's not a problem for anyone. In fact, most of the staff does it!

Over this past weekend, not knowing that I was going to start on this particular food plan, my best friend Jan gave me the Hungry Girl Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World. Check out www.hungrygirl.com - it's a great resource. Most of the recipes in the book are less than 300 calories and include meals and snacks - so I know with that I can find some stress-free, easy ways to eat healthfully and tastefully, while being satisfied. She also has a new book out called 200 Under 200: 200 Snacks Under 200 Calories which should also be great.

This makes me optimistic that I'll be successful. Everyone's support is also helpful. As I noticed on the finale of The Biggest Loser last night, friends and family of the contestants were in full abundance. The fact that after these folks left the ranch they were still able to lose more weight while at home means that they didn't have anyone giving them negative feedback or trying to sabotage their plans. I have every confidence that the same will hold true with my friends and family.

So there we are with the meal plan. I'll be writing about the successes with this plan, especially in terms of weight loss.

Tomorrow: the second step in this plan - exercise!