Diet Meal Plans Q & A

Al Bullington asked:


A recipe for cabbage soup diet success includes more than just soup. Let’s face it, eating just soup for a week isn’t exactly something to look forward to. Luckily, that isn’t what the cabbage soup diet is. It’s really a complete seven day eating plan that includes a large selection of different foods. The soup is just part of the plan.

The soup is a filler. You can eat all you want whenever you want it. That’s way there’s no reason to be hungry at any time during the seven day plan. Then each day you eat certain foods and only those foods. That way the diet has a variety of foods that keeps it from being extremely boring.

The promise of the diet is that you can lose about 10 pounds in a week. Many people report that kind of loss. Everybody knows weight loss of about 2 pounds a week is all you can sustain long-term. This is just a quick weight loss that is a motivator as part of a long-term sustainable weight loss plan.

Following is an example basic recipe to get you started

Recipe For The Soup
1 head of cabbage 1 bunch celery 2 bunches of green onions 3 large bell peppers 1 large can whole tomatoes 2 cans of chicken broth (13 oz) salt and pepper to taste

Clean all the vegetables. Slice, chop, and add to a large pot. Add whole tomatoes and chicken broth and cook on low heat for 15 minutes or until tender.

The recipe for cabbage soup diet success includes more than just soup. It’s a complete 7 day plan. We have the complete plan including many recipes ready for you to try on our website. This diet has been around for many years and remains popular, probably because it works just like it’s promise.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Bettina Berlin asked:


The fact that you are on a diet does not mean that your food must taste like diet food. In the contrary! If you want to lose weight effectively and in a healthy way, with a high chance of preventing it from coming back, than you must enjoy what you eat. Because that’s the only way how you will continue to eat this healthy food.

The problem why many fad diets fail is simply that you can’t keep on eating like that. And even if a restrictive diet does help you to lose weight – as soon as you finish the diet and return to your old eating habits, you will almost certainly pick up weight again.

But if you make lasting changes in your lifestyle and start eating healthier instead of going on a diet, then you have a high chance that you will not only lose weight but also keep it off afterwards. A healthy diet and weight is a lifetime commitment, not a 6-weeks affair. Eat healthy and you will be healthy, that’s the secret.

Try these three low-fat dishes that don’t taste like low-fat at all! They are healthy and easy to make, filling, high in nutrients and low in calories. And they are not “diet meals” but something you can enjoy.

Spicy Vegetable And Mince Curry

Ingredients

2 tbsp. canola oil 1 tsp. ground cumin 1 tsp. ground coriander 1 tsp. crushed chili 1/2 tsp. turmeric 2 tbsp. lemon juice 700 g lean minced beef 600 g butternut, diced 500 g carrots, thickly sliced 600 g potatoes, diced 500 g sweet potatoes, diced salt

Steps

Heat the oil in a large pot. Fry cumin and coriander for about 1 minute, continuously stirring. Add turmeric, chili and lemon juice and mix well. Add minced meat and roast it briefly. Add the vegetables, mix well, cover and roast for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Season with salt and serve

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 small marrow, cubed 1 tomato, cubed   1/2 stick celery, sliced   1/2 onion, chopped 1/8 cabbage 1 bay leaf 1 1/4 l vegetable stock oregano salt, freshly ground black pepper

Steps

Bring the vegetable stock to boil, add the vegetables and bay leaf and cook for about 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are just soft. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Serve with whole grain bread.

Pasta With Mixed Vegetables And Cashews 

Ingredients

200 g whole wheat pasta 4 tbsp. canola oil 3 red chili, chopped 1 small onion, chopped 80 g cashew nuts 2 red and 1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced 150 g green beans   1 tin corn

Steps

Cook the pasta in boiling water according to the instructions on the packet. Heat the oil in a large pan, fry the onions and chili for about 3 minutes, occasionally stirring. Add the cashews and fry for another minute. Add pepper and beans and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are just soft. Then add the corn, mix everything well and allow the corn to heat up. Drain the pasta and serve it with the veggies.

All three recipes make four servings. They are based on large portions of vegetables and foods rich in complex carbohydrates (potatoes, whole grain bread and pasta) which will fill you long before you could possibly overeat. They provide you with important nutrients whilst being low in calories. No or little fat has been added to the recipes, and the ingredients are rather low in fat. This way, you can lose weight and still enjoy delicious meals of a reasonable portion size.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

William Santoro asked:


Have you ever felt frustrated because you weren’t achieving your fitness or diet goals? Would it be too good to be true if you learned the solution involved cutting back on aerobic exercise or eating more of your favorite foods?

While it’s more likely than not you need to do exactly the opposite, how will you know how much of what foods to maintain in your diet, and whether you’re getting balanced nutrition? An online meal planner puts you light years ahead of counting calories and carbohydrates for controlling your nutrition and health.

A few weeks ago, I was becoming frustrated at the fact I had been exercising more frequently and eating healthier than ever–even cutting back on alcohol (mostly wine) to just a couple times a week–with little results to show for my efforts. If anything, it appeared that my weight and body fat had increased slightly!

Then a friend suggested that I might actually be eating too few calories. That didn’t make any sense to me at all, so he recommended I try out an online meal planning system, called Vitabot. Vitabot is offered by many health clubs as an added benefit for its members, and is recently being offered in an online subscription service by a small number of internet resellers. According to Vitabot’s website, their system has received critical acclaim from top nutritionists and trainers.

It took me a just a short while to get the hang of using the meal planner’s interface, after watching a video tutorial. First I input my current weight, height, body fat, activity level, and target weight. Then I went about selecting my current meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) from the menu (Vitabot is based on standards defined by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science). I was happy to see a filter that showed me only vegan foods, but the meal planner is also suitable for vegetarians (lacto/ovo-lacto), and for meat-eaters as well.

To my surprise, the meal planner revealed that I needed about 2500 calories/day and my current diet contained only 1900 calories a day.  Vitabot’s patented interactive report card system gave me an “F” for not having enough calories and a “C” for insufficient carbohydrates in my diet. It also revealed I had a deficiency of Cobalamin (vitamin B12), which is also common among vegans.

But Vitabot doesn’t stop there. It incorporates a food suggestion system that tells you what foods to eat more of (and the exact portion size) to achieve the optimum balance of vitamins and minerals. In my case, it instructed me to add foods that contained more calories, carbohydrates, and less sodium. I adjusted my meal plan according  to Vitabot’s recommendations until my plan achieved an  “A” grade.

Most important were the results: After following Vitabot’s recommendations for just a few days,  I actually lost a bit, and have stablilized at my desired weight. So, whether you are trying to control your weight (up or down) or just want to make sure you are getting the right nutrients as you make adjustments to your diet, I recommend you experience an online meal planning system for yourself.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Greg Correll asked:


If you have begun your work towards obtaining a six pack abs then you already know how important meal plans are towards your success. If you haven’t yet gotten started you might not fully understand the importance of eating properly and establishing a solid nutritional meal plan. Take a look at this article for an overview of information on effective meal plans for six pack abs programs.

When people want to get a six pack abs, they tend to spend all of their time doing hundreds or thousands of crunches. For now, lets ignore the fact that this workout style isn’t going to even produce the best results. Instead, look at all of your workouts from the perspective that they are only half of the battle towards reaching your goal.

In order to build muscle in your abdominal muscles, you have to have enough protein in your diet to sustain that muscle growth. Protein is the fuel that muscles require in order to be built, repaired and maintained, and therefore protein is a huge component of meal plans in a six pack abs programs. You should try to get around one gram of protein per pound of body mass to ensure you can effectively build muscle.

Another thing you have to think about specifically for your abs is that they happen to be located in a region where your body is most prone to storing fat. That means even if you build up great strength and muscle size in your core region, you still might not have a six pack because all of your muscle is hidden underneath layers of fat.

This brings us to the second key factor in meal plans of a six pack abs program, and that’s the fact that you have to watch what you eat in order to burn off extra fat. This means maintaining a diet that is going to keep your metabolism working at the fastest rate. This can be done by eating many smaller meals spread throughout the day as opposed to a few larger ones.

Incorporating protein into every meal or snack you eat is also another smart way to make the most out of the calories you intake, as mentioned above. Cut down on heavily processed junk foods, and on days that you don’t workout, lower your caloric intake by 10-20%. On days you workout, keep your caloric intake the same but as discussed, be sure that you fill up on protein.

Meal plans for a six pack abs program don’t have to be overly complicated, however, they are a necessary component towards getting the body of your dreams. Keep your metabolism moving quickly by eating smaller, more frequent meals, watch your calories and get plenty of protein in order to see the results you’ve been craving.

Fit Yummy Mummy!