Sample menus?
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| Sat, 09-13-2003 - 11:42am |
I keep starting SBD but I never last more than a couple days. I tried to stay with the Phase 1 menu from the book but it's not filling enough and it's just, I don't know, too rigid or unworkable for my life style. Somehow I'm not grasping the 'can and can'ts' of this way of eating. Maybe I'm too engrained with the Atkins Diet so it's not registering. Part of it is Dr. Atkins was very convincing on why he recommended his plan. And so is Dr. Agaston. I just find myself too confused to sort it all out. I will admit, my focus is scattered these days. I have a new job in an intense, new industry and I'm moving next Saturday. So, I was hoping a few of you would share your daily menus with me. What do you eat on a daily basis? Plus, if you were on Atkins before, how have you adjusted? I almost find SBD more restrictive than Atkins in the first two weeks so I'm hungrier. I loved the unlimitedness of Atkins.
Thanks in advance.
Gail

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Breakfast-1 whole scrambled egg, 2 scrambled egg whites, 4 pieces 50%less fat bacon in the microwave
Snack-string cheese
Lunch-big salad with romaine, chicken breast, grated romano cheese, ceasar dressing (adding tomato, cucumber, peppers, onion would be even better)
Snack-nuts
Dinner-lean meat (4oz), brown rice (phase 2) with a bean of some sort (lima, navy, green)
Snack-ricotta creme with cocoa, 1 tsp peanut butter, splenda, vanilla
Of course this is just an example. i took what I knew of the glycemic index and the suggestions of food in the book and made my menu work for my lifestyle.
Hopefully other can give you more suggestions...hang in there and don't make it any more complicated than it has to.
Alison
Don't follow the menu plans in the book then. Just go to the "List of foods to Enjoy", pick out what you like to eat, and get creative and eat whatever you want. Some mornings I have an omelet for breakfast, sometimes scrambled eggs with veggies, sometime vegetable quiche cups, sometimes a cup of low-fat cottage cheese with a little cinnamon and splenda sprinkled on top, whatever I want. Some people hate eggs. So breakfast is just another meal. Have leftover chicken. Anything you want, it doesn't have to be eggs. I love string cheese and nuts so I often eat those for my snacks. I often have a salad of some kind or other for lunch, with tuna or turkey or ham and cheese or whatever, as big of one as it takes. If you read the book, you're not SUPPOSED to be hungry, your job for Phase 1 isn't portion control, it's getting the right foods in. You're supposed to eat until you are satisfied because being hungry all the time is the biggest cause of failure. So if the menu isn't filling enough you aren't eating enough of it. I've been very very full about every day! Sometimes for lunch I'll take my 90% lean sirloin beef, make it into a patty or two, stick a little olive oil in a pan, a little minced garlic from a jar, and fry it up-then add on a slice of part-skim mozerella cheese, some tomato, lettuce, mustard, a little mayo, and I have a really good burger minus the bun. I don't even miss the bun. McDonald's has an excellent Caesar Salad with Grilled chicken that is totally on-plan. Throw out the bag of croutons, pick out the carrots if you want, and the dressing only has 2g of sugar so it's legal. It is DELICIOUS, I love that thing! Other fast food places have similar salads. I've tried lots of the recipes in the book and found many of them to be really delicious, like the Ginger chicken, the salmon, the pistachio chicken, etc. Great flavors and easy to fix. But look at what you can eat and make your own. You can have beans, I've got a great chili recipe, I even have a great 'legal' fudge brownie recipe. On the Prevention board there are about 3 threads of nothing but delicious recipes for Phase 1 and 2.
Last but not least, Phase 1 is only 14 days. After that you can reintroduce anything you want, in moderation. There are no lists of foods to completely avoid, it's "Foods to use sparingly" or however he puts it. So that's not restrictive at all! If you can't stand Phase 1, go to Phase 2 and just follow that. The weight loss is slower, 1-2 pounds a week, but it's good and it stays off and it's a healthy, balanced diet.
For a recap, don't eat what you don't want, eat what you do want, eat until you are SATISFIED, if you need more snacks then have them if that's what it takes, just stay on-plan for Phase 1. Be creative with your food, if you eat the same old thing every day it will get boring. Search out more recipes, easy ones only for me!, and just have fun with it! I lost almost 10 pounds and 6" in 14 days, have no bad cravings and am almost ready to reintroduce some whole grain breads and pastas and fruits into my diet. You can do anything for 14 days, right? :)
Laura
I was wondering what your "legal" fudge-brownie recipe was. Is is posted somewhere on here already? I would love to try it out. What phase is it for? 1 or 2? I LOVE chocolate and think this would be great.
Thanks so much,
Carmen
DECADENT FUDGE BROWNIES
4 grams carbs per serving
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup ground pecans
2 sticks butter (I Can't Believe It's Not Butter or SmartSpread)
20 - 25 packets Splenda (I think that's about 1/2 Cup?)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Preheat oven to 375
Melt butter
Mix in cocoa, nuts, Splenda, & eggs
Pour into buttered 8" or 9" square pan
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes
Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so
Serve with fat-free whipped cream, if desired
Day 1 for me and so far so good. My parents want me to have pizza for dinner with them tonight so someone pray for me that I can "Just say No"
Karen
Typical day on P1 this last week:
Hard Boiled egg with 2 pieces canadian bacon OR egg beaters with lean bacon
Motzy stick
BIG salad with veggies, romaine, and sunflower seeds
cashews or celery and peanut butter (natural)
Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers with garlic, onions and tomoto with 4oz steak and black beans with 1 oz cheese
ricotta cream.
OH YEAH! lol
Thanks for all the good advice. But I thought portion control was important in Phase 1. Oh, maybe not as far as salads go, but I thought the amount of meat was limited. Unfortunately, salads make me crave carbs big time.
Plus, is there a daily goal for the glycemic index? For instance, in Atkins the daily goal for carbs was 20 in Induction. So what daily glycemic index am I shooting for? Or if there isn't a daily goal, at what number do you start avoiding certain foods?
May I ask you how you found Atkins to be more restrictive than SBD? I'm still not seeing much difference. Or does that come after Phase 1?
Thanks again, your post really helped.
Gail
Thanks!
alison
Nope, if you read Dr. A's book, he says (as do the old-timers on the diet who have been successful) you are to eat until you are satisfied and not to worry about portion control. It will take care of itself. If you are eating the proper fats, proteins, etc. you will fill up faster and will end up not eating as much in the long run, but that is one thing I'm positive on. You don't want to stuff yourself silly, if you're eating 4 chicken breasts in one sitting that's just not using the good old brain, but you are to eat until you're satisfied. No portions.
No, there's no daily goal for the GI. There is a list of foods you can enjoy and you can eat of those what you need. And there's a list of foods to avoid in Phase 1, and you're to stay out of those for 14 days.
In Phase 2 you move into a new list of foods to enjoy slowly and add in one change every few days and monitor your weight loss. An apple for lunch for example. If it's successful, you can keep adding one new thing every day or so until you stall out. Or one food might give you cravings so you back off of it and choose a different food.
Really, if you haven't read the book yet you should because it goes over all that pretty thoroughly in the first half of the book-it was interesting to me anyway! The how's, the why's, the difference between it and other diets including Atkins, etc.
I felt that with Atkins I couldn't maintain that as a permanent lifestyle. But SBD I can because nothing is permanently banned, after Phase 1 you just use whatever you want only in more moderation with some things than others. I think good fats and good carbs vs. any fats and few carbs is just healthier. :) (Plus my personal track record is that of the 12 people I know who lost a lot of weight-30 to 50 lbs-on Atkins, none of them kept up the lifestyle after a few months and gained it all back...and I don't feel that worry here because of all the foods I can eat-including breads, pastas, etc.) Phase 1 is restrictive, yes, but from Phase 2 on, it's no longer a diet but more a way of life. I like that. :)
Laura
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