Fast Facts and Suggestions

Fast facts and suggestions to get you started:

Recommendations for your food planning:

Always read the nutritional information on canned food.

[Remember: 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories.]
For the first ten days, don't eat anything with more than 5% fat content.
From the 12th to the 22nd day, don't eat anything with over 15% of its calories from fat
By the 22nd day, you can adjust your eating to include 25% fat, if desired.

Buy the following items at the grocery store:

4 lb rice (whole grain, if possible)
8 cans red or red kidney beans (sugar free, if possible)
8 cans spaghetti or macaroni in tomato sauce (or low fat sauce such as Healthy Choice, and your own choice of cooked pasta)
Picante Sauce (salsa - optional)
Several cans of fruits and vegetables (sugar free)
Several fresh fruits and fresh vegetables
Several kinds of condiments: red pepper, salt,"Molly McButter," et al.
Two to three packages of pretzels.
(If you already have high blood pressure or heart disease, avoid the salt of these. Pretzels are only 10% fat. Air-popped popcorn can be substituted, sprayed lightly with butter-flavored "Pam."
1 loaf coarse whole wheat (or multi-grain) bread
2-3 packages of chicken or turkey, 2% fat or less.
(Avoid nitrates and nitrites; read the label. My wife and I buy only "free range" meats from our local "Whole Foods" market. This avoids the hormones, antibiotics, steroids, nitrates and nitrites the farming industry uses.)
On the eleventh day, eat whatever you want.
Then begin the lifestyle plan again. SET A DATE to have pizza or whatever is your favorite. Just don't eat it EVERY DAY, as some are in the habit of doing.
Several fat free, sugar free fruit yogurts.
Yogurt should be checked for "LIVE YOGURT cultures". Otherwise, it's just milk. Also-I'd add Flax oil to healthy fats that we should eat. (And that's in my "vitamin sheet.")

IF YOU NEED TO LOSE MORE WEIGHT, KEEP THE FAT AT OR NEAR 5%.

To figure fat content of a product, divide the calories from fat by the total calories. The calories from fat is found by multiplying total fat grams (not daily value percentage) by 9 and rounding it off. The "Fat Finder" program can automatically do this for you.

Hydrogenated oils should be avoided at all costs. These (like margarine) contain stuff that clogs arteries. This is one of the main reasons the American diet is so deadly. Heart-disease, high blood lipids and other problems are the result of the American diet. Read labels on chips. If the ingredients say "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated," don't eat it. Nearly all chips have these foreign fats in them. However, "baked chips" don't. Just watch out that you don't eat too many of them; they are not "bad" for you, but they do contain calories. I recommend you eat only 'baked chips'.