Miss Natalie wrote me because she’s getting married in June, and has noticed she’s put on a few pounds since starting law school last year. She says she’s just trying to get back into her wedding dress (which she bought before school started!).
She asked me to take a look at her standard diet to see where things could be tweaked:
Breakfast 6 oz non-fat greek yogurt with 1 tablespoon 2% greek yogurt 1 cup mixed fruit (berries, cantaloupe, frozen rhubarb - whatever is on hand) 1 tablespoon ground flax seed 1/2 cup fiber one cereal
Snack Ziplock bag full of cut vegetables (celery, cucumber, sugar snaps, carrots, baby peppers) string cheese coffee with skim milk
Lunch steamed vegetables (broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach) 1/4 avocado OR 1 1tbsp almond butter either scrambled egg whites with salsa OR 1/2 tin of salmon 1/2 ezekiel bun tomatoes and cucumber
Snack #2 fuji or braeburn apple 8 almonds OR 1 tbsp almond butter
Dinner piece of baked salmon homemade broccoli soup (just fresh veggies with water and spices cooked for like 30 min until it starts to get mushy) OR veggies drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice and topped with my salmon
Dessert small bowl of fruit with 2 squares green and blacks 70% dark chocolate
Natalie’s eats look pretty solid, and she works out with a trainer, so she says she’s making some progress. I like that she already eats pretty cleanly (mostly unprocessed foods), but there are a few things I think she could do to drop the last few pounds:
Too many carbs at breakfast. Fruit + flaxseed + cereal is going to add up to a lot of carby carbs early in the day. That can cause more sugar/carb cravings later in the day AND give you a bit of an energy crash come late morning. I don’t like FiberOne because it’s a traditional “diet” food — artificially sweetened, low-cal, and generally fake-tasting. Natalie could swap that out for something with more fat, like nuts/nut butter, or have a hard-boiled egg with her breakfast instead.
Ditch the egg whites. A pattern I’ve noticed among dieters: They eat so-called “healthy” food, but they have to eat a lot of it to feel full (or they just feel hungry all the time!). Natalie should eat whole eggs and cut back on other, less nutritious/filling items rather than the other way around.
Don’t fear the fat! Natural fat is (counterintuitively) a dieter’s best friend. It helps you feel full, so you naturally eat less. Fat in the form of avocado and olive oil is great, but it’s not going to give you that satiated feeling like butter or coconut oil will. These days, I always use cream in my coffee/tea instead of skim milk, and it makes it such a heartier drink (for not many more calories).
With just a few small tweaks, Natalie can be on her way to not only feeling more satiated, but fitting into her dress. And it sounds like she’s pretty much there! Here’s an update I got a few days ago from her: “I tried on the dress this weekend and it fits and was even a little loose on top!!! One month ago I couldn’t get it over my hips, butt, or waist!”
It sounds like her quest for health is paying off already. Congrats on your upcoming wedding, girl… Work the dress!
Miss Natalie wrote me because she’s getting married in June, and has noticed she’s put on a few pounds since starting law school last year. She says she’s just trying to get back into her wedding dress (which she bought before school started!).
She asked me to take a look at her standard diet to see where things could be tweaked:
Natalie’s eats look pretty solid, and she works out with a trainer, so she says she’s making some progress. I like that she already eats pretty cleanly (mostly unprocessed foods), but there are a few things I think she could do to drop the last few pounds:
With just a few small tweaks, Natalie can be on her way to not only feeling more satiated, but fitting into her dress. And it sounds like she’s pretty much there! Here’s an update I got a few days ago from her: “I tried on the dress this weekend and it fits and was even a little loose on top!!! One month ago I couldn’t get it over my hips, butt, or waist!”
It sounds like her quest for health is paying off already. Congrats on your upcoming wedding, girl… Work the dress!