Weight Loss Food

Healthy Meal Plan For Weight Loss

THIS 5-DAY SAMPLE MEAL PLAN FOR WEIGHT LOSS IS ALL ABOUT EATING MORE, NOT LESS.


You learn about lots of healthy, filling meals and snacks that can help you not only weigh less but also feel your very best.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal with Fresh or Frozen (No Sugar Added) Fruit

By switching from a bowl of cold, dried cereal to one of hot whole-grain cereal and fruit, you’d take
in approximately 100 fewer calories each day. That one simple change to your daily diet could help you drop about 10 pounds in one year. Plus, hot cereal has more “staying power.” It tends to fill you up better – and longer – than dried cereal.

• Tea or Coffee
  

If desired, add a little nonfat milk or soy milk and a packet of sugar substitute (a good choice is Splendid).

Mid-Morning Snack (enjoy only if hungry)

• Veggie-Salsa Tortilla

steamed 6-inch corn tortilla with fresh or grilled vegetables (such as onions, green bell peppers, and tomatoes) and no-added-salt salsa.

Warm the tortilla between slightly moistened paper towels in the microwave for about 1 minute, then top with veggies and salsa; fold

• Navel Orange or 2 Tangerines

Lunch
Cups Mixed Greens with 1 Cup of Other Veggies, Chopped, Dressed with Aged Balsamic Vinegar

For your salads, break out of the lettuce-and-tomato box. All kinds of veggies – and fruit – can go into your salad. Try diced sweet potatoes, yellow squash, red bell peppers, cucumbers, red cabbage, red onions, and more.


And always keep in mind that no oil, even so-called “good” ones, should be considered a weight-loss food. Coating your salad with oil can tally up as many calories as a scoop of premium ice cream.

Hearty Italian-Style White Bean Soup

This Healthy Meal Plan for Weight Loss includes hearty soups.

Make your own. It’s easy! From one 14-ounce can of no-salt-added cannelini beans, spoon out 2 tablespoons of beans. Puree the rest. In a medium nonstick pot, sauté 5 cloves of chopped garlic until translucent. Add 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth and 1 head of escarole, chopped, or a package of frozen chopped spinach. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add pureed beans, red pepper flakes and black pepper, to taste, and cook 1 minute longer. Garnish with the beans you spooned out plus, if you desire, a little chopped red bell pepper. Refrigerate or freeze what you don’t eat for easy soup prep for a future lunch or dinner.

Mid-Afternoon Snack (enjoy only if hungry)

6 Ounces of Nonfat Plain or No-Sugar-Added Yogurt with Your Choice of Berries Swirled Throughout


Especially popular among our guests at the Pritikin Longevity Center are Greek-style yogurts such as Oikos and Fage. So rich and creamy tasting! If you need a little sweetness to cut the tart flavor, simply add diced banana, or stir in 1 packet of Splenda

• Apple

Desserts like yogurt and berries should be part of your healthy meal plan. You'll still lose weight!

Dinner

• Salad

A gigantic Farmer’s Market-style salad with a variety of fresh seasonal produce and fresh herbs, such as fresh baby arugula and radicchio, and red wine vinegar sassed up with a little horseradish. Enjoy visiting your local Farmer’s Market every week and asking the vendors, “What’s new and tasty this week? What would make great ingredients for my salad?”Mustard Coated Salmon (3½ to 4 ounces)

Get the Recipe »

When dining out and ordering fish, request that your fish not be salted or basted in calorie-dense ingredients like olive oil and butter. Healthier cooking options include steaming, broiling, or grilling.

Baked Potato with 2 Tablespoons Fat-Free Sour Cream and a Sprinkling of Chives or Scallions

Contrary to popular belief, potatoes are a great food for helping you lose weight. It’s what we put on top of our potatoes – butter, cheese, and bacon bits – that turn them into waistline-busting foods.

Dessert (only if hungry)

Mixed Berries

• Hash Browns

In a nonstick skillet misted with a little cooking oil spray, stir fry until brown diced baked potatoes with sliced onions, sliced green bell pepper, freshly ground black pepper, and paprika.

• Egg White Omelet

Egg white omelet stuffed with 1 cup of assorted grilled vegetables, such as onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli, and a dollop of nonfat ricotta cheese.

• Big Handful of Grapes

Like vegetables, fruits are fabulous weight-loss foods because they’re “big” foods, that is, foods that are bulked up by lots of fiber and water. With “big” foods, you’ll be eating a lot of food (which will satisfy your hunger) but not a lot of calories.

Here’s a great example: For the same number of calories that are in a handful of peanuts (about two ounces), you can eat 2½ pounds of strawberries (about five of those green boxes that strawberries come in.) Eating “big” foods like strawberries, salads, and other fruits and vegetables can prevent hunger from taking over and taking you places you don’t want to go

• Turkey Sandwich

Andwich of fresh roasted turkey breast (3½ to 4 ounces) with 2 slices of low-sodium, whole-grain bread with assorted veggies, like baby greens and sliced tomatoes. Smear the bread with 1 tablespoon of low-sodium stone-ground mustard.

• Pear
• Popcorn – air-popped or fat-free microwave

Did you know that it takes 2 quarts of air-popped popcorn to equal the calories in just 20 potato chips? Be sure to eat a piece of fruit with the popcorn to help improve its satiety value!

• Steamed Fresh Vegetables

• Hot Whole-Grain Cereal with Blueberries

• 1 Cup Diced Watermelon or Other Seasonal Fresh Frui

• 1 Snack Bag of Baby Carrots

• Vegetarian Chili

• 1 Ear of Corn

• Cottage Cheese and Fruit

• Brown Rice

Give your brown rice a nice savory spin by adding freshly minced garlic. At the last minute, add in fresh herbs like thyme and Italian parsley and just about any vegetable you have on hand, like chopped cucumbers, celery, onions, and tomatoes.

• Frozen Yogurt

• Easy Tangy Salmon

Sear, skin side up, a 4-ounce cut of salmon in a hot nonstick skillet and cook until well browned on the bottom, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn and cook till slightly translucent in center, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer salmon to serving dish. To skillet add ¼ teaspoon grated orange peel, 3 ounces orange juice, and ½ cup white wine. Boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves. Spoon sauce over salmon.

• Soba Noodles With Spicy Cucumber

Cooking up soba (the Japanese word for buckwheat) noodles instead of white-flour noodles is a great way to cut calories. A cup of soba has just 113 calories; a cup of white pasta, about 200. Plus, soba noodles are full of fiber, protein, and B vitamins.

Combine in large bowl:

2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeds removed, and sliced

½ tablespoon paprika

Pinch cayenne pepper

Pinch black peppercorns, freshly ground

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Let cucumber mixture sit for a few minutes while you cook 8 ounces of soba noodles according to package directions. After cooking and draining sobas, toss in bowl with cucumber mixture and gently blend.

1 to 2 Cups Sautéed Spinach

Pour a 6-ounce bag of pre-washed baby spinach in a hot wok sizzling with a small amount of water or white wine, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and minced garlic. Stir spinach till wilted.

• Fruit Smoothie