The Plan

Technically?  I don't have one. 

Not a set one anyway.  I have no desire to do one of those Jenny Craig, eDiet deals because I want to establish healthy eating habits for life.  I don't want to lose all this weight for the wedding and then gain it all back during the honeymoon. 

As a journalist who covers a lot of nutrition and health stories, the idea of what goes into a lot of those frozen meals freaks me out. 

Don't get me wrong.  Some people have lost tons of weight using these programs and have been very successful.  I just know it's not for me.  Plus, I don't have a lot extra income to spend on these programs.

I'm going to have to do it the good old-fashioned cheap way. 

Basically, after reading tons of health magazines and nutrition books I know that I should include a lot more protein in my diet.  That also means avoiding processed sugars and white carbs.  My eating plan is  this:

Breakfast: two egg whites and 1/2c. of fruit (whatever floats my boat that morning)

Snack: yogurt/a small handful or pistachios/ a low-fat cheese stick

Lunch: A big leafy salad with fish

Snack: smoothie (post-workout)

Dinner: a 3 oz. portion of protein, a small serving of carbs (i.e. whole grain rice, sweet potato, whole grain pasta) and a 1/2 plate of veggies (either steamed, frozen or fresh). 

If I need a dessert I can have a 1/4c. of sorbet.

The trick, at least I hope, to sticking with this diet is to allow myself to splurge one day a week. 

The catch is that whatever I want to splurge with has to be homemade.  So, if I really want a cookie, I have to whip up a batch from scratch.  These are still not healthy, but at least I can control  what goes into them and avoid eating a lot of extra chemicals. 

If this seems like a difficult diet to stick with for life, that's because it is.  I can't eat cheese sticks every single day for the rest of my life.  I'm considering this my Phase 1.  This is how I'm going to jump start my weight loss plan. 

Then as I get sick of eating the same thing everyday I can experiment with different recipes and tricks, like those listed on my brilliant friend Stephanie's blog: http://protectingdinner.blogspot.com/. 

For now this is my hope-it-works, see-if-I-stick-with-it, might-need-tweaking-plan.