A typical reaction to my diet plan goes something like this:
"So I can't eat any bread?"
"No."
"How about pasta?"
"No."
"OK but cereal in the morning is OK right?"
"No."
"Not even oatmeal? Oatmeal is healthy."
"No."
This is followed by an awkward silence. I can almost hear their brain saying "This guy is crazy I can't possibly do that! What the heck does he expect me to eat?"
And I can relate. Cutting all the grains out of your diet is a daunting task. It can be a very hard change to make overnight.
If my last blog caught your attention but you just can't fathom the thought of cutting all the bread, cereal, pasta, oats, etc. out of your diet, don't!
Even cutting your processed carb consumption in half can have a tremendous positive effect on your health and body weight.
Here is a testimonial from one client who has been following the "stage one" version of my insulin control diet plan for two weeks:
"Just read your latest blog post and wanted to share my results. For the last two weeks, I have been eating a low carb dinner, keeping the carbohydrates to about 20 grams at that meal, mostly from vegetables. At breakfast I eat zero carbs, eggs with cheese and/or meat and some coffee with cream. All my snacks are low carbohydrate, cheese sticks, celery with cream cheese or peanut butter, or maybe a serving or two of nuts. At lunch I eat whatever I want. I don't count carbohydrates or calories at that meal. I think I'm averaging almost 3000 calories a day but have still lost eight pounds in the last two weeks and have more energy than ever! Thanks for your help." - Beverly C, 43 year old stay at home mom
Here is the plan:
Breakfast:
Option A
If you are not usually hungry in the morning or regularly skip breakfast anyway, don't eat! When you are trying to lose weight, it is NEVER a good idea to eat when you're not hungry. I know this goes against what nearly every "expert" says, but there are many studies showing that when people eat a big meal in the morning they tend to eat more all day long. So if you don't like to eat breakfast anyway skip it and please don't feel guilty.
If you choose this option I do recommend you melt two or three tablespoons of coconut oil into a half cup of warm water and drink that upon rising. The medium chain triglycerides in the oil will boost your metabolism and provide a quick energy source that cannot be stored as body fat.
Option B
If you are hungry in the morning you will need to forget about nearly every typical breakfast food. Instead choose from eggs, meat, natural cheese, olives, avocados, and nuts. Keep the carbohydrates under ten grams. Zero is even better. A typical breakfast should look like this:
Three egg omelette cooked in butter or coconut oil with 1 ounce of feta cheese and a tablespoon of sliced olives
Four ounce beef patty topped with a fried egg and one ounce of cheddar cheese
Three hard boiled eggs and an ounce of almonds
Have a half tablespoon of fish oil and a tablespoon of coconut oil before eating. Try this for one week and your energy levels will skyrocket and your hunger the rest of the day will be greatly reduced.
For the remainder of the day, strive to eat half of the bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. that you normally would eat. If you usually get a 12 inch sub for lunch order a 6 inch with double meat. Take off half the bun if you order a cheeseburger. Don't finish the fries or chips that come with it. You get the idea.
Take another half tablespoon of fish oil and tablespoon of coconut oil before dinner. If you snack throughout the day, try to choose lower carbohydrate options.
Even with these changes, I expect two to four pounds of weight loss per week! It will slow over time, and you will need to move to more strict variations of the insulin control diet. But it is a great place to start if you need to lose weight.
