Menu
plans are a great start, but it's not enough.
Have
you ever followed a diet that consisted of following menu
plans,
either in a book or on-line? It's become pretty standard for
diet companies to offer an ongoing selection of menu plans -
and with the help of computer programs, it's become easier to
develop them with greater selections. But think about someone
you know who has maintained a healthy body weight - are they
following a menu plan? I don't know a single person who is managing
their healthy body weight by following menu plans over and over
again. If you want to become that person who is at their goal
weight, eats just like everyone else, and is not constantly
on a new diet of some kind, you'll need a diet program that
offers more than just meal plans. Menu plans are a great start,
but it's not enough. You absolutely need to transition from
rigid meal plans to learning to choose the right foods in the
right amounts for your particular needs. And if you're like
most people, your life is full of change and unplanned events
that make it really hard to follow set meal plans each and every
day.
A
menu plan is included as part of our PersonalDiets.
But what's
different is that our menu plans are just one small part of
your diet program - a helpful tool, but not essential. We use
it as a way to help you get an idea of how much to eat at each
meal and snack and to get you off to a good start with little
effort. The work is done, you just follow it! The menu
plans show you how to balance your nutrition throughout the
day so that you're getting a good balance of fat, protein, and
carbohydrate calories to optimize your energy and help boost
your metabolism - this is important to minimize hunger and give
you energy so that you can actually work, play, and exercise
while you're losing weight. And, our well designed menu plans
offer a variety of foods each day - this is essential so that
you get optimal nutrition and don't miss out on important nutrients
for good health. Last, each meal plan meets very specific criteria
- it meets your individual eating guidelines, the eating style
you choose, and follows a specific set of nutritional rules
that ensure that you're meeting the goals for improving heart
health, lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, and decreasing
risk of certain diseases. The PersonalDiets menu plans are designed
so that you can substitute every food - so you aren't stuck
eating something you can't have or don't like and that gives
you flexibility with the structure you may need to stay on track
with your diet.
... What's
different about the PersonalDiets approach is that you can follow
your diet without ever using the menu plans. We find that many
people's lives are just too unplanned to make following a pre-set
menu plan practical or helpful. And even people following the
menu plans need a break - to go out to a restaurant, to leave
on a trip, to enjoy a spontaneous event with others. That's
where using the eating guidelines you're given really work well.
You can use your eating guidelines to keep track of what you've
eaten and you'll be able to tell right away what the rest of
your day's food choices will be. Of if you have a special event
that involves food, you can use your eating guidelines to make
the best choices and make adjustments to the rest of your day's
meals. This is exactly what people who maintain their desirable
weight do, we just give you the tools and guidance to help you
do this as well. This combination of menu plan (when you want
or need it) along with eating guidelines for flexibility and
real life eating make the
PersonalDiets™ a diet plan you can
live with.
