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Old 12-22-2007, 04:21 PM   #1  
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Default Two possible diets - opinions, please (long - sorry!)

Hi all,
I'm trying to get a head start on losing some weight and planning for it instead of just jumping in like in the past (and failing and failing...) I lost 30 pounds 2 years ago on lowcarbing but since then stress has pushed me to gain back 20 of those. I'm also now a vegetarian who aspires someday to be a vegan, so that makes things a bit different.

I picked up the Beck Diet Solution (glad to see there's a support thread here for it!) and I'm trying to follow it since I need to do more at this point than just diet. I have major emotional eating issues and I believe that CBT is a good way to deal with them.

So anyway, anyone familiar with the book knows that part of the preparation is to prepare 2 healthy diets (one main one and one Plan B in case the first doesn't work). I've been trying to find two that I think I can work with and that are partly based on what has worked for me in the past. I know, for instance, that eating whole foods as much as possible does me good, as well as keeping both the fiber and the protein grams at a fairly high level. I also know that eating 6 mini meals a day instead of 3 big ones and allowing myself some small snacks at night really helps crave the binge eating (which is my biggest problem).

So I've come up with 2 menus that I think I could work with but both are very different so I'm looking for what you all think in terms of how healthy they are and how balanced they are.

One is a vegetarian version of the kind of lowcarb menu I did 2 years ago when I lost weight. Let me point out that I was never a zero-carb-all-the-bacon-and-butter-you-can-eat type of person (not to mention that that's a misconception of the typical lowcarber anyway). I've come up with the following general menu:

Morning: Morning Burrito (1 egg scrambled in a bit of butter, 1 oz cheese and salsa inside a lowcarb tortilla)

Mid-Morning: 1 oz cheese + 1 egg and salsa or 2-egg salad or Deviled Eggs
or 1 veggie burger or 2 veggie hot dogs rolled in lettuce leaves and spread with mayo/ mustard/horseradish dip

Afternoon:some kind of combo of veggies, veggie "crumble" or tofu and cheese or crustless quiche and steamed veggies

Mid-Afternoon: Chocolate Protein Shake (soy milk, tofu, protein powder, cocoa powder, a bit of nut butter, and sweetener, ice and water)

Evening:Salad with cheese and/or egg

Night: ½ cup Fiber One and Crustless Cheesecake (cream cheese, sour cream, sweetener, flavorings)

The Fitday totals came out like this:
Cals: 1236
Fat: 74 55%
Sat: 34 25%
Poly: 6 5%
Mono: 13 10%
Carbs: 80 160 13%
Fiber: 40 0 0%
Protein: 93 374 31%

The other one is a vegan diet based on the PCMR (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine) website. It's a whole foods, low fat diet plan that works on the basis of servings (i.e., 5 servings grains, 3 servings fruit, etc). I tweaked it a bit to get to a reasonable calorie level (the original they recommend is 1700 calories which is too high for me). Here's the plan:

Morning:Fruit Smoothie (similar to the one outlined above, except that I use frozen fruit instead of the cocoa and nut butter, less sweetener, and add 1/4 cup orange juice)
Soy Latte

Mid-Morning:Bean Dip (like hummus or black bean dip, homemade), 1 cup raw veggies (celery, cucumber, baby carrots), 1 whole grain pita or 1 whole grain tortillas

Afternoon:1 vegan burger or 2 veggie dogs in whole grain pita bread or whole grain roll or 2/3 cup veggie crumble with spices stuffed in pita or on top of whole grain roll, 2 cups steamed veggies with spices

Mid-Afternoon:2 slices light bread with 100% fruit jam

Evening:Salad with corn or peas and tortilla/bread/crackers/roll or
Homemade Tomato or Pumpkin Soup with corn or peas and tortilla/bread/crackers/roll or Baked sweet potato with Salsa and small spinach salad with lowfat vegan dressing

Evening Snacks:¾ cup high fiber cereal, ¼ cup dried fruit, 100 calories of sweet treat (this is part of the plan and will probably be a few squares of dark chocolate)

The Fitday totals for this plan are as follows:
Cal: 1415
Fat: 27 19%
Sat: 6 4%
Poly: 6 4%
Mono: 3 2%
Carbs: 243 55%
Fiber: 64 0%
Protein: 88 27%

I'm just wanting some opinions on what you think about these plans. I haven't decided yet which one I'd like to start with and have the other be as a backup. I've been doing more of a lowcarb type of plan the past week or so but I've had a lot of stress and have fallen off more days than I've stayed on .

Tam
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Old 12-22-2007, 04:55 PM   #2  
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The Vegan Plan would be easier to manage I think. Also, being an ICU/CCU Nurse, that low carb Plan is going to plaque your arteries up. It's so high in cholesterol and I think you just have to think get on the real Program you want to do for life. I cannot change my ways right now. I have a sick Mom with end of life issues. If I were alone and on my own I would definitely stop eating all meats and any foods that were ridiculously high in cholesterol and animal fat. No way should anyone be eating anything that they will pay for later on. Wherever possible, I try very hard to work that extra cholesterol out of my day. This is how Vegetarians who are not Vegans find their way getting clogged up arteries. They don't eat any better than people who eat meat. Vegans on the other hand are so much less likely to be overweight and truly watch not just what they eat but portions.

Try the Vegan approach now and stop aspiring to be one. Be one!
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Old 12-23-2007, 06:52 PM   #3  
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Hi NurseChef,
You brought up a point I was just thinking about the other day - what kind of eating plan can I stick to for the long term, not just for weight loss? And you're right that lowcarbing is not something that is easy to stick to for long term (case in point with my own experience...) So I'm going with the vegan plan.

Tam
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