Day 6 of the 7 Day Diet Menu for 1200 calories or more is a great day to use up the rest of the leftover chicken from Day 1 with a simple casserole dish. I included Black Bean Chicken Casserole for lunch to provide some variety with the meals. However, if you started the sample menu for the week on a Sunday, day 6 would be Friday. It might be difficult for you to prepare this dish midday.

What you could do instead is switch the lunch and supper suggestions. Or you might assemble and cook the casserole ahead of time (a night or two before) so that it is ready to heat and eat for lunch on day 6. Whatever works. I’ve made an effort to provide a way to use up most if not all of the food purchased at the beginning of the week to avoid waste and to keep down the total cost. Convenience is hard to come by when you have low cost and healthy.

Preparing your own meals will save money and provide you with healthy low calorie food but you need to make the right choices. So the trade off is that it does take time. The next 7 day sample diet menu I create, I will try a different approach with a plan that requires very little cooking other than maybe heating things up. I guarantee you it won’t be inexpensive! Eating out or purchasing heat and eat entrees or other ready to eat food from grocery stores will cost.

Sample Menu Day 6 - 1200 Calories

Breakfast

1/2 cup Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal (leftover from earlier in the week see Day 1)

1/2 cup medium apple, chopped (add to the Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal for a change from previous days)

1/2 cup Orange Juice

1 cup unsweetened tea

Snack

1 6-oz. container low fat yogurt (Stonyfield Farms, 130 calories, your choice of flavor)

Lunch

3/4 cup Black Bean Chicken Casserole

1/2 medium apple (remaining half from breakfast)

Water, unsweetened coffee or tea

Snack

2 stalks of celery (cut into 3-4 inch pieces)

2 tbsp. hummus

Supper

1 cup Chicken Tortilla Soup (122 calories WITHOUT the addition of tortilla chips to the soup) (leftover from Day 4)

2 cups Mixed Salad Greens

1/2 cup Tomatoes, chopped

1 Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin, as is or toasted

Water, unsweetened tea or coffee

(Always remember to get plenty of water throughout the day.)

Total Calories = 1200

Total Fiber = 28.1 grams (The recommendation for women is to have 20-25

grams of fiber a day.)

Fat = 20%

Carbs = 58%

Protein = 21%

Calcium = 943 mg (Women between 19 and 50 years need approximately

1,000 mg a day, 51+ need 1,200 mg a day.)

Iron = 12.1 mg (Women 19 to 50 years need 18 mg of iron, 51+ need 8 mg.)

With low calorie diets, iron often comes up short for younger women and calcium for women of all ages, particularly older women. This menu is somewhat low in iron for women 19 to 50 years of age and in calcium for women 51+. Today might be a good day for a supplement. Otherwise the menu gets good marks from MyFoodDiary (the service I use to design nutritious low calorie menus) Here’s the feedback for Day 6:

1300, 1400, or 1500 Calorie Diet Menu

Modify the 1200 Calorie Diet Menu to fit your needs.

If you are over 50 and needing a little more calcium you could add another one cup serving of nonfat milk (80 calories, 223 mg calcium). An additional serving of yogurt is another good choice for getting extra calcium (see Yogurt for a Healthy Low Calorie Diet ) for some ideas on which yogurt to buy.) The iron count is low for women 19 to 50 years of age. Today would be a good day for an iron supplement.

At this point in the week you will have a sense of how much extra food you might have. You can choose from the available food to supplement with an extra serving or a leftover from earlier in the week. An additional 1/2 cup of the Black Bean Chicken Casserole will provide you with about 263 calories.

I will be sharing the 7th day of the sample menu soon along with a complete meal plan for the week long menu. It’s been fun doing this. I’ve learned that it isn’t easy to plan a healthy low calorie menu for 7 days that manages to make use of a relatively small amount of food, include variety, and avoid waste. So often the sample week long menus I see in magazines or online call for eating completely different food every day of the week. Who can afford that? (If you are cooking for more than one person it is a little easier.)

Till next time watch those calories and eat healthy food!

calories weight loss

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some of the most recent research about weight loss or directed you to some fun and informative sites to help you in your effort to eat healthy low calorie food. So today I have some news, updates, and other info I think you’ll like.

Fruits and Vegetables for Weight Loss and Better Health

Summer is the season for fruits and vegetables. I hope you are taking advantage of the low calorie nutritious choices available at your grocery store or farmer’s market. Maybe you were ambitious this year and planted a garden for some homegrown treats.

My husband and I have a small garden. However, a lot of our fruits and vegetables come from a local CSA (community supported agriculture). We did enjoy our own homegrown rhubarb and asparagus earlier in the season and now we have lots of ripe and delicious raspberries both red and golden.

If you would like some creative ideas on ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your diet I encourage you to see what Alice Henneman, M.S., R.D. has shared on her University of Nebraska Extension website. 13 Fun Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables The article and slide show provided was posted on the site back in February so Alice shares ways to use frozen fruits and vegetables. I’m sure the suggestions will work equally well or better with fresh.

Put your emphasis on fruits and vegetables and you will not only fill up and feel satisfied for longer with fewer calories than with energy dense foods (high calorie foods) but you will gain the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber as well. Check it out!

Natural Weight Loss Supplement that Actually Works??

Speaking of staying satisfied for longer, you might be interested to know that there will soon be a new and HOPEFULLY safe botanical product available that may enhance satiety after a meal. All too often we overeat because the part of the brain that signals when we have had enough is slow to receive the feedback it needs for proper regulation of energy intake.

This new product is made from the bauhinia bush, which grows in the Amazon basin. Native people have long made medicinal products from this bush. Although the weight loss supplement is not yet available for sale in the United States, it could be on the market soon.

If you have followed my blog posts for some time you probably know that I am not a fan of most dietary supplements. There are a few exceptions but most are simply not worth the money. I think this product may be an exception. However, I need to read some objective reviews to learn more. If it is as good as it sounds, I will keep you informed.

New Service available with My Food Diary

My favorite online food diary and nutrition calculator service MyFoodDiary has recently become even better! Not only can you search over 50,000 foods, add items to your food diary, record your exercise, and view reports BUT you can now do all of this from your cell phone! I think this has tremendous potential.

Just imagine making use of the time you might have while waiting in line at a store, or waiting to board your flight at an airport, or waiting for your kids to finish a program or event. Use this time to record your meals and snacks. And do take advantage of the ability to look up the calorie count on a food item before making a purchase at a restaurant. You may not have access to the calorie and nutrient data for all restaurants but what is available could be a big help!

This service works best with smart phones such as iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry but it can also work with most phones that are XHTML compliant. I would imagine if you can access the web with your phone than you are good to go. No extra charge for this service! I don’t have a smart phone but I was able to access MyFoodDiary with my Verizon cell phone to find the calorie counts for the sandwiches at Subway.

Food Diary Review: MyFoodDiary.com

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT is a system of realigning the energy in your body to release any kind of interfering blockage or energy disruption. Evidently this system can be used for weight loss, headaches, pain control, ADD, anxiety relief, trauma, and much more. The way in which it can help with weight loss is by changing your relationship with emotional or addictive overeating.

If you have not heard of EFT I would imagine the procedure for practicing EFT will not be like anything you have encountered before. However, having said that, the procedures are endorsed by some well-respected health and wellness professionals such as Carole Solomon, PhD. an online psychologist who recommends this program to her weight loss clients. Carole provides excellent tips and strategies to combat stress-induced overeating. To learn more about Carole and what she offers you might enjoy a blog she started recently called StressEating.com

If you would like to learn more about EFT including the specific techniques to practice this system, I encourage you to visit the Discover EFT website. You can download a free 87-page digital book (ebook) and learn all about it.

Another program Carole recommends is the Heartmath emWave tool. By using this tool you can learn to better regulate your stress and emotions so that you can adhere to healthy intentions.

I find this concept to be fascinating in light of some recent research results published in the May 1 issue of Science magazine (2009). Researchers discovered that there is a significant difference in the brain activity of those individuals who successfully resist eating unhealthy foods versus those who do not.

There are two different regions of the brain that became active with study volunteers who resisted temptations to eat unhealthy food. However, the individuals who chose the unhealthy foods had brain activity in only one of these two regions. Fascinating. It makes me wonder why? Are those who make the better choice more well informed? And if not, what else is happening?

I’ll share more information about the Heartmath program soon!

Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy food!

weight loss