These are foods you’ll find in your 7-day Step One menu plan (plus much more). Use this list to swap/substitute foods you don’t like within the menus. For exam- ple, you may substitute an equivalent portion of an approved meat or protein from the list for that listed at any meal. Let’s say you’ve had your fill of chicken and can’t face eating it in your Caesar salad on Day 2, feel free to substitute an equivalent portion of salmon or shrimp. If you’re not in the mood for grilled fish on Day 6, you may want to substitute pork tenderloin. Similarly, feel free to exchange or add any and all non-starchy vegetables listed in the meal plan. For example, Day 2 din- ner calls for sautéed spinach, but you can just as easily substitute steamed broccoli, stewed tomatoes, or grilled asparagus. ALWAYS remember to stick with the same designated portions.
You may also swap entire meals. For example, if your lunch menu on Day 3 calls for Turkey Burger on Greens but you prefer to eat the Tuna Salad with Pita listed on Day 5, that’s fine. If your dinner on Day 6 calls for Grilled Salmon but you prefer the Grilled Chicken Parmesan listed on Day 5, that’s fine too. If you don’t like the afternoon snack listed on a certain day, feel free to enjoy another one from my snack list. This means that if you enjoy repetition, or if you like to prepare large batches of food to eat throughout the week, that’s perfectly okay. You may repeat a menu or meal as many times during the week as you like. If you like Monday’s breakfast, you may have the same breakfast for all seven days. All breakfasts are interchangeable, all lunches are interchangeable, and all dinners are interchangeable. But you can’t eat a dinner for breakfast, or vice versa. Keep repetitions within the same meal category.
There are also foods that you can eat anytime, anywhere, in any amount. I’ve listed these separately on the “Unlimited Food/Beverage List.” These are healthy foods that are low in calories, low in starch, low in natural sugars, and won’t
threaten your weight loss goals. From what my clients tell me, you will learn to love these foods, even if they aren’t exactly your favorites right now. Plus, they give you much more freedom in your meal planning. For example, instead of deciding between sautéed spinach, steamed broccoli, stewed tomatoes, and grilled aspara- gus, you can eat them all, in addition to all the other foods included in the meal. This is the beauty of “unlimited” foods.
In later chapters, I’ll discuss how to make good choices during celebrations and holidays when large quantities of food have been known to mysteriously appear on unsuspecting plates (or is that just my family?). But now I don’t want to make you wait any longer. Let’s get started!
|