Easiest Way to Create Your Own Custom Diet

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Today I thought I’d write about the easiest way to create your own custom diet plan because sometimes it can be really tough to think about what changes you are going to make or what you will do differently with your current diet. It can also be really hard to stick to a diet if you don’t enjoy the foods you are eating and feel like you are missing something. It’s also something I get a lot of emails about quite frequently and so I thought I’d explain the easiest ways to ease into a healthier diet.

The absolute first thing you need to do is really think about what you already eat every single day. Make a list of the foods you eat all week. Let’s say Monday you skipped breakfast, ate a cheeseburger and fries for lunch, had a couple of candy bars from the holiday for a snack and then for dinner decided on a good old pot roast with mashed potatoes and green beans with a slice of cheesecake for dessert. Then on Tuesday you had a muffin for breakfast and a turkey sandwich for lunch and then for dinner burritos and for snacks ate some things like granola bars and a bowl of ice cream.

These are just some examples of a “regular unhealthy diet” but you get the point…You want to keep track of every single thing you eat for about a week before you even start dieting.  You might also want to take note of portion sizes – did you eat a minature bite sized candy bar or was it the king sized version?

Once you have your list made up next week (if you only keep track of it for two or three days that’s okay, too, I understand it’s not exactly the most fun thing to do and will take a little bit of time) you’ll be ready to start thinking of what you can do for customizing and transforming your regular diet into foods that are actually healthy instead.

Here’s the key thing you need to remember when building your own diet plan:

Substitute Unhealthy Foods you Eat With Healthier Alternatives That You Like and Eat From Every Food Group at Every Meal

That’s it. That’s all you need to do. But what do you substitute? Well, here are some ideas for you to consider:

Substitute Whole/2% Milk with 1% or Skim Milk (work gradually toward skim milk if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like it!)

Regular cheese with reduced fat cheeses (and using less than usual – such as instead of a whole slice on a sandwich try half a slice)

Yogurt high in fat and sugar with reduced fat sugar free Yogurt (You can also always make your own plain yogurt and then sweeten it naturally with fruit and your favorite non sugar sweetener)

Substitute White Bread with Whole Grain Bread: Read labels and see what’s actually in your bread. If you see “Bleached Wheat Flour” or “High Fructose Corn Syrup” find another bread you like that is really whole grain.

Grill and Bake Foods, Don’t Fry Them: If you eat a lot of fried foods you are getting many more calories than you actually need. Baked chicken is just as good as fried chicken. If you like breading on something, try making your own with whole wheat bread crumbs/flour and then coating it on with a tiny bit of olive oil or an egg white and bake it.

Use Lean Meats: Many people think eating meat is good for you, but it’s only going to help you lose weight if you eat lean meats. Ground beef for example can come from anywhere to 70% lean to 95% lean. The 95% lean ground beef is actually just as healthy as ground turkey, and the 70% lean is just plain terrible for you. Cut off any excess fat from steaks and if you make/buy chicken make sure you also take off the skin.

For everything you buy in the grocery store look for the “light” and “sugar free” version. Love chocolate? Then have sugar free chocolate pudding you make with skim milk as a snack – that’s way better for you from a calorie and fat viewpoint than eating a few slices of chocolate cake or a few cookies.

Lose the Dressing: I don’t use any dressings hardly ever. I despise mayo (even before I started trying to lose weight) so that probably helps me out a little bit. But even when I order or make a salad I don’t use any dressings and I don’t put anything on my sandwiches either. There’s a lot of hidden fats and calories in these things, so I tend to skip them all together.

Cut servings in half - for example the other day I went out for dinner with my husband and ordered a wrap (with no dressing naturally!) and decided instead of eating the whole thing (which was probably over 500 calories) to only eat half of it and save the other half for lunch the next day. Just half of it was plenty filling for both meals and much better for reducing the calories.

Eat More Veggies: You really can’t eat too many veggies and if you don’t have more than 3 or 4 fruits a day you probably can’t have too many of those either. Drink veggie juice if you have to (making your own juice is fun!). See the best vegetables for dieting for more info. While things like potatoes might seem like a vegetable to you, they really aren’t “veggies” per say but processed by your body more like grains.

These are just a couple of ideas of easy ways to change your diet into a healthier one without making gigantic sacrifices but still cutting out a considerable amount of calories and fat without actually counting each and every one. You can make your own custom diet pretty easily – and just starting to look for little substitutions that you can make is the best place to start!