Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live in.
For weight loss, it is recommended to eat 3 servings of carbohydrates a day (3 servings of fruits, traditional carbohydrates, or alcohol). I will explain what a serving size looks like later in the handout. I have outlined a couple of easy to follow daily meal planning guides that you can use below. Try to avoid eating very large meals for breakfast (up to 9am) and for dinner (after 5pm).
Diet Rules
Sample Meal Plan
Recipes
One serving of carbohydrates looks like this:
What a maintenance diet looks like
Once you have completed the program, it is recommended that you follow this maintenance program. For maintenance, you are allowed 5 servings of carbs per day. A typical day may look like this:
Sample Meal Plan:
Whole Foods Plant Based Diet
Most people will do fine on the diet if they follow a whole foods, plant based diet. For the most part, this means not buying anything that comes in a package. These are the only things I buy in a package:
This diet is constructed from the “Glycemic Load Diet”. The rest of this document explains the rationale behind the glycemic load diet. You don’t have to read it for it to work ;)
The Glycemic Index: Excerpt from The World's Healthiest Foods, a database founded by the former President of Bastyr University
Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement carried out on carbohydrate-containing foods and their impact on our blood sugar. GI is a relatively new way of analyzing foods. Previously, most meal plans designed to improve blood sugar analyzed the total amount of carbohydrates (including sugars and starches) in the foods themselves. GI goes beyond this approach, looking at the impact of foods on our actual blood sugar. In other words, instead of counting the total amount of carbohydrates in foods in their unconsumed state, GI measures the actual impact of these foods on our blood sugar.
Why Do Some GI Values Seem Surprising?One of the most interesting aspects of GI involves its relationship to the unique features of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are definitely not the same with respect to their immediate impact on our blood sugar. For example, non-whole grain breads and pasta noodles both contain similar amounts of starch, and their starches are similarly composed of long chains of the simple sugar, glucose. But the 3-dimensional structure of bread allows more of the starch to be exposed to enzymes in our saliva and in our digestive tract. This greater exposure to enzymes allows more of the starch to be broken down into sugar and gives non-whole grain breads a generally higher GI value than non-whole grain pastas. Similarly, two basic types of starch found in many foods - amylose and amylopectin - also influence their GI values, even if the foods have identical amounts of total starch.
With respect to their GI, foods are also differently impacted by cooking. Many legumes, for example, have cell structures that are fairly resistant to disruption and help prevent breakdown of the starches inside their cells. For this reason, legumes tend to have lower-than-expected GI values, provided that they have not been overcooked. Before they have been ground into flour, whole grains also tend to have lower GI values due to the sturdiness of their cell structures. But after being ground into flour, their starches become more susceptible to breakdown and their GI value tends to increase. Of course, these descriptions are generalizations and can be different for specific legumes, specific grains, and specific flours. Still, they reflect a general pattern and principle: namely, that for a carbohydrate-containing food, the more its natural integrity becomes disrupted by processing or overcooking, the more its GI value is likely to be increased. Minimal disruption of whole foods from their natural, unprocessed state is one of our key principles at WHFoods, and it is a principle 100% aligned with promotion of lower GI values.
For more information and GI values of whole foods: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=32
Glycemic Load
Glycemic load estimates the impact of carbohydrate consumption using the glycemic index while taking into account the amount of carbohydrate that is consumed. GL is a GI-weighted measure of carbohydrate content. For instance, watermelon has a high GI, but a typical serving of watermelon does not contain much carbohydrate, so the glycemic load of eating it is low. Whereas glycemic index is defined for each type of food, glycemic load can be calculated for any size serving of a food, an entire meal, or an entire day's meals.
This shouldn’t be too shocking, but foods that have the lowest glycemic load, also tend to have a low glycemic index number. The main concept that I think we can take away from here is that whole grains, which tend to have high dietary fibers but low sugars, are actually good for you. Flour versions of these grains, are not. Through the flowering process we break down the grains cell walls, pre-digesting the long chain carbohydrates. This makes it easy for us to absorb, and thus has a much higher glycemic index and load.
For weight loss, it is recommended to eat 3 servings of carbohydrates a day (3 servings of fruits, traditional carbohydrates, or alcohol). I will explain what a serving size looks like later in the handout. I have outlined a couple of easy to follow daily meal planning guides that you can use below. Try to avoid eating very large meals for breakfast (up to 9am) and for dinner (after 5pm).
Diet Rules
- Eat oatmeal, mediclear shake, or a green smoothie for breakfast (one carbohydrate serving)
- Eat half your plate in vegetables (lunch/dinner)
- Limit total daily consumption of carbohydrates to 3 a day (more on what a serving is later)
- Do not eat tropical fruits (bananas, pineapple, papaya, coconut). Coconut oil is okay.
- Do not eat processed and packaged foods. This include anything that is made from a flour (pastas, breads, pastries, most cereals, polenta, tortillas, corn cakes, etc.). Eat only whole grains (rice, amaranth, quinoa, farro, kamut, barley, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, corn, etc.)
Sample Meal Plan
- Breakfast (6-9am) 1 serving of carbs: overnight oats
- Morning snack (10-11am) mediclear shake or green smoothie
- Lunch (11-1pm) ½ vegetable plate + 1 serving of fruit or carbohydrates
- Afternoon snack (2-4pm) berries, avocado, vegetables, green smoothie
- Dinner (5-8pm) ½ vegetable plate +1 serving of fruit or carbohydrates
Recipes
- Overnight Oats
- Green Smoothies - For the green smoothies, replace all bananas with avocados.
One serving of carbohydrates looks like this:
- ½ cup of cooked grains (rice, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, kamut, etc.)
- 1 cup of cooked oats (oatmeal)
- 1 cup of beans
- 1 apple/pear/orange
- 3 small potatoes
- ½ sweet potato
What a maintenance diet looks like
Once you have completed the program, it is recommended that you follow this maintenance program. For maintenance, you are allowed 5 servings of carbs per day. A typical day may look like this:
Sample Meal Plan:
- Breakfast (6-9am) overnight oats or kale scramble
- Morning snack (10-11am) berries, avocado, vegetables, green smoothie
- Lunch (11-1pm) ½ vegetable plate + 2 servings of carbs
- Afternoon snack (2-4pm) berries, avocado, vegetables, green smoothie
- Dinner (5-8pm) 15GL points: ½ vegetable plate + 2 servings of carbs
Whole Foods Plant Based Diet
Most people will do fine on the diet if they follow a whole foods, plant based diet. For the most part, this means not buying anything that comes in a package. These are the only things I buy in a package:
- Alternative milk products (WestSoy Organic Unsweetened Soy Milk is my favorite soymilk)
- Yogurt (Nancy’s Organic Whole Fat)
- Sour Cream (Nancy’s Cultured Organic)
- Cottage cheese (Nancy’s Organic Cultured Cottage Cheese)
- Peanut Butter/nut butters (Organic/Natural, watch out for partially hydrogenated oils). I buy the ones in glass jars.
- Drinks/beverages: Kombucha, sparkling water, coconut water (counts as 1 carb)
- Everything else can be bought in bulk, or as a whole food item.
This diet is constructed from the “Glycemic Load Diet”. The rest of this document explains the rationale behind the glycemic load diet. You don’t have to read it for it to work ;)
The Glycemic Index: Excerpt from The World's Healthiest Foods, a database founded by the former President of Bastyr University
Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement carried out on carbohydrate-containing foods and their impact on our blood sugar. GI is a relatively new way of analyzing foods. Previously, most meal plans designed to improve blood sugar analyzed the total amount of carbohydrates (including sugars and starches) in the foods themselves. GI goes beyond this approach, looking at the impact of foods on our actual blood sugar. In other words, instead of counting the total amount of carbohydrates in foods in their unconsumed state, GI measures the actual impact of these foods on our blood sugar.
Why Do Some GI Values Seem Surprising?One of the most interesting aspects of GI involves its relationship to the unique features of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are definitely not the same with respect to their immediate impact on our blood sugar. For example, non-whole grain breads and pasta noodles both contain similar amounts of starch, and their starches are similarly composed of long chains of the simple sugar, glucose. But the 3-dimensional structure of bread allows more of the starch to be exposed to enzymes in our saliva and in our digestive tract. This greater exposure to enzymes allows more of the starch to be broken down into sugar and gives non-whole grain breads a generally higher GI value than non-whole grain pastas. Similarly, two basic types of starch found in many foods - amylose and amylopectin - also influence their GI values, even if the foods have identical amounts of total starch.
With respect to their GI, foods are also differently impacted by cooking. Many legumes, for example, have cell structures that are fairly resistant to disruption and help prevent breakdown of the starches inside their cells. For this reason, legumes tend to have lower-than-expected GI values, provided that they have not been overcooked. Before they have been ground into flour, whole grains also tend to have lower GI values due to the sturdiness of their cell structures. But after being ground into flour, their starches become more susceptible to breakdown and their GI value tends to increase. Of course, these descriptions are generalizations and can be different for specific legumes, specific grains, and specific flours. Still, they reflect a general pattern and principle: namely, that for a carbohydrate-containing food, the more its natural integrity becomes disrupted by processing or overcooking, the more its GI value is likely to be increased. Minimal disruption of whole foods from their natural, unprocessed state is one of our key principles at WHFoods, and it is a principle 100% aligned with promotion of lower GI values.
For more information and GI values of whole foods: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=32
Glycemic Load
Glycemic load estimates the impact of carbohydrate consumption using the glycemic index while taking into account the amount of carbohydrate that is consumed. GL is a GI-weighted measure of carbohydrate content. For instance, watermelon has a high GI, but a typical serving of watermelon does not contain much carbohydrate, so the glycemic load of eating it is low. Whereas glycemic index is defined for each type of food, glycemic load can be calculated for any size serving of a food, an entire meal, or an entire day's meals.
This shouldn’t be too shocking, but foods that have the lowest glycemic load, also tend to have a low glycemic index number. The main concept that I think we can take away from here is that whole grains, which tend to have high dietary fibers but low sugars, are actually good for you. Flour versions of these grains, are not. Through the flowering process we break down the grains cell walls, pre-digesting the long chain carbohydrates. This makes it easy for us to absorb, and thus has a much higher glycemic index and load.
