First Week One 28 Day Diet | Engine 2 Support | Forum

Hello!

I am currently on my fourth day of the 28 day diet and I'm going strong! I do have a few questions as to how I should go about choosing my meals and what not. I don't like to follow day-to-day meal plans because I am a student and it is just too hard to follow strict meal plans, so the books guide is really not going to help me. I've basically taken an independent route for this journey and I think I can make it through.

My only concern is that I really want to lose weight on this as well as get more energy, so I'm unsure of what I should eat lots of (any vegetables I assume) and what I should not eat a lot of. I feel like I'm eating too many carbs (noodles, whole wheat bread, etc) and too much sugar (from lots of fruit, brown sugar in my oatmeal everyday, and I now eat raisins like they are candy) Could this be a problem if I'm wanting to lose weight?

I'd love any feedback on anything that you think would help!

Best,

Michelle

When I started I didn't follow the meal plans either, too many things I didn't like. I used the recipes in the book that sounded good to me and didn't have any problems.

For weight loss, go light on the grains and beans and heavy on veggies. Dried fruit is very calorie dense, so go light on it. Avoid smoothies and juices, very calorie dense. You want to avoid avocado, nuts and seeds also, as they are high in fat.

Good luck!

I would suggest making yourself a veggies and quinoa dish. This can be stuffed in whole wheat pita for lunch, or eaten with salad greens.  I usually add chickpeas or black beans in my quinoa dish. This can be eaten warm or cold.

Dried fruit is really calorie dense and will throw off weight loss. Juices and smoothies have the same problem. Dr. E. has a long post about how grinding up veggies in smoothies make them seem even more calorie dense in the body because your body doesn't have to break down any of the fiber.  Eat fruits whole and not dried for the best use by the body.

I like using beans in soups for lunch. They travel well in a thermous or are easily reheated. Wraps with fat free humus and loads of veggies work well too.

Wow thanks for all the responses! They all really help, it is nice to see that other people are going through my same struggles. I'm currently on day 6 and feel great. I'm been trying to incorporate more veggies into my meals and trying to make at least one meal only veggies, which helps with that. I'm getting great at making salads and have even concocted my own salad dressings that don't have any oil, and they are sooo good! Here's what I use if anyone wants to know, I don't really measure I just use them by taste:

-Balsamic vinegar (pure)

-Vegetable stock

-Olive juice from black olive can (I just use a little just because I love olives so much)

-Hummus! (I made my own hummus and whisk it in. It gives the dressing a bit more body and flavors it too!)

So I'm almost done with my first week and still going strong. I felt kinda bad the first few days, but its been much better so far. Can't wait to see if there is any weight loss results, I weigh myself tomorrow!

For a quick meal I really like Quinoa, kale, broccoli, beans and some vinegar.  Pretty quick and I lightly steam the broccoli and kale while the quinoa is cooking, drain and rinse the beans.  Sometimes add a little nutritional yeast or low sodium tamari.  Also great leftover.  I have also started making extra of everything and putting things in the freezer for those time where I just don't want to do anything.  Also I try to make a big batch of something either saturday or sunday to eat on all week.