Meal Plan Specifics, and Few Pictures

This is my lunch today.  One glass of Fruit Punch Crystal Light.  8 whole grain wheat thins.  That yellow stuff on it, is exactly 1/2 ounce of sharp cheddar.  Yes, I weighed it.  Then I cut that into 8 tiny little squares and popped into microwave for 30 seconds, which was probably about 15 seconds too long.  Lunch is a 100 calorie "everything" bagel thin, with 5 ounces of sliced chicken lunch meat, two slices of tomatoes, 4 romaine lettuce leaves, and the other half ounce of cheddar cheese.  As you can plainly see, I am not starving by any means.

Spring for digital.  It's worth it.  I got this for under $20 at Bed Bath Beyond.  Just do it.

Ok, I've had a few requests for my meal plan.  Instead of faxing it to everyone and their mama, I'm going to post it.  Do I need to do the legal "please don't sue me if you die" phrases?  Ok, I will.

Sarah is not a nutritionist by any means.  In fact, she is a fat chick trying to figure out a way in this world to get healthy.  Attempt this personal meal plan at your own risk, and don't sue me if you stop pooping, poop too much, your hair falls out or you get body odor.  It's all on you.

Ok, since that is out of the way, this is the meal plan that a registered dietician at my hospital created specifically for me, my weight, my height, and my medical issues, which include type 2 diabetes and benign hypertension.  This is not a plan for nursing or pregnant women.

Goal:
Calories: 2000 per day
Carbohydrates: 240 grams per day
Protein: 105 grams per day
Fat: 69 grams per day

Breakfast, 8am:
4 carbohydrates.  2 of these should be a starch, 2 of these should be a fruit.
2 protein/meat
1 fat

Ok, this is where measuring comes in.  An English muffin, for example is about two servings of carbs.  One serving of carbs is 15 grams.  An English muffin, I believe, is 28 grams.  So the starch would be done.  Now, let's say you put peanut butter on the English muffin.  One serving of protein is only 7 grams, not 15 like carbs.  So two tablespoons of peanut butter is 8 grams, which is close enough.  Use an actual tablespoon, and slide a knife across the top like you're measuring for baking.  It is not a heaping tablespoon.  You can either go heavy on the PB and make that four tablespoons, but two is really a lot of PB.  I promise.  Then take a banana, and yes you have to weigh it.  Your banana choice will be the two fruit portions, depending on the size.  A huge banana will need to be cut in half.  For the other protein, you could grab a slice of lunch meat and just nibble on it.  And for the fat, every morning I choose half and half for my coffee as the fat.  That's just me; not everyone is a coffee drinker.

Lunch, 11:30 am:
3 carbohydrates.  It says 3 of these should be starch.  There is no fruit portion for lunch, which is fine by me. 
1 vegetable
2 protein/meat
1 fat

Check out my lunch above.  I fulfilled the plan quite well.  My bagel thin was 2 carb choices.  My 8 wheat thins were my other carb choice.
My vegetable was the sliced tomato.  The lettuce is a free food and doesn't count toward the plan.
I weighed my lunch meat, 6 ounces is actually 2 protein servings, but I ran out of chicken, so 5 it was.  My fat was the 1 ounce of cheese, which I divided between the wheat thins and my sandwich.  The Crystal Light has no sugar, only 5 calories, and also doesn't count in the plan.

Snack, 3pm:
2 fruit
1 protein

This is where I'm having issues.  I like fruit, but I don't want a slice of meat with my fruit for the protein.  Icky.  I did find a protein shake today which is flipping DELICIOUS but they're expensive.  I've been eating applesauce cups, bananas, apple slices, and canteloupe for my fruit mostly this week.

Dinner, 5:30pm:
3 carbohydrates, again!  3 from starch, again.
3 vegetables
3 protein/meat
2 fat

Today's dinner may not be a great example.  I made myself 10 chicken nuggets.  Because they have breading, they count as both a carb and protein choice.  It's actually 4 protein choices, and 2 starch.  Then I made a salad.  A ton of romaine and iceberg lettuce, a cup of chopped tomato, and 3 ounces of carrots is my salad (that's a lot of carrots; I feel like a bunny) with one ounce of Greek salad dressing is the fat.  I'm actually short a carb right now, so I might grab some wheat thins in a bit, but I'm still trying to get through this monstrous salad.
It's really important to make sure you're not dipping and taking fats and proteins from other meals and applying it to other ones.  All these things go together at the same time and work to stabilize blood sugar, in addition to my Metformin.  I'm not going to say, I want something really fatty, so I'm going to eat all four fats at one time.  Then your other meals will not have the appropriate balance and it won't work out.  It is supposed to all work together, and darned if I'm not seeing the results. 

Snack, 8pm:  (I know!  This seems like a lot of eating!)
2 carbs, 1 protein

This one has been fun for me.  One cup of no fat or low fat ice cream/frozen yogurt, one ounce of chopped peanuts, almonds, pecans or walnuts.  Hooray!  Although last night mine was a peanut butter cup instead of my ice cream.  No chocolate sauce or caramel or marshmallows though.  Sorry!

So there you go.  This plan has me eating every few hours, very balanced foods, and my blood sugar has been excellent, and I've lost 8 pounds in five days.  Since October 11.  I know I won't be losing 8 pounds every week, I'm sure I'll hit a plateau at some point and need to tweak things, but this is working great for me, and if you can apply it safely to your life, then enjoy!