So you’ve already read about why I chose the Diet Solution Program as my personal approach to trying to get to a healthier life style, reduce my body fat percentage, and in general improve my health overall.
Given the amazing amount of resources you get as part of this program, where should you start? Well, call me captain obvious, but I started by reading the Quick Start Guide!
This guide starts out with a pretty simple 3 key principles that describe the entire approach of the program – Isabel calls it the 3 steps to weight loss:
- Identify your metabolism type
- Discover your idea calorie ranges
- Discover a selection of high quality food
What I have heard throughout my life is that weight loss and body fat is basically a function of calories you take in, and calories you burn. My past experiences are that if you take in fewer calories than your body burns every day, then you will start using stored body fat to make up for the difference in what you need and what you’re eating.
However, as this program is teaching me, there is a lot more to it than that! We are surrounded by a lifestyle that encourages eating bad foods, which is as important if not more so than a simple calorie count. I don’t think I could ever adopt the weight watchers program and eat an exact menu of prescribed foods, or have to buy special meal packages that are not only expensive in my opinion, but limit my eating and cooking choices.
What I found cool about starting out with this program is taking the metabolic typing test to see if I am more of a protein versus carb versus mixed type of person – I believe I am a protein type by will take the test shortly to confirm.
Food Facts as it relates to Improving Your Body Fat Percentage
Ok, so Isabel doesn’t exactly state this is for burning body fat, but since that is why I am doing the program I’ll be adding that context in specific to my goals and objectives.
The Quick Start Guide starts in the first few pages to talk about some basic food facts, and honestly highlights some things I didn’t know [like don't eat a lot of Soy based foods - explaining the history of Soy and why it isn't good for your body]. She discussed organic foods and why these are better matched to what your body needs – I’ll be easing in to this and focusing initially on switching some of the foods I eat over to organic [i.e. like fruits and vegetables where you eat the skin for example]. Given convenience and cost considerations, I’ll move towards organic foods over time for things like meats.
What I really like is the guide quickly outlines foods and ingredients to avoid at all costs – it is very explicit, easy to follow, and even if I am in a hurry either in the store or cooking at home I can adhere to the guidelines. There are even simple tips in food preparation that I was not aware of [like adding fat to a cold pan and increasing heat gradually].
Meal Plans (with my goal of cutting my body fat)
The Quick Start Guide provides simple, “normal” meal plans to follow for the first 6 weeks ahead of spending a ton of time personalizing the program to my unique tastes and requirements. I like that you can eat more or less than what this quick start meal plan states, but always avoiding foods that are on the “bad” list.
The meal plan is laid out week by week, and provides enough variety of foods that I already like that it won’t be hard for me to follow. There are a few items on there that I’ll be checking Whole Foods for like raw nut butter…I’ll also stock up on some healthier snack choices she recommends early on that, honestly, are just as easy to eat as grabbing that bag of chips [i.e. almonds and walnuts].
Like a lot of prior reading I’ve done, this program also is an advocate of smaller meals but with snacks in-between. This is a huge change to my normal practice of skipping breakfast, having a huge lunch, and a huge dinner. I can almost visualize my huge dinner packing on the fat after I go to sleep…and I’m sure is not conducive to reaching my target body fat percentage!
Ok – I’m off to the grocery store to begin replacing my horribly unhealthy pantry collection with the items recommended in this program – with a focus on omega 3 sources, healthier oils, more veggies, and some snack choices that I’d find satisfying and that are on her meal plan list.
In parallel I’ll be reading through the main diet solution manual, as well as some of the other material included in the package I received, and as I learn more will be sharing it out on subsequent posts!
-Russell