Chris Powell's Choose To Lose

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Deanna_garnermommy
Deanna_garnermommy Posts: 118 Member
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Can someone check my diary for Monday, I am trying to start the program, i am having a hard time hoping someone can look and give me feed back. I have been eating low carb for so long trying to increase my carbs for his low carb day is kind of funny!
Would love some choose to lose buddies, please list me as a friend!

Deanna

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  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
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    First off... Welcome to the group!!!! I am so sorry I didn't see this until today. My monday was so super busy!!! I took a quick gander at your meal plan for yesterday (Wed 5/23).

    Here are the observations I saw off the bat:

    1) If you are going to follow Chris's plan, you will want to work towards 5 smaller meals, eaten every 3 hours. On LC days, shoot for a minimum of 1200 calories on LC days, and a minimum of 1500 calories on HC days).

    2) I can't tell, based on your diary, if you were trying to do a LC or a HC day yesterday.

    3) It looks like you probably exercise a lot, if you have 2 breakfasts listed for before and after exercising. This isn't a bad thing, just something we need to work around. :smile:


    My suggestions:

    1) Have your 5 meals of the day start with your 2nd breakfast. Therefore, you will be eating 6 times over the course of the day. have the meals not including your pre-workout breakfast stick within the HC/LC guidelines listed within the book, and be at least 1200 calories (240/meal) on a LC day, and 1500 calories (~300/meal) on a high carb day.

    2) Consider changing your 6 meals to: preworkout breakfast, post workout breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack 1, snack 2... and add your vitamins in to the meal that you actually take them with. Also, consider putting your goal for the day in your "notes section."

    Mine looks like this:
    LC 1200-1500 cal
    HC 1500-1800 cal, or
    Funday up to 2400 (more if earned w/ exercise).

    3) Breakfast is ALWAYS a HC meal. This means that there are no "healthy fats" involved. Make sure you get in your protein and a healthy carb... and veggies if you can.

    4) if you are exercising a lot (and it looks like you might be), a pre-work out breakfast is not a bad idea. I don't see any reason why you should change what you are doing here... unless you find that you are not getting any results with the other changes you make.

    5) Low carb day meals NEVER have a "healthy carb" added to it. Always 1 palm of protein, 1 thumb of fat, and 2 fists of veggies. Yes, I know veggies are actually "carbs," :laugh: but they don't count as a "carb" as Chris describes them.

    6) High carb day meals NEVER have a "healthy fat" added to them. So, no cheese, nuts, fat filled salad dressing, etc. Bummer huh?

    7) If you have not already, please read my length suggestions on how to start this crazy diet here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813951-so-you-want-to-start-choose-to-lose

    and, my theory on the "diet prison" here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/845132-question-on-shakes


    And.. if you have any questions just yell!! send me a pm if you need me to look at something too! I'm willing to help.... :)
  • Deanna_garnermommy
    Deanna_garnermommy Posts: 118 Member
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    Thanks for your reply. I thought low carb on this plan was 100 or under for carbs and 200g for HC days?
    I have been doing 100 carbs on low carb day, so that is wrong? I am having a hard time figuring this all out. I have his book and several pages into it, but I don't have a lot of free time to read page to page right now :(

    I want to do 1500 on LC days and 1800 on HC, i am starving with my work outs if i dont and i usually only take 1 day off per week to rest and not work out. I am in the habit of eating a home made granola bar before i work out, OR a low carb muffin i make. So you suggest eating the low carb muffin (its only 100 cals) and only the granola bar when i am on my HC days then?
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
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    If you are working out, and need the extra calories, I don't see any reason to change your Pre-workout breakfast.

    Technically, the carbs/fat grams you ate was good. However, if you want to follow Chris's eating plan, you need to understand what he calls a Veggie, and what he calls a carb. You will not be able to make the distinction on mfp in the "carb gram" count... so you will just need to learn what is okay on a low carb day, and what isn't.

    Now... if you want to follow the plan as written (with the exception of adding a pre-workout breakfast), you will need to eat 5 meals, every 3 hours. They should all be roughly the same size in calorie count. So on a 1500 calorie day, each meal should be around 300 calories. If you eat your pre-workout and post-workout breakfast closer together than 3 hours, I don't see a problem with that. :)

    Yesterday (thursday) was a Low Carb day for you... here are the issues I see.

    Lunch: Crispbread is a "carb"... therefore you can't eat it after breakfast on a Low Carb day. Hummus can be considered a flavoring... IF you eat 2 tbsp of it or less with a meal (according to CTL, p 169)... eating more than that, and it would be a carb as well. You only ate 1 cup of veggies (more would be better), and no "healthy fat"

    Dinner: looks good.. but missing a healthy fat

    Snack: Peanut-flour brownies and a beefstick.... ummm... sounds delish! Without knowing what is in the recipe... I will assume they do not contain any "carbs" as Chris would list them. lots of healthy fat there.... but no veggies. :(



    Now.. take what I said with a grain of salt.. because I have not been "on the bandwagon" complely since December. When I was on CTL, and eating like Chris recommended, I lost ~40 pounds in 5 months. Granted, I'm at the beginning of my journey, and you are nearing the end. All I'm trying to say is that I am going back to his phylosophies, because it worked for me... Read the book... either Choose to Lose, or nis new one... they are both really good. take notes, and pay special attention to what he says about how to put together a meal. Once you get the pattern down, it will get much easier... I promise!

    -sarah
  • Deanna_garnermommy
    Deanna_garnermommy Posts: 118 Member
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    Thank you so much for your input, I am feeling lost after reading the previous statement from you. I thought I read for breakfast and lunch you eat your carbs and then low carb dinner? I guess that is just on high carb days?

    I need to eat more veggies, i am working on it, Fruit counts too but we only eat those with breakfast, right?
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
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    I'm so sorry I wasn't clear... my kids were talking to me while I was typing. Sorry! :blushing:

    Breakfast is always High Carb.

    On Low Carb days, the 4 meals after breakfast on low carb days are Low Carb meals. :smile:

    On High Carb days, all 5 meals are High Carb. :wink:


    It will take some getting use to. But you will get it!!!


    Edited to add. Fruit is a carb. So, for your High Carb meals you can choose a fruit, or a starchy vegetable, or grain as your "fist of carb"... or any combination that you want. Just try to limit your quantity to one fist size serving in total. :)

    Yes, you can have fruit with breakfast... I do every morning.. and usually with my snacks on high carb days too. With my "lunch and dinner" meals, I tend to choose a starchy vegetable or grain over fruit. :smile:
  • Deanna_garnermommy
    Deanna_garnermommy Posts: 118 Member
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    I read a lot more in his book last night, so everything you are saying is making more sense. I hate not having time to read, but I was able to get some in before I went to sleep last night.

    Is Oatmeal okay for breakfast as my carb? Or maybe just stick with yogurt and fruit and protein powder? It would still keep me under 100g per day if i just eat meat and veggies the rest of the day.
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
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    Oatmeal is a great breakfast carb! Depending on how much you eat, you could have oatmeal & fruit. I love oatmeal & raisins or fresh strawberries. It's awesome. LOL

    If you do eat oatmeal, you will want to figure out how to add some sort of a protein, either to it, or along side. Some people add a scoop or two of their protein shake powder to their oatmeal... with quite good results. You could also eat some greek yogurt along side the oatmeal, or an egg.. these are all great protein options. :)

    The key is a serving of protein at every meal.. this does include breakfast (you'll want to be at around 20g). I'm really really bad at this... I forget to eat protein... and veggies, and fruit, and well, anything that isn't a starchy carb. LOL. That's why this meal plan works so well for me, because it is enough of a structure to remind me what I need to do every day... and enough variety to keep it fun.
  • Deanna_garnermommy
    Deanna_garnermommy Posts: 118 Member
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    Okay this is going to rock, oatmeal with my vanilla whey and blueberries for breakfast. I am going to try to figure this out and do it tomorrow. I read to eat protein first and also to start the diet on a high carb day. I messed that up. So i basically did my cheat day today after my race i was starving so i over ate for sure and mexican for dinner. I am going to work on my menu tomorrow morning for the first couple days of the week and then send you a message to see if you can check out my diary again.
    Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me.
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
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    You've done great so far! Just keep adjusting things, until you have the correct balance between what chris wants us to do... and what will actually work for us. :)

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