A little while ago, a friend asked me to help him out. He wanted to lose some weight and more importantly, feel healthier. He asked me to help him set up a 6 week vegetarian food plan for himself and his wife who are not vegetarians.
Although I do a pretty good job of managing my own vegetarian-sometimes-vegan diet, setting up a whole system for someone else was really a challenge. Not only did I have to ensure they were getting decent nutrition, but I also had to take into consideration the availability of offbeat ingredients, the ease of preparation, and how to use leftovers as lunches.
And because I wanted this to be a good education for them as well as a healthy and tasty series of meals, I started off with a long manifesto of food and diet theory. These days I lean towards whole grains, minimal dairy, and portion control as my main ways to stay healthy. so I wanted to help them understand why.
The project was harder than I thought and I only managed five weeks of the plan. The general idea is to eat three 450 calorie meals and up to three 150 calorie snacks per day (depending on your caloric needs). That goes for 6 days a week, with one “free day” to eat whatever you like.
The Ultra Healthy PDF (1.5Mb) contains four pages of diet theory, 30 days of menus, a list of interchangeable breakfast items, thirty 150 calorie snack suggestions, and 34 recipes adapted from my favorite cookbooks. Plus a sprinkling of typos for your proofreading pleasure.
Posted by kuri at July 09, 2009 03:49 PMHow awesome! I am downloading it now, and can’t wait to read it and use it in our meal planning. Thank you for sharing it with us. I only wish I could get my hubby to become vegetarian, but I always try to sneak in as many meatless meals as I can. :)
Posted by: Aimee on July 10, 2009 07:33 AMSeems like with a diet like that a guy might lose 15 lbs in 40 days.
Posted by: UltraBob on July 11, 2009 02:59 AM