Mix-And-Match Salads

If you fancy creating your own 'superfood' salad, you can use the following guide to pick and mix your own ingredients, either at home or when you are choosing lunch from a deli or salad bar. To get a 10GL meal you can fill your plate with vegetables from the 'Unlimited' box then selectone of the options from both the 'Choose 1 Protein' and 'Choose 1 Carbohydrate' boxes, to provide a balanced meal of protein, carbohydrate and plenty of fibrous vegetables.

For example, you could have spinach, watercress, rocket, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts and olives, with chicken slices and butterbeans. Alternatively, try Romaine lettuce, spring onions, celery, roasted red peppers, and smoked mackerel flaked through with quinoa. The serving sizes here are for one person, and include maintenance phase portions when you are allowed more carbohydrate to bring your meal up to 15GL

UNLIMITED

Salad leaves

Lettuce or other leaves, such as spinach, watercress, rocket

Other non-starchy vegetables

Vegetables, such as spring onions or red onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, diced peppers, beansprouts, celery, fresh herbs, vegetable antipasti (such as marinated artichoke hearts, roasted peppers or olives - drain offany excess oil)

CHOOSE 1

Protein

1 chicken breast fillet or equivalent slices or strips of chicken, turkey or lean ham

85g (3oz) (medium fillet) smoked fish, such as smoked salmon, trout or mackerel

85g (3oz) (6 large) cooked prawns ¹/2 x 85g (3oz) can tuna

120g (4¹/4oz) cottage cheese

75g (2³/4oz) cheese, such as feta or goat's cheese

2 hard-boiled eggs (or mash 1 hard-boiled egg into 1 tbsp cottage cheese)

1 tbsp nuts or seeds, such as pine nuts, pecan nuts, walnuts, cashew nuts or pumpkin seeds

200g (7oz) hummus (small pot) 65g (2¹/4oz) quinoa (dry weight) 100g (3¹/2oz) smoked tofu, cubed

CHOOSE 1

Carbohydrate

(grains and starchy vegetables)

1 medium carrot (grated) or

apple (diced)

maintenance phase: 1 large carrot or apple

110g (33/4oz) beetroot maintenance phase: 160g (53/4oz)

¹/2x 410g (14¹/2oz) can (2 tbsp) mixed pulses, butterbeans, lentils or chickpeas (or other pulse) maintenance phase: ²/3 x 410g (14¹/20z) can (3 heaped tbsp)

3 rough oatcakes

maintenance phase: 5 rough oatcakes

³/4 wholemeal pitta bread (or to make life easier, have a whole pitta bread for 10GL but don't have it with a carbohydrate containing filling - so no sun-dried tomatoes or hummus,for example

maintenance phase: 1 pitta

11/2 slices rye bread

maintenance phase: 2 slices rye bread

65g (2¹/4oz) quinoa (dry weight) maintenance phase: 90g (3¹/4oz) (very large serving)

40g (1¹/2oz) brown basmati rice (dry weight) (very small serving) maintenance phase: 60g (2¹/4oz) (small serving)

40g (1¹/2oz) wholemeal pasta (dry weight) (medium serving) maintenance phase: 55g (2oz) (medium-large serving)

3 small baby new potatoes maintenance phase: 4 small baby new potatoes

¹/2 small baked potato/sweet potato maintenance phase: 1 small baked potato/sweet potato

Nutrition Facts Labels is KEY to Successful Dieting

Choosing foods wisely based on the information that you can glean from Nutrition Facts labels is key to successful dieting. At first, the label may seem awfully confusing, but if you know what to look for, interpreting a label is really pretty simple. See the list that follows for the skinny on the most important information featured on the Nutrition Facts label:

Calories: The calorie total is based on the stated serving size - so if you eat more or less than what the label lists as one portion, you need to do the math.

Dietary fiber: Choose the foods with the most fiber. Research shows that people who eat plenty of fiber also eat fewer calories. You get the most fiber in foods made from whole grains, such as cereals and breads. Fruits and vegetables have fiber, too. A food is considered to be high in fiber if it has at least 5 grams of fiber per serving.

Serving size: Notice how the food manufacturer's serving size compares to the size you usually eat. For example, does your normal serving of ice cream measure more than the standard %z cup? And remember that serving amounts are given in level measuring cups or spoons. Servings per container can help you estimate sizes if a measuring cup or spoon isn't handy.

Total fat: For dieting, keep total fat to less than about 20 to 30 percent of calories. For someone who eats 1,500 calories a day, that's no more than 33 to 50 grams. Remember, the Percentage Daily Value numbers on Nutrition Facts labels are based on 65 grams of fat a day (30 percent of total calories) and calculated on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet.

Trans fatty acid is the newest item to be added to the Nutrition Fact label. By January 2006, all foods required to carry nutrition labeling will have to state the amount of trays fatty acids in their product. Like saturated fat, trans fat is a type of fat. The grams of these fats, and their calories, are already accounted for in the total fat.

To quickly figure the number of grams of fat that 30 percent represents, start with your total number of daily calories. Drop the last digit and then divide the remaining number by 3. So if you allow yourself 1,800 calories for the day, divide 180 by 3 to get 60 grams of fat as your daily limit.

What the Food Label Say

What the Food Label Says	What It Mean
Fat-free	Less than 1/2 (0.5) gram of fat in a serving.
Calorie-free	Less than 5 calories per serving.
Low fat	3 grams of fat (or less) per serving.
Lean (on meat labels)	Less than 10 grams of fat per serving, with 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat and 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.
Extra lean (on meat labels)	Less than 5 grams of fat per serving, with less than 2 grams of saturated fat and 95 milligrams of cholesterol.
Less	Contains 25 percent less of a nutrient or calories than another food.
Reduced	A nutritionally altered product that contains at least 25 percent fewer calories, sodium, or sugar than the regular one.
Lite (Light)	Contains 1/3 fewer calories or no more than 1/2 the fat of the higher-calorie, higher-fat version; or no more than 1/2 the sodium of the higher-sodium version.
Cholesterol-free	Less than 2 milligrams of cholesterol and 2 grams (or less) of saturated fat per serving.
Healthy	The food must be low in fat and saturated fat and contain limited amounts of cholesterol and sodium.
Percent fat free	The food must be low in fat or fat free. Plus, it must reflect the amount of fat present in a serving. In other words, if a food contains 5 grams of fat in a serving, it can be labeled "95 percent fat free."
Low-calorie	Fewer than 40 calories per serving.

What the FoodLabel Says

Don't confuse total fat and calories with cholesterol, saturated fat, and sodium. All the nutrients that a food contains are important; however, to achieve weight loss, the total fat and calories are the most important to track. Cholesterol and sodium (salt) don't add calories but eating too much sodium can contribute to water retention and therefore water weight. The calories from saturated fat are included in the calories from fat total.

Sneaky Servings and Other Portion Tricks

Many dieters find that portion control is real tricky. Manufacturers certainly don't help in this regard. Some containers look as though they should contain one serving, because that's probably how most people consume them. However, consider that

• A 16-ounce container of iced tea is 2 servings.
• A 16-ounce container of iced tea is 2 servings.
• A 61/2- to 7-ounce can of tuna is 21/2 servings.
• A 4-, 6-, or 8-ounce container of yogurt is considered one serving.
• A 20-ounce bottle of soda is 2 servings.

Ten Ways to Cut Calories

Reading food labels

• Eating measured portions slowly from plates
• Employing healthy cooking techniques

A food's fat content is important, but when it comes to weight loss, total calories are more important. So many of the lowfat products on the market aren't calorie reduced. For example, 2 tablespoons of reduced-fat peanut butter have the same number of calories as the regular kind. And replacing a tablespoon of butter on a bagel with 2 tablespoons of jelly eliminates the fat but doesn't change the number of calories. In this chapter, you can find some calorie-cutting tricks to live by.

Paying Attention to the Nutrition Facts

Seemingly healthy foods can be surprising sources of calories and fat, so make sure to check out the details on the Nutrition Facts panel on the food label. A container of ramen noodles, for example, packs 15 grams of fat and 400 calories; a bran muffin can top 10 grams of fat and 250 calories. Portion sizes can be deceptively small, too. A serving of sugar-sweetened iced tea contains 60 calories, but each bottle often contains two servings. And a serving of ice cream or other frozen dessert is a skimpy %z cup.

Limiting Alcohol

Alcohol, although fat-free, delivers 7 calories per gram or about 70 calories per ounce (2 tablespoons). The higher the proof, the more calories alcohol has: 80-proof alcohol averages 65 calories per ounce, and 100-proof alcohol comes in at 85 calories per ounce. The average light beer or 5-ounce glass of wine contains about 100 calories. A typical regular beer has about 150 calories. And don't forget, usually the nibbles served with alcohol are high in calories.In addition to the calorie wallop, alcohol whittles away your resolve to stay in control of your eating. And any cardiac benefits you may derive from drinking, such as that seen in men who drink a daily glass of red wine, are not nearly as important as those you derive from weight loss and exercise.

Switching to Smatter Plates

Serve yourself on a salad-size plate, about 8 inches in diameter, rather than on a dinner plate, which is typically 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Your portion sizes will be closer to those suggested in the Food Guide Pyramid (see Chapter 9) and more in tune with the number of calories you should be eating.

Asking for the Kid Size

It may seem like a bargain, but is an extra 240 calories for 39 cents really a good way to spend your calorie budget? That's the difference between a small order of fries and a large one. Kid-size popcorn at most movie theaters contains 150 calories, but a large size can top 1,000 without the butter-flavored topping. A child-size soda (8 ounces) has about 95 calories; a large soda measuring 36 ounces or more contains at least 400.

Eating Proper Portion Sizes

Nibbling from packages of crackers and shaving "tastes" from the brownie pan or forkfuls of cake from the platter can add up to plenty of calories and more than you think you've eaten. Portion out everything you eat onto a plate or into a small bowl and put the package or pan away.

Use measuring cups and spoons to portion out a serving onto your dinnerware. Study and memorize how it looks. What does %z cup of ice cream look like in your dessert dishes? One cup of whole-wheat cereal in your breakfast bowl? One cup of pasta on your dinner plate? Five ounces of wine in your stemware? You can mark your dinnerware and glassware with a dot or dash of nail polish to remind yourself. If you have oversized dinnerware, use the salad or dessert plates. You may even consider buying a luncheon set, which has smaller plates.

Dining in the Dining Room

When you bring plates to the table already filled, you won't be tempted to pick from serving bowls and platters in front of you. You're also forced to go out of your way for seconds and thus have the chance to reconsider. An added benefit: Because you don't have to dirty serving bowls and platters, you have fewer dishes to wash.

Eating Slowly

Your brain takes a full 20 minutes to register the fact that your stomach is full. Try putting your fork down and taking a sip of water between bites. Chew your food well and don't load up your fork or spoon until you swallow what's in your mouth. Doing so enables you to more easily recognize when you're full.

Filing Up on Plant Food

Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains without butter, dressings, or sauces take up stomach space, leaving less room for denser, high-calorie foods. They also take more time to chew and eat. Consider the fact that a teeny little pat of butter has as many calories as 3 cups of broccoli or that a 1-inch cube (1 ounce) of cheddar cheese has the same number of calories as 1 cup - that's 8 ounces - of bran flakes.

Switching to Low fat Dairy Products

Dairy is one place where going with the reduced-fat, lowfat, or fat-free variety makes sense, because the calories are significantly reduced in the lowfat version. For example, an 8-ounce glass of whole milk contains 150 calories, but the same amount of fat-free (skim) milk has only 85. One ounce of regular cheddar cheese has 114 calories, but reduced-fat and lowfat varieties contain 80 and 49 calories, respectively.

Note one exception, however: Dairy products, such as ice cream and flavored yogurt that are marketed as reduced-fat, lowfat, or fat-free often contain added sugar to make up for the loss of flavor and texture that fat provides. Don't be fooled into thinking that they provide fewer calories, too. Always check the calorie content on the Nutrition Facts panel of the food label.

Remembering That Duff Is Better

Not dull as in boring, but dull as in not shiny. At the salad bar, shiny means a thick coating of oily (high-calorie) salad dressing. Vegetables that shimmer usually have butter added to them. Muffins that leave a grease slick on your napkin have more calories than ones that don't. Bread or rolls that are slick with butter. .. you get the idea.

Cooking Meats with Methods That

Broil, barbecue, bake (on a rack), or braise meats, and you save many calories over frying, sautéing, and stewing, because the fat (and therefore its calories) has a chance to drip away from the meat.

Cooking chicken and other poultry with the skin on and removing it after it's been cooked is fine, because the meat absorbs little of the fat but stays moist.