Last year I have been quite serious about finally loosing weight. Like everybody else I started on the second of January and have been a good girl for over five months. Meanwhile, I have lost around 8 kg (16 pounds) and have finally received compliments on my new silhouette. Right about that time I have reached a plateau. I was simply fed up with eating oatmeal every single day and being constantly hungry. I confided in a friend of mine and she suggested I visited her dietician.
Before I move to explaining the entire experience and what I was suggested please bear in mine I am not a doctor, nor health specialist and you should not follow any diet before consulting your doctor.
I wasn’t convinced at first, as I believe dieticians should be real doctors and not just someone who graduated studies on nutrition, but I figured I had nothing to lose anyway, so why not? Side note: except money I had to pay for the visit, obviously.
In the meantime my dietitian performed several checks on me; including body composition analysis, which showed how much fat I have accumulated over cosy eating all the candy for the last 28 years. She has also stated, that even though I am overweight, my body is very symmetrical which gives hope that one day I will finally loose all the excess fat and my body will look bomb. Yay!
She mentioned my body was well hydrated (another side note: I visited her during heatwave in summer and drank a whole bottle of water before I entered her office) and that I should keep hydrating further in order to rid my body of toxins.
After initial conversation about my eating habits, what I like and can’t stand eating and how my regular day looks like, she adjusted a plan for me, which later was sent over to me via e-mail. She started with explaining that a healthy diet means there will be way more food on my plate and to not worry if it seems too much. Portions are greater, but only in volume, not in calories. There was no limit to how much vegetables I could eat (obviously using common sense, I wouldn’t eat 2 kg of tomatoes with my chicken). She made me conscious about eating more calorie packed vegetables, such as dried tomatoes in olive oil, canned green peas, canned red beans etc.
Most important rule was to consume breakfast within 1 hour from waking up, and 2-3 hours before going to sleep. She initially wanted me to eat 30 minutes after waking, but I take medication on an empty stomach and cannot eat for an hour after that, so she adjusted that particular time to me. She has also reminded me not to forget to hydrate myself in between meals. Moreover, she has stated I should supplement my diet with several vitamins and microelements, especially that I mentioned severe hair loss – which I have yet to find a solution for.
My dietitian also suggested that it is vital to abide eating time. According to my lifestyle she suggested meal times as follows:
- Breakfest 7:30-8:00,
- Second breakfest 10:30
- Lunch 1:00 – 2:00 P.M.,
- Snack 4:00 – 5:00 P.M.,
- Dinner 7:00 – 8:00 P.M.
She has chosen such time frames after I told her I start work at 7:00 A.M. and go to sleep around 11:00 P.M. I don’t think I ever followed a diet that strict in timing and I think that was part of the reason I never fully committed to this one. As the New Year just started I decided to incorporate all the eating times. Keep fingers crossed!
Breakfast
Milk or dairy product 250 ml (a glass) + cereals 50 g + dried fruit 50 g or 25 g of nuts and sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds or 250 g of fruit (an apple, pear, 1,5 glass of strawberries, redberries, blackberries, 3 peaches – if banana 100 g, if grapes 150 g.
Rye bread 90g (3 slices) + protein supplement (half of white cheese/five slices of ham/fish/2 eggs) 120 g + fat 10 g (butter) + vegetables,
If the sandwich is with yellow cheese, then 60 g of rye bread (2 slices) + protein supplement (2 slices of cheese) 40 g + fat 5 g + vegetables
SYMBIO strawberry-apple muesli 100 g + natural yoghurt 180 ml (small package).
I think above suggestions require a little bit of a commentary. I told my dietitian that I am quite busy in the morning and don’t usually have time to prepare anything overcomplicated. I have also stated that I do indeed eat a lot of bread as it’s the easiest to just grab a sandwich and devour it on the go. I have also stated that I love SYMBIO muesli pack and I provided her with content list, which if you are interested I can e-mail to you. At that time muesli was my life saviour as I constantly worked and it took me 2 minutes to simply add yoghurt and enjoy my meal. At first I hated it as it does tasty quite like a park bench, but with time I got used to it and then couldn’t live without it.
Second breakfast
Rye bread 60 g (2 slices) + protein supplement (slice of ham, fish, slice of white cheese, slice of yellow cheese, half an egg) 20 g + fat 5 g + vegetables
Milk/dairy product 150-180 ml (small package) + cereals 10 g (table spoon of oatmeal or 2 spoons of wheat bran + dried fruit 40 g which can be changed to 20 g of nuts or seeds.
Cottage cheese/kefir/buttermilk 200-250 g (small package) + rye bread 30 g (1 slice) + vegetables
Lunch
Groats, rice – 3 spoons of dried product/pasta 60 g or potatoes 260 g (3 pieces) + protein supplement (poultry/fish: codfish, trout, pollock) 250 g or pork/beef 180 or other fish: salmon, halibut, mackerel 120 g or camembert 70 g or mozzarella 80 g (white mozzarella), or feta 100 g or eggs 150 g (two big eggs) or 180 g of tofu or 50 g of lentils, beans, peas or 100 g of canned legumins + vegetables + fat 10 g.
Pasta (2 glasses) 120 g + half of protein supplement from the previous section + vegetables + fat 10 g.
Snack
Fruit 250 g (if banana 125 g, if grapes 200 g), can be exchanged to 40 g of dried fruit or 20 g of nuts or seeds + milk/dairy product 250 g
Rye bread 60 g (2 slices) or 40 g of groats/rice/pasta or 180 g of potatoes + protein supplement (cheese 1/3 of a brick/ 3 slices of ham/fish/2 small eggs) 80 g or mozzarella 80 g or feta cheese 40 g + fat 5 g + vegetables. If sandwich with yellow cheese then: rye bread 60 g (2 slices) + protein supplement (2 slices of yellow cheese) 40 g + 5 g of fat + vegetables.
I was also sent some information about what to eat before and after training. My entire diet has been based on the fact that I do indeed walk a lot, but I don’t enjoy training that much. She has stated the diet will provide around 1700 kcal a day, which is sufficient deficit for me to loose weight. Just while editing this post I realized I forgot to mention most important issues: no added sugar, no alcohol, no chips and processed foods.
Unfortunatelly, as I didn’t see immediate results (and quite frankly I was a little spooked by all the weighing and limitations) I quit my diet rather quickly. With New Year starting I figured maybe I could go back to giving it a try as I am nearing 30 and am still a pumpkin.
What are your thoughts about this diet?
Do you see anything that could help me bear with it? What was your experience with dietitians? Maybe there are some tips you could give me? Share them in the comment section below.
