Physical Fitness & Weight Loss Challenge
Week # 7 - Smaller Portions
Welcome to week # 7!
The theme for this week is to consider reducing your meal portion sizes by switching to smaller & more frequent meals throughout the day.
Bonus Reward # 2 - Time to Celebrate!
After completing week # 6, it's time to celebrate with reward #2. Enjoy yourself this week and celebrate all the progress you've made over the past six weeks.
Smaller Portions
One of the easiest and most effective ways you can change your eating habits is to switch to smaller and more frequent meals.
Many nutrition and diet experts recommend eating 5 to 6 meals each day, with a small meal every 3 to 4 hours.
This simple diet change was instrumental in my weight loss success. The best part is that you don't have to eat much less than what you are eating now, you just spread it over more meals.
Eating smaller meals throughout the day helps you realize that you don't need to eat a lot to stop feeling hungry.
For example, let's say that you are currently eating 2400 calories to maintain your current weight. Spreading these calories over 6 meals would mean you would want to average about 400 calories in each meal. You don't have to make each meal exactly 400 calories, you can have some with slightly more and others with slightly less.
Here's what I did. While it works great for me, you'll want to adjust it based on your own diet and energy needs.
Meal 1: Breakfast consisting of a cold cereal with bananas or strawberries.
Meal 2: Snack consisting of yogurt and fruit, like an apple, grapes, or berries. Sometimes I'll eat nuts instead of fruit.
Meals 3, 4 & 5: I split what used to be my lunch & dinner into three smaller meals. I sometimes may eat the same dish for the three meals, but I often eat something different in each one.
A great way to do this is to switch from large plates to smaller salad plates. This is a natural way to reduce your portion size.
For example, I switched from a 9 1/2 inch plate (diameter) to a 7 inch plate.
You may need to experiment a little bit to find the right portion size so that you are not hungry between meals.
Meal 6: A light supper consisting of cereal with slightly warmed milk.
6 healthy meals tends to be the ideal for men, and 5 healthy meals the ideal for women. Adjust as necessary based on your caloric needs.
How to Switch to Smaller Meals
Since you are not changing the amount of food that you eat that much, this is a small enough change to do as a single change.
However, if you want to break it up even further, you can start by splitting your lunch/dinner into 3-4 meals instead of two. Then, once you are comfortable with this change, split your breakfast into 2 meals.
Weekly Goals - Week # 7
Start by picking your reward for this week and writing it down on your scorecard.
Goal # 1 - Exercise Goals
Here are the exercise goals for week # 7 (EG7):
Advanced Track
Workout One
Days 1-6: 2-4 minutes warm-up + 12 minutes Level II + CD
Workout Two
Days 1, 3, 5: 3-5 minutes warm-up + 2 resistance exercises (swings & chest press/push-ups) + CD
Day 2, 4, 6: 2-4 minute warm-up + 8 minutes Level II + CD
Moderate Track
Workout One
Days 1-6: 4 minutes warm-up + 12 minute Level II + CD
Workout Two
Days 1, 3, 5: 3-5 minutes warm-up + 2 resistance exercises (swings & chest press/push-ups) + CD
Day 2, 4, 6: 4 minutes warm-up + 6 minute Level II + CD
Easy Track
Days 1-6: 4 minutes warm-up + 10 minutes Level I + CD
Day 7 is your rest day on all tracks.
Remember to check the box in your scorecard when you complete each day... and keep going strong!
Goal # 2 - Start reducing portion sizes
Start reducing your portion sizes and split your eating into smaller more frequent meals throughout the day.
P.S. If you think this challenge is a good idea, I would really appreciate if you tell you friends, family, and co-workers about it.
This article is part of the physical fitness and weight loss challenge. Click here to learn more and join the challenge.