The Supermarket Diet Cookbook

Time to dig in! If you’ve been on The Supermarket Diet, you know the drill. Newcomers, it’s pretty easy: Choose any breakfast, any lunch, any dinner, any high-calcium snack (called a Calcium Break), and a treat. Women who want to follow the diet simply prepare the meals in this chapter and add a 125 calorie treat: This is your Keep On Losin’ plan of 1,500 calories a day. Remember, if you’re feeling too hungry on this plan, then slightly increase your daily calorie intake as described on It’s Simple! How to Lose Weight on The Supermarket Diet-How The Diet Works. Men on the diet follow the Stay Slim plan of 1,800 calories, which is simply the Keep On Losin’ plan plus 300 calories a day. Use the lists on Adding Calories to Breakfast for suggestions on ways to add 300 calories. (If you’d like to start with a more spelled-out 1,800 calorie plan, then please refer to the first book, The Supermarket Diet.)

All the meals are based on Good Housekeeping’s delicious, triple-tested recipes found in Chapter 7. The recipes are quick and easy and in some instances the recipe is your entire meal. For some other meals, we’ve simply added a slice of bread, a fruit, or a little salad to round out the meal. So, this chapter is your main guide to planning your meals, showing you just what to eat.

Each meal recommendation comes with important nutrition information to help you with particular health needs. For example, if you have high blood pressure, pay attention to the sodium levels so that you can keep your intake low. If you are diabetic, you can easily figure out which meals are best for you from the amounts of carbohydrates. If you need more fiber in your diet—and most of us do—you’ll find the complete fiber count for every meal.

As explained at the beginning of the book, the weight-loss plan can also be turned into a weight-maintenance plan. Using the lists of foods on Adding Calories to Breakfast, increase your daily calorie level by 300 calories when you’re ready to graduate from the Keep on Losin’ plan and start maintaining your weight loss on the Stay Slim Maintenance Plan.

Using the Meal Plans that follow, you can put together any combination of meals you’d like. In other words, you can have any breakfast, any lunch, any dinner, any Calcium Break, and any 125-calorie treat. So if you prefer to mix and match, everything you need is in the Meal Plans. However, if you’d like a little guidance, the Weekly Menu Plans starting on Speedy Weekly Menu Plan are for you!

In the Meal Plans, breakfasts average 375 calories; lunches, 400 calories; dinners, 500 calories; and calcium-rich snacks, 100 calories. Like real life, calorie counts of these meals may vary 10, 20, even 30 calories above or below the average. For instance, the on-the-go breakfast is 355 calories, while the hot cereal breakfast is 387 calories. For lunches, the Black Bean and Avocado Salad with Cilantro is 380 calories, while the Chicken Cakes with Roasted Tomato Salsa is 420 calories. Dinners also vary slightly. If you happen to be a stickler for knowing exact calorie counts: Relax! It all works out in the end because you’ll be eating a variety of meals. One breakfast might be a little under, one lunch a little over, and dinner spot on—but your consumption will work out very close to 1,500 calories daily. And even if you always stick to the highest calorie meal the diet will still be under 1,600 daily calories—low enough to lose weight.

But you’re not going to stick to the same meals, right? The more variety, the more nutrients you’ll take in, and the healthier you’ll be. And the slimmer you’ll be, too: By avoiding a boring food rut, you’re more apt to stick with the program.

Remember: If 1,500 calories a day is too low for you as you start your weight-loss program (see How The Diet Works), then add 100 calories to your daily intake. If that’s still not enough, add another 50 or 100 or more until you hit the right balance of feeling satisfied while still losing weight. You’ll find out how to increase calories. Also, don’t sabotage your own efforts by thinking that the fewer calories you consume, the more you’re going to lose. It doesn’t work that way. If you take in too few calories a day, your body starts to conserve energy and you end up burning fewer calories as well as feeling hungrier: Your weight loss will slow down and you are very likely to fall off your diet very quickly.

Most of these meals are quick and easy to prepare, thanks to the use of convenience foods such as canned beans, prewashed salad greens, and rotisserie chicken. There are one-dish meals, like Macaroni and Cheese on the Light Side: In 25 minutes you’ve got a complete dinner. With many other meals, you simply round out the entree with a slice of whole-grain bread, some brown rice (90-second Uncle Ben’s Whole Grain Brown Ready Rice is perfectly fine), or crackers. For instance, Warm Chicken Salad with Mustard-Thyme Vinaigrette, a lunch, takes just 20 minutes to make, and is served with Triscuits.

The downside to some convenience foods is sodium. Too much sodium raises blood pressure. If you’re overweight and therefore at greater risk for high blood pressure, you need to be particularly watchful of your sodium intake; you should limit yourself to no more than 2,300 mg daily. In fact every adult—overweight or not—should try to limit sodium to 2,300 mg daily. Although the vast majority of meals in this book are low or moderate in sodium, some are high (800 mg or more).We point these out in the Meal Plans, and suggest you pick lower-sodium meals the rest of the day to balance your sodium intake. A lower-sodium breakfast has 300 mg of sodium or less; lower-sodium lunches and dinners have 600 mg sodium or less. Look for the

icon in the Meal Plans that follow. In addition, those with high blood pressure can try the Low-Sodium Weekly Menu Plan.

Being overweight increases your risk for high blood pressure, which, in turn, puts you at greater risk for heart disease. (A blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher is considered high. Normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmHg. In between these levels is a condition called “pre-hypertension”; people in this category are at increased risk for developing high blood pressure.) The DASH Sodium study—a large, government-funded study—compared diets of 3,000 mg sodium (typical American), 2,400 mg (the old recommended level, now dropped to 2,300 mg), and 1,500 mg daily. While blood pressure did drop at 2,400 mg, people got a more significant reduction on 1,500 mg, such a large reduction that many were able to lower or get rid of their blood pressure medication.

Based on the findings of the DASH Sodium Study, the Low-Sodium Weekly Menu Plan caps sodium at 1,500 mg per day. In fact, these meals put you under 1,500 mg daily, so there’s room for a little sodium in your 125-calorie treat. However, most people with high blood pressure need not cut sodium this low: 2,300 mg daily is probably fine. But if you give this menu plan a try for a month and find that your blood pressure drops significantly, then 1,500 mg daily may be your lucky number. Start with this week, then build your own menu plan from the sodium levels listed after each meal listed earlier in this chapter.

Another nutrient to watch is fiber. Women need 25 g or more daily, men 35 g or more. (The average American gets just 11 g daily!) At the recommended levels, it’s easier to lose weight and to maintain your weight loss, because fiber keeps you feeling fuller for a longer time on fewer calories. Fiber also binds up some of the fat in your meal, so your body gets rid of the fat along with the fiber before the fat has a chance to be absorbed by the body. Most Supermarket Diet Cookbook meals are fairly high to very high in fiber, but there’s the occasional comfort-food fiber dud, like Cream Cheese-and-Chives Scrambled Eggs. Worth it, though, because it’s so yummy, and you can simply choose a high-fiber lunch and dinner to make up for it. Don’t worry. There are plenty of high-fiber meals to choose from.

Other ways to make this plan as healthful as possible: Have at least two fish meals a week and try to have a vegetarian meal a few times a week, or even daily. The evidence for the benefits of fish for the heart, brain, and developing fetus is very strong. And there’s also research indicating that vegetable sources of protein—like beans and soy—help reduce the risk of chronic disease. One reason is that these sources of protein are low in saturated fat—the kind of fat that raises blood cholesterol and is linked to heart disease. Nearly all recipes in this book are low in saturated fat, so you don’t have to worry about that. But still, check out the Vegetarian Weekly Menu Plan for ideas on putting together a vegetarian day.

Get ready for some good news: The salads on this plan are very generous. One reader of The Supermarket Diet asked whether the 3-and 4-cup salads on the plan really serve one person. Yes, they do! The salads are so generous because the diet reverses the typical American meal that features large portions protein and starch (like rice, fries, pasta) and a small side salad. Instead, in The Supermarket Diet, greens often upstage protein and starches. A big salad helps fill you up on fewer calories (a great weight-loss strategy), plus it loads you up with vitamins and minerals. So remember all the salads in the following meals serve just you; and the recipes for salads in Chapter 7 clearly state how many they serve—usually four or six people.

Thirsty? Have some water, seltzer, unsweetened iced tea, hot tea, coffee, or one of the beverages from a Calcium Break. Skip the juice, soda, sweetened iced tea, and any other caloric beverages. The problem: unsatisfying calories. There’s evidence that the body doesn’t register the 150 calories from a soda, like it does the 150 calories in a snack of crackers and cheese. In other words, that 117-calorie cup of apple juice won’t be nearly as satisfying 20 minutes later as an 80-calorie apple. So, if you really want the calorie-laden drinks, save them for your 125-calorie treat. And if you can’t part with soda, have a diet drink. However, if the diet drinks backfire—they may make you start to crave sugary foods—then skip them. Diet drinks are saviors for some people, but may not help others.

Here’s what you can—and can’t—get away with on the Keep On Losin’ plan. You’re welcome to tweak meals as long as you don’t fiddle much with the calorie counts. Some guidelines:

Shortening prep time. The meals on this plan don’t take much time or cooking skill. Most meals take 5 to 25 minutes to prepare. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make these exact recipes, no problem: Take shortcuts. For instance, if you don’t want to make your own skinless chicken breasts, use precooked chicken pieces.

Subbing ingredients. It’s perfectly OK to use romaine lettuce instead of mixed greens, chopped carrots instead of celery, flounder instead of halibut, margarine instead of oil, or similar swaps. But if you substitute an extra tablespoon of low-fat mayo for yogurt, you’re adding 30 calories to the meal. Your rule of thumb: Substitute like foods for like foods. Swap lean protein (chicken) for lean protein (fish, scallops, lean meat, etc.), one fat for another fat (mayo for margarine), a starch for a starch (one slice of bread for ½ cup rice), a fruit for a fruit, almonds for pecans, etc. The Food Exchange System on Be Your Own Nutritionist will help you figure out which foods are in the same group. While it’s OK to make these substitutions occasionally, if you’re tweaking this plan a lot, best buy a calorie-counter book or check a website to make sure you’re making equivalent calorie swaps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrient database website offers nutritional analysis of foods at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Keep in mind that the bread in this plan should be 65 to 75 calories per slice, no more, so read labels carefully to determine equivalent portion sizes.

Switching lunch for dinner (and vice versa). It’s fine to do this, just don’t have two of the same meal on the same day. If you have two dinners on the same day, you’ll bust your calorie limit, and if you have two lunches, you won’t get quite enough calories (and may go hungry). Also, dinners tend to have more vegetables, so with two lunches, you may be skimping on this important food group.

Increasing calories. A daily intake of 1,500 calories might not be enough for you. Signs that you’re not getting enough calories:
You’re hungry when you shouldn’t be (one or two hours after eating).
You’re losing weight too quickly (more than two pounds a week for weeks on end).
You don’t have the energy to complete your workouts.

If any of these happens, try having your Calcium Break a half hour to an hour before working out or about an hour before your next meal. If this still doesn’t ward off hunger until you eat again, you may need more calories. Try adding 100 (healthful!) calories at a time to the plan (see “Adding Calories to Breakfast” and “Adding Calories to Lunch and Dinner,”).

Lowering calories. In most research studies—and with my clients— consuming 1,500 daily calories induces weight loss. In fact, female clients who came to see me eating 1,200 calories or less started losing more weight when I switched them to 1,500 calories. (At 1,200 calories, with regular exercise, their bodies were thinking “starvation” and slowing down their metabolisms. It took the extra 300 daily calories to reassure the bodies that it was OK to turn metabolisms back up.) So, if you take in 1,200 calories for a week or two (1,500 calories for men), after that you need to switch to 1,500 calories (1,800 calories for men) to avoid lowering your metabolism.