The Best Life Diet is a weight loss program created by Bob Greene, longtime weight loss advisor and personal trainer to Oprah Winfrey. The Best Life Diet is divided into three phases to progress you from the beginning of your commitment to make life-affirming diet changes, to ongoing habits which support a lifetime of healthy weight maintenance. Certain types of foods are preferred in the meal plans, and others are minimized or avoided.
Approved Breakfast Foods
The Best Life Breakfasts are light meals which are rich in fiber and high in calcium. This diet asks you to eat breakfast every day within an hour of waking. One hundred percent whole grain is a reoccurring choice for breads and toasts, pancakes and waffles, and cold or hot cereals. Breakfast toppings include nut butters, such as peanut or cashew butter, nonfat or 1 percent milk, drizzles of honey or real maple syrup, fruits and nuts.
One or two eggs are approved with a slice of whole grain toast, fruit and glass of milk or soymilk. Smoothies should be made from a small banana or cup of berries, 1 cup of nonfat or low-fat milk, a 1/2 cup of yogurt and some wheat germ or ground flaxseed. Plain nonfat yogurt is another option, topped with fruit, nuts, honey and a spoonful of wheat germ or flaxseed.
What's for Lunch
In this diet plan you are asked to eliminate mindless eating, and avoid junk foods, fast foods, sodas and fried foods. Whole grains are the preferred substitute for white breads and regular pastas. Dairy products should all be nonfat or low-fat. Lunch choices, then, might include many of the same general foods that you will pick for your breakfast and snack foods.
Whole grain breads spread with nut butters, yogurt with toppings, and high fiber muffins with low-fat cheeses are among the lunchtime choices. Other interesting midday meals include wholesome low-fat soups, such as butternut squash soup or tomato bisque, or leafy green salads topped with beans and low-fat dressing.
The Evening Meal
There are a number of recipes included in The Best Life Diet book to help you follow general calorie counts while sticking with approved foods for your meals. Dinner foods range from simple suppers like spinach and cheese omelets and minestrone soup, to more elaborate recipes, such as Mango and Black Bean Salad with Grilled Chicken.
Lean meats prepared with little or no added fats are approved in reasonable portions of 4 to 6 oz. on average. When fats are added to recipes, they are preferred to be healthy unsaturated fats like olive, canola and grapeseed oils. Some approved dinner recipes will also be suitable for lunches in smaller portions, such as Walnut Cannellini Wraps which features beans, nuts, garlic, carrot, arugula and whole wheat tortilla wraps.
The Best Life Snacks
Several snacks are suggested in The Best Life Diet, most of which total between 100 and 200 calories. One snack a day is highly recommended, but not of the typical vending machine variety. Avoid candy bars and fried foods and chips, and instead select whole foods, raw foods or small portions of items from the approved breakfast list.
Some simple snacks you can choose from are raw vegetables with hummus or low-fat ranch dressing, edamame, or 2 to 3 tbsp. of heart healthy nuts, such as almonds or walnuts. Calcium rich snacks are also preferred. These include low-fat cheese or yogurt with whole grain crackers, nonfat milk with high fiber crackers and jam, or a 12 oz. skim latte with eight almonds on the side.
In Phase Two of the diet, you can introduce Anything Goes snacks into your eating plan. These are optional uses of calories that you are allowed to eat when your activity level increases in a significant manner. Anything Goes choices include fruit desserts, wine, dark chocolate, white flour bagels and pastas, and even oatmeal cookies.
References
- The Best Life Diet; Bob Greene; 2006
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