Is this okay for daily meals? Is there anything I'm missing?

Breakfast: 1 cup banana nut crunch cereal with 1 cup fat free milk
Snack: 1 Banana
Lunch: turkey and swiss sandwitch on whole wheat bread no dressing
Snack:1 cup strawberries
Dinner: boneless skinless chicken breast, grilled with 1/2 cup spanish rice

according to the fitday planner this comes up to 1300 calories

I like all of these foods and I could easily eat them a lot with a few various changes every now and then. I'm 5'0 and weight 208 so I really need to lose at least 90lbs.

I'd watch the calories on that cereal. I'm a big lover of box cereals, too, but it's really hard to find one without a ton of sugar, hence calories...even plain Cheerios! I switched from cereals to oatmeal, since at least I could control the sugar (calories) myself.

Also, you need some veggies. Maybe on that sandwich, include some nice, dark, leafy greens or maybe a tomato. Change it once in a while, too, to a salad with the turkey if you'd like. You can omit the cheese if the calories start to add up with a low-cal dressing. Another way I've incorporated veggies into lunch is with soup. Might as well take advantage of "soup weather", you know? Campbell's and Progresso have a pretty good Italian wedding soup, which is full of escarole, onion and celery :)

Definitely put a veggie on your plate with your dinner. You will probably get bored with chicken breast every night with dinner (I know I sure did). Some other nice options are fish, turkey breast with no skin or a lean pork tenderloin, trimmed of all fat before cooking, and then roasted in the oven. Makes wonderful leftovers for the week, as well :)

Good Luck!

Lysne

Also try a salad instead of the rice, you can eat a lot more veggies for the calories.

Breakfast: 1 cup banana nut crunch cereal with 1 cup fat free milk
Snack: 1 Banana
Lunch: turkey and swiss sandwitch on whole wheat bread no dressing
Snack:1 cup strawberries
Dinner: boneless skinless chicken breast, grilled with 1/2 cup spanish rice


1) Try oatmeal topped with banana slices instead of the banana nut crunch cereal. The more you can avoid processed foods, the better.
2) Try adding more protein to your breakfast. Fat free milk is good, but what about egg whites, yogurt, or cottage cheese? These are all excellent sources of protein.
3) Your snacks are basically sugar, albeit in a healthy form. Don't eat them without lean protein like yogurt of cottage cheese and in the afternoon, get rid of the strawberries and eat a handful of nuts instead.
4) For lunch, get rid of the cheese, unless it's nonfat or lowfat. Add lettuce and tomato instead.
5) For dinner, drop the rice and eat steamed veggies instead. You don't need starchy carbs at the end of the day.

So a revised meal plan would look like this:
Breakfast: Plain oatmeal topped with banana, scrambled egg whites
Snack: 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt + strawberries
Lunch: turkey, lettuce, and tomato on whole wheat bread no dressing
Snack:1 handful of mixed nuts
Dinner: boneless skinless grilled chicken breast or salmon, 1 cup steamed spinach or broccoli

I guess I forgot to mention I was a picky eater.
I cant stand oatmeal. I'd never eat it. I also don't like seafood, the only fish I will eat is from captian d's and i'm trying to avoid that. I don't like nuts, they always taste too salty for me. I also had some stomach problems when I was younger and it gives me stomachaches to eat anything that is hard to digest like celery and lettuce. I eat chicken pretty much every day as it is so thats why it wouldn't bother me to eat it all the time. I don't like beef, its very rare for me to eat pork (unless its bacon).
I also have to be at work at 4am so its really hard for me to get up extra early to cook anything for breakfast which is why I go for cereal all the time. I used to eat the kelloggs cereal bars but I would get to work and I would still be hungry and I work in food service so its bad for me to be hungry at work because I have tons and tons of food to choose from.

Well no offense, but I think you need to get over your pickiness and decide what your biggest priorities are. I can't stand vegetables or plain oatmeal, but I still eat both everyday cause I think the benefits are worth a little pain. I add blueberries to my oatmeal to make it easier to eat. Seafood is an excellent source of healthy fats that everyone needs in their diet. You can buy unsalted nuts. And as far as not having time to cook breakfast, I'm able to cook 3 eggs and a bowl of oatmeal with fruit in less than 10 minutes. If something's important enough, you'll make the time for it.

Manda,

Do you take a multivitamin? How often do you exercise?

In this endeavor to lose a bit of fat weight, remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so don't become discouraged if you start gaining some weight/not seeming to lose any weight. If you add more fat to your body's composition, then you will increase your metabolism. Maybe you already know this, but it bears saying again :p .

...To me, it's more about being healthy than doing the calorie-counting thing...

~Colleen

You also might want to watch out for the fat-free milk, anything fat-free or sugar-free tends to be unhealthy. Have you ever tried almond milk?
I agree with the breakfast thing, cereal should be avoided. You could try eating plain yogurt and add your own fruit to it.
Hope it works out whatever you decide to do!!

You also might want to watch out for the fat-free milk, anything fat-free or sugar-free tends to be unhealthy.
Not in the case of milk, since all they have to do to make it fat-free is to skim off the cream from the top.

manda,
If you ate that diet every day for a year, I'm sure you would lose at least half the weight you are looking to drop...the nutritional balance looks good.

I agree; for them that wants to drink milk, non-fat is the way to go, IF you can bear the taste...or lack thereof. I have trouble with it so all I can get down to is 2%. I'd try 1% but by kefir doesn't come out good with 1%...they like whole milk but will live with 2%.

It doesn't look like enough calories to me. Do you know what your BMI/BMR is?
Peace,
Susan

It doesn't look like enough calories to me. Do you know what your BMI/BMR is?
Peace,
Susan
my BMI is 40.3, which I know is really really bad

One cereal that doesn't have a lot of calories is the Fiber One. I hate oatmeal also, but it is good for us. I prefer the boxed cereals myself. I lean toward the high fiber cereals. also, I read that we should have protein with our carbs..so if you have a banana maybe you should have some protein with it.
Just my 2cents.
Also try at least 5 servings of veggies & fruits.

Is this okay for daily meals? Is there anything I'm missing?

Breakfast: 1 cup banana nut crunch cereal with 1 cup fat free milk
Snack: 1 Banana
Lunch: turkey and swiss sandwitch on whole wheat bread no dressing
Snack:1 cup strawberries
Dinner: boneless skinless chicken breast, grilled with 1/2 cup spanish rice

according to the fitday planner this comes up to 1300 calories

I like all of these foods and I could easily eat them a lot with a few various changes every now and then. I'm 5'0 and weight 208 so I really need to lose at least 90lbs.

Given your current situation, I would have to assume that you are used to eating a fairly high calorie diet. I would tend to think that this small amount of food you are eating will only last for a very short period of time before you break. You should try to develop a high volume, low calorie nutritional plan. One that satiates you very well. The biggest problem with dieting is that generally people do it in a way that deprives them of satisfaction. Once deprived of satisfaction, you are bound to fail. A diet high in fruits and vegetables especially vegetables) will provide satiety and will allow you to stay with the program. I understand that many people are picky eaters, however you need to make your decision. Do you want to be healthy or do you want to be picky? If you limit your intake to foods that you like, and you want to be picky about it, you will undoubtedly develop a less than healthy diet. We like what we get used to. Even foods you hate will become accepted after you have eaten them for a while. All food is an aquired taste.

If i have to choose between a very healty diet and stomach cramps from the time I wake up til the time i go to sleep, or a little less healthy and I will feel better then i'm going to choose the one where I feel better.
Its not like I'm refusing to eat fruits and vegetables, but when I eat lettuce I feel awful. I eat a lot of stuff like kiwi and bananas and oranges. I also take a daily multivitamin.
My diet now is where i do my best to get up at 3:30am to be able to grab something to eat. IF i'm lucky i'll be able to get a break at work and eat lunch which is either a sandwitch or if I didn't have the time or forgot to fix something for lunch then I eat fast food, which is the worst but due to where I work its also the only free option. On weeks that i'm broke its either eat at work or not eat. Dinner lately is usually soup, which I hate, its like drinking water for dinner at night. I eat chicken a whole lot because its about the only meat that I like. I've tried the veggie burgers for lunch which because of the soy leave me having to run to the bathroom about every 30 mins for the next 2 days. Everyone said once I got used to them it'd stop, 2 months later i've lost about 10lbs but it still happens. They are the healthiest thing at work. Its really hard for me to eat the salads at work. I had surgery about 4 years because of problems with my intestents. If I eat anything with a lot of grease or thats hard to digest I will have stomach cramps and probably bowel problems for a few days, which is something i'd rather not deal with. I'd probably be better off just going outside and eating the grass.
My diet before I decided to change it was around 2500 calories a day, which for my height and the size i'm suposed to be is about 1000 calories too much.
Im just tired of having my life revolve around food, if I eat anymore then i'll have to take more time to eat, and to me thats against what i'm trying to do. Once I can find a steady diet that is okay for me then i'll be able to adjust to that. But if I know I have to wake up extra early in the moring after only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep just so i can eat oatmeal (which to me is like eating molded mud) its not going to be something I want to make in to a habbit, why does it seem so wrong that I want to eat decent foods that don't make me gag? Its not like i'm talking about eating a case of donuts every morning, I just don't want to eat oatmeal and eggs every morning. There are tons of boxed cereals that are low in sugar and calories.

Manda,

Stick to your guns. What you are doing is a good way to lose the weight you want to lose.
Make sure tomorrow you eat the same thing. Haviing a low calorie breakfast that you like will go a lot further to weight loss than forcing one on yourself that you DON'T.
The first 20 pound loss will justify the effort.
Make sure that all the QUANTITIES you enetered in fitday are scrupulously honest.

Good luck.

Hi, Manda.

Protein is absolutely essential when you're trying to lose weight. You should try and supplement your diet with protein powder in the form of shakes, or even sprinkle it on oatmeal. A flavored protein powder sprinkled on plain oatmeal might make it go down easier! While fruit is good for you, it's high in sugar and not always a good idea in the afternoon. What about red peppers? They're sweet and crunchy and taste delicious! A handful of plain, raw almonds in the afternoon is an excellent snack.

I know this probably isn't in regards to your question about a healthy diet plan but I thought I'd write about something a few women from my work tried who were quite overweight and said that dieting still wasn't enough to help them shed as much as they needed.After the influence of a new co-worker they all began seeing the same Dr. who was prescribing prisciption weight lose pills.For it was only being prescribed untill they lost what was really excessive in weight.They are all still plump women don't get me wrong but honestly they're all about half the size they WERE.They feel better and continue to eat right and stay at the weight they're at without medication.200 lbs at 5.0ft seems quite excessive and with your limited diet due to your health it could be something to look into.