This healthy diet for busy people I created for my friend, Mimoza, who don’t like to have breakfast. Her life is hectic, she has no time to cook and finally she doesn’t like to be on a diet :-).
It was a big challenge because the diet doesn’t have to look like a diet, must be simple at the same time healthy and with various food choices because Mimoza quickly get bored by repetitive meals.
So a diet, that doesn’t look like a diet, healthy, not boring, simple but various – tough job!
The healthy weight loss rate is 2 pounds per week or 8 pounds per month, which is the starting point for this diet for busy people. It is not a drastic diet, because if you have lots of daily activities and you starve, finally you will spoil the diet.
We can achieve healthy diet with low carb meals combined with protein, “slow” carbs (these are the good types of carbohydrates) and unsaturated fats (these the good type of fats).
Mimoza’s favorite foods: chicken, flat-sausages, rusk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, pop corn, different types spread cheese, salad sauces, meat fillet, peas, potatoes, lentils, beans, rice, pasta, pizza, milk, yogurt.
Unfortunately in order to lose weight, diet for busy people can’t include: rusk, spread cheese, salad sauces, beans, lentils, peas, pasta and pizza.
Rusk looks like bread, but actually it is not, because 100 grams of rusk has more calories than 100 grams of bread. This is because the rusk is less moist than bread.
You need to know that not allowed foods during the healthy diet are foods high in “fast” carbs and saturated fats.
Type of foods in small amounts during the diet for busy people are: fruits, cheese, potatoes, rice. Potatoes and rice contain “slow” carbs which are better than “quick” carbs (quick carbs tend to load as body fat).
Cheese is good protein source, but unfortunately contains lots of fat and this is the reason to have small amounts of it.
Raw nuts are the perfect food when you need something while watching TV or during the day, an easy meal between meetings, can be eaten everywhere and take neglectful space in the bag.
The idea behind the diet for busy people is to have balanced diet that can be followed for a long period (like a month or two) without a risk for the health.
Because this is a long diet, there is one day in the week when you can eat what you want but don’t go on extremes.
To boost the effect of this healthy diet you need to have any physical activity. This could be exercises, jogging, games like tennis and badminton or even walking. Try to do this 2-4 times per week for at least 30 minutes, the more the better.
Healthy diet schedule
There is no fixed time and proposed time is only approximate.
- Breakfast around 10.30-11 am
- Lunch around 12.30-1.30 pm
- Snack around 3.30-4.30 pm
- Dinner around 7-8 pm
It is not important to keep the exact hours; you are busy person, aren’t you?
Important rule is not to eat after 8 pm, after this hour you can eat only vegetable salads.
You can drink coffee, tea and water at any time. Sodas, juices or anything else is not allowed.
Monday
Breakfast – a slice of whole grain bread with 25 grams (1 oz) feta cheese.
Lunch – Baked meat fillet (chicken, veal, turkey) and salad (no sauce, only olive oil, salt and vinegar).
Snack – a cup of plain yoghurt (no sugar or any other additives, just plain type yoghurt).
Dinner – 200-250 grams baked (grilled) fish and salad. If you are busy to cook, than buy a can of tuna in brine, be careful to buy fillet tuna, not tuna chunks.
Late cravings – Take two big cucumbers, peel them, cut them on long pieces, add salt and eat them slowly. The idea is to do everything slowly so you will not eat it quickly and than still feel hungry.
Tuesday
Breakfast – Previous night boil 5 spoons of rice with seasonings and salt. Put it in a box or small plastic bag and take it with you in the office. You can add cut on small pieces tomato and the rice becomes very juicy and tasty.
Lunch – 200 gram of baked (grilled) meat fillet on your choice with a big salad (no sauce)
Snack – an apple.
Dinner – grilled fish with a salad.
Late cravings – raw pumpkin seeds.
Wednesday
Breakfast – 2 boiled eggs and 50 grams (2 oz) feta cheese.
Lunch – 150 grams (5 oz) cottage cheese, tomato salad and 2 slices of whole grain bread. OR you can have again baked meat and salad.
Snack – a banana.
Dinner – Grilled fish and salad.
Late cravings – 4 carrots.
Thursday
Breakfast – 3 spoons of oat meal, a spoon of honey and a cup of plain (not sweetened) yoghurt. Mix everything and eat it.
Lunch – Baked meat fillet and salad.
Snack – a cup of plain (not sweetened) yoghurt.
Dinner – 2-3 scrambled eggs, grate some cheese over them and eat with big salad.
Late cravings – Cucumbers with salt.
Friday
Breakfast – a cup of milk.
Lunch – Grilled meat fillet and salad.
Snack – 50 grams ( 2 oz) raw walnuts.
Dinner – Grilled fish and salad.
Late cravings – a glass of milk.
Saturday
Breakfast – freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. There is big difference between freshly squeezed and juice from a bottle or package. Usually bottled and packed fruit juices have sugar. If you can’t squeeze the grapefruit, than eat it :-).
Lunch – tuna sandwich – prepare from 2 slices of whole grain bread, a can of tuna fillet in brine, 5 olives, 2-3 lettuce leaves.
Snack – cappuccino or milk with instant coffee, or just milk.
Dinner – a pizza with a glass of wine – okay this is Saturday night, you can relax lol
Late cravings – you can’t have cravings in Saturday, it is fun time :-).
Sunday – eat what you want. There 3 rules. 1. Eat 3 times this day. 2. don’t eat too much per serving. 3. Have 3 hours between meals. Example menu:
Breakfast – bake a slice of whole grain bread with grated cheese over it.
Lunch – a pizza.
Dinner – chocolate cake.
This diet for busy people set some rules, like you have meat for lunch and fish for dinner, but you can choose the type of meat and fish. Don’t think it is boring to have always the same for lunch and dinner, because I don’t want to limit you to my choices, but want to force you to choose healthy food alone.
You need to know the principles behind the healthy diet and to try to figure out alone what is good for you.
I highly stress on the importance to have any physical activity in your life, because when you stop to use your body (for example stay all day on a chair) it starts not only put on weight but also it starts to get ill.
Even a 30 minutes walk can make a difference. I strongly recommend you considering exercises 2-4 times per week.
Here is a page with my exercise videos, do them along with the diet for busy people and you should see a difference after the first week.
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