Week 1:
Eat only Sub sandwiches for lunch and dinner if possible.
Don't be too conservative here. Go ahead and eat a full sub or a loaded sub if you want to. You need to get your body used to eating less food gradually. Cutting back cold turkey is a bad idea. Your willpower isn't established yet and you will cheat and you probably will fail. The sub sandwiches are healthier than a burger and fries and it gives you that "I'm full" feeling.
Week 2:
Eat only the designer salads at fast food places for lunch and dinner. It's ok to eat the ones with chicken in them, or taco salads, etc... basically what we are doing here is getting your body used to eating less and less. –and eating salads. Towards the end of the week try only eating two thirds of the salad mix in the bowl. Try to take at least 15 minutes to eat the salad, don't eat it so fast! This week you need to go to the grocery store and buy a thirty-day supply of a multi-vitamin tablet to be taken once daily while on the plan.
Two week diet plan to lose weight
It's best to start on the 15th of the month so that the end of your forty-five days falls at the end of the following month. Psychologically it's just a very satisfying and powerful motivator to know that you don't have to "do this" (diet) forever, just until the end of the month. I did it and it works beautifully!
What to eat?
- ½ Grapefruit for breakfast.
Tip: If you are like me and you don't much care for the taste of grapefruit peel the grapefruit and eat it in slices like an orange.
Why do this?
Grapefruit, when eaten regularly provides a lot of useful and essential daily vitamins. It also stimulates liver function which improves digestion and the burning of fats in the body. It's not an all-in one wonder-fruit like some suggest but it helps!
- 1 Side Salad (from Wendy's fast food chain) for lunch
- 1 Side Salad (from Wendy's fast food chain) for dinner
Tip: Order whatever kind of dressing you want to go along with your salad. Heck you are only eating a couple of hundred calories anyway. Get what you want to add the flavor you crave! It also helps to add a little variety to the taste of the salad.
Why do this?
Have you tried this little salad? It's a perfect "portion size" salad and only 180-250 calories.. It's made fresh and at $1.39 you just can't beat the value! For a little variety alternate between the traditional "side salad" and the "Caesar side salad."
- 1 Small un-sweet tea or water w/lemon.
- 1 Handful of peanuts at bedtime
Why do this?
Eating peanuts right before bed helps trick your body's metabolism into working while you sleep to burn excess fat.
How to exercise?
- 30 minutes cardiovascular workout
Do a minimum of 30 minutes a day. I like walking/jogging on a treadmill and using an elliptical machine. Towards the end of my 45 days I liked doing 20 minutes of each.
- 30 minutes machine weights/free weight combination
Most personal gyms have a "circuit" of machine weights that you can use in a prescribed order of progression which when done will assure you a basic total body workout. Just make sure you include one to strengthen your abs and your back. I used more free weights because I wanted to increase size the right way, by sculpting the muscle. If you don't want bigger muscles, stick with the machines. The rule of thumb is less weight, more repetitions of the individual exercise will help you tone up and slim down while more weight and fewer repetitions will help you increase muscle mass.
Sample Exercises:
Chest Press:
3 sets of 8 repetitions each, increasing weight 10lbs each set
Shoulder Shrug:
3 sets of 10 repetitions each
Sidearm Curls:
3 sets of 8 repetitions each
Overhead Extensions:
3 sets of 8 repetitions each, increasing weight 5lbs each set
Standard curls:
3 sets of 8 repetitions each
Abdominal Machine:
3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions each increasing weight 10lbs each set
Back Extension:
3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions each
Lat pull-down
3 sets of 8 repetitions each, increasing weight 10lbs each set
Leg Curl:
3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions each
Leg Extension:
3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions each
Where to do it:
I chose "Snap Fitness" as my personal workout center. They are priced well, open 24 hours a day and you can pay monthly with no long-term commitment. Perfect for this diet plan! Snap Fitness is a national chain franchise with personal trainers and all the circuit machines and weights you will need. A word of caution: Saying you'll go to the gym is not the same thing as going! Good intentions will not get you there.
Eating Right:
You are only taking in about 500-700 calories a day and you'll burn off way more than that each day with this program. That is the key. Eating less and exercising more. It's not magic and it does work, but please remember to take your daily vitamins!
You are probably thinking, "No way that I could only eat two small salads a day and not feel like I'm starving all the time..." I'm here to tell you that you can! You just have to get your system used to eating less gradually. That's why we have two weeks pre-plan time.
Nutritionists tell us that the reason we overeat is because we eat too fast. We live busy lives and we don't allow time for our food to settle after we eat it. As a consequence we finally get done with the meal and push back from the table and think "Oh, boy, I overdid it and ate too much. Now I'm stuffed!"
Experts say that in most cases eating a sensible portion (side salad!) and then waiting 20 minutes to allow your brain to get the message that you have had enough will usually result in 9 out of 10 people not overeating. I couldn't believe it so I tried it and it does work! Also, I have a serious sweet tooth so I ate watermelon anytime I got that craving for something sweet. It filled me up and didn't add any real weight.
You should also treat yourself one meal a week or even one day out of seven to eating regular foods. Our family usually goes to a Mexican place once a week so I used that as my free day. I still ate sensibly while there, but I made sure to get something with meat in it! Your body needs the proteins so don't neglect this!
Why only a salad from a fast food place?
My wife and I have tried other diets and it always seemed to me that the authors wanted to impress me with all the culinary choices we "could" have. Well, you know what? That's nice and all, but hey, I'm a busy guy and I don't have time to prepare fresh Salmon for lunch or "grilled tuna with broccoli and roasted new potatoes" for dinner. Heck that's why I hit the drive thru in the first place!
I figure if fast food helped me get into this shape then the sweetest revenge would be for me to use fast food to help me get healthy. You should have seen the look on the cashiers face when I went in for the fourth day in a row and ordered a small salad and un-sweet tea. Priceless! Now just to mess with them I'll ask them to rattle off all the different types of dressing they offer from time to time!
Final note & Good Luck!
Say this with me. "Temporary." This plan should not be considered a permanent diet plan. You need a balanced diet for good healthy living. This plan worked for me. Over the 45 days I lost 38lbs! My wife did the same thing and lost 22lbs. That is nothing to sneeze at, I think!
I've had so many people ask me how I did it that I figured I'd post it for others to evaluate and use at your own discretion. The temporary nature of the plan worked for me because every day that I did it I thought, "I can get thru this. The end is one day closer in sight!"
Temporary. You can do this! It is not as hard as it seems and you'll feel great soon enough! If you mess up for one meal or one day, don't worry about it. Just resolve to do better and go on with your day. Okay, if you must punish yourself do an extra fifteen minutes of cardio or something. The point is to stick with it for 45 days and then move on. Life is fun and you will enjoy it much more if you are in good health. Good luck!