A good diet plan for vegetarians!

I found this odd little book in a discount bin that was called something like 'For Teenagers Only' and had a diet/health plan. I found it really interesting. It is an exchange-based diet plan, i.e. you get so many allotments in each of several categories and you can use them however you like. I had success with such a plan in the past (the food mover plan) but in the end wound up quitting because it was quite restrictive about what calories could come from where. This plan was a little more flexible because it has fewer categories, and it counts snacks as a separate category e.g. if you have a starchy item for a snack, it does not count as a starchy items choice but as a snack choice. I am on the 1400-calorie plan and have lost six pounds already. Here is how the 1400-calorie plan is set up:

3 protein servings

3 carbohydrate servings

2 fruit servings

2 dairy/dairy alternates servings

1 condiments serving (100 cals or 4 different 25 cals servings or 2 50-cal etc)

1 tea serving (they have a special tea they want you to make)

3 snack servings

One comment I have, they count things like carrots as a carbohydrate serving, and I don't. I did not get overweight from eating carrots Also, for snacks, you can have anything you want for 100 cas worth, i.e. you can have 100 cals of cereal, crackers, cheese, fruit etc.

I usually set up my day with a protein and carb at every meal, plus a fruit at two meals and a dairy alternate at one meal (usually soy milk if I am having cereal at breakfast). Remember that if you have something like a fruit for your snack, you don't have to count it as a fruit, you can count it as a snack. Also, I never eat three snacks and very seldom use up both dairy choices, so sometimes I save one of those boxes for an extra carb serving at dinner since 100 cals worth can be small. Non-starchy vegetables are freebies and you can have as much as you want.

So far, it is going well! Here is how my day today looked; this is a fairly typical sort of day for me.

Breakfast: Crackers and soy nuts (I was on the go today due to an early meeting at work. Usually, I have cereal and soy milk, or applesauce mixed with cooked oatmeal) ONE PROTEIN, ONE CARB

Snack: Snack-size box of raisins ONE SNACK

Lunch: Chickpea Noodle Soup (off Vegan with a Vengeance site, and it was yummy!) and sliced grapefruit ONE PROTEIN, ONE CARB, ONE FRUIT

Snack: Home-made Cranberry muffin, tea ONE SNACK, ONE TEA

Dinner: Tomato soup, tofu miso dip, carrot sticks, maybe some crackers (probably will count this as a PROTEIN, CARB and DAIRY (the soup). It isn't really dairy per se, but it seems like the best way to add this up

Still left: a fruit, a dairy and a snack. If I feel my portion at dinner is high, I will check off an extra dairy or snack box. If I want a snack, I can have some fruit, and maybe some yogurt with it if I have the dairy box left)

It is not a hard diet to maintain at all! I just make my little sticky note in the morning to tick off the boxes:

Protein X X X

Carb X X X

Fruit X X

Dairy X X

Condiment X

Tea X

Snack X X X

Anyway, hope somebody finds this helpful!