Day 8 – The Round 28-Day Diet

If you are just STARTING the DIET, go back to Day 1.

Welcome to the start of your Second Rounding down week

Continue to…

• Eat Round Diet meals — see a recap of what to eat below.
• Eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, every 2 to 3 hours.
• Prepare your own meals and snacks ahead of time – and take snacks with you everywhere.
• Avoid alcohol, except for maybe one day a week or just on a special occasion, and choose to drink a wine spritzer, which is white wine, plain soda and squeeze of lime over ice.
• Stop eating 3 hours before heading off to sleep.
• Take time for yourself to relax, such as a bubble bath or walk on the beach.
• Exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, and make sure to include some light strength exercises even if you do so using a DVD at home.
• Take time to visualize your fat cells and your body shrinking.
• Write in your Round Diet Diary and look for patterns.
• Say affirmations throughout the day, only say them louder now — even say them to somebody’s face if you feel bold.
• Look at the picture of your slimmer self  and stay focused on your goal – a smaller butt that fits into your smaller jeans.

Recap of what to eat

From the choices below, or from healthy choices you created or browsed for on the internet, you should have made your choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 snacks for the day.

If you want to mix it up or need to lo0k over the menus again for any reason, here’s a quick recap of your menu choices.

Breakfast: Choose a new breakfast choice or stick with the one you chose yesterday — and be creative with spices…it’s all about the flavors and spices

• 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/4 banana mashed during cooking or sliced as a topper and a sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1/2 cup any berries with 3 ounces plain low fat yogurt and a sprinkle of shopped fresh mint leaves
• 2 poached or boiled eggs with 2 slices tomato and 1/4 avocado
• 3 whites only egg omelet with 1 ounce lean ham, a sprinkle of scallions and chopped fresh basil
• 2 ounces tofu with 1/2 cup snow peas and 1/2 cup cooked bok choy with a sprinkle of soy sauce, Chinese Five Spice and a dash of freshly grated ginger
• 1 slice whole grain toast with 1/4 avocado, 1/2 teaspoon chopped red onions, and a squeeze of lemon or lime and a dash of salt

Lunch: Choose a new one or stick with the one you chose yesterday — and try different greens and fresh herbs like basil and cilantro

• Shredded red cabbage, Napa cabbage, radicchio, iceberg lettuce, topped with cooked salmon or chicken — all that you can make ahead of time, store in containers and mix up for lunch during the week.
• Spinach salad with 1/4 avocado, 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 tomato, one crumbled hard boiled egg  and a sprinkle of 1 teaspoon of chopped walnuts
• Any kind of lettuce salad with 3 ounces boiled or broiled chicken with chopped celery, 1/4 cucumber, 1/2 shot glass sliced almonds, thinly sliced radishes, chopped mushrooms, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, and a topper of 1/2 teaspoon of sunflower seeds.
• Dark mixed lettuce salad (like Spring mix) with 1 sliced hard boiled eggs, 1/4 red pepper, 1/4 sliced cucumber, 6 cherry tomatoes, 1/4  avocado and chopped fresh cilantro and basil.

Dinner: Choose the same or a new protein, along with your first side dish and your second side dish. You are now noticing  the Roundness of the food you are eating — and how easily you can tell what is healthy food and what is not.

Choose your protein (3 ounces broiled, braised, baked, grilled or poached): If you are a vegetarian, skip this section and eat more beans, soy and whole grains.

• Lean beef
• Chicken
• Fish: Halibut, flounder, salmon, sole, tuna, trout, clams or shrimp
• Cornish hen
• Lean pork
• Turkey breast or skinless turkey leg
• Tofu
• Beans

Choose your first side dish (steamed, roasted or boiled): Try a new method of cooking, like steaming snow peas or roasting asparagus.

• 1/2 cup asparagus
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1/2 cup eggplant
• 1 cup cauliflower
• 8 asparagus spears
• 1 artichoke
  
• 1/2 onion
• 1 large tomato
• 1/4 cup corn or peas
• Endless greens, like lettuce — make a bed of shredded greens and cabbages and stack your protein and side dishes on top for a low cal, yet high mound of food.

Choose your second side dish: For an itty bitty bite of any of these items, use a shot glass to measure the portions to add your dinner meals.

• 1/3 cup brown rice cooked in fat-free chicken, beef or vegetable broth
• 1 whole wheat tortilla, steamed or as is
• 1/2 sweet potato, cut into bite-size chunks and baked at 400 for 20 minutes

If you need more chewing time: Add a cup of any leafy greens on your plate. For instance, use the greens as a bed to layer your meal choice on, which is also a great way to make your plate attractive and Iron Chef and Top Chef-like. You can also chew slower, which is a good idea anyway since it takes your brain 20 minutes to know you ate and are no longer hungry.

Snacks: Choose one item per snack (3 snacks per day between meals)

• 1 apple or banana or peach or orange or 3 figs sliced and eaten one-by-one with your hands
  
• 1/3 cup blueberries or 1/3 mango or ¼ cantaloupe or 1/3 cup berries or 15 grapes
  
• 12 almonds or 6 walnuts or 8 olives or 1 hard-boiled egg (these are high protein snacks that are great to eat after a workout so you can tone up those muscles for a sexier, fat-burning shape that looks great in a small pair of jeans.
  
• Handful of mixed vegetables, like celery, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, green beans, cucumbers, or mushrooms

Round Cooking

Cook eggs in assorted ways–deviled with plain yogurt and mustard, hard or soft-boiled, omelets using 2 egg whites for every egg yolk, poached, scrambled with any of your favorite Round veggies like onions, spinach and mushrooms, or heated up with hot sauce or chili peppers.

Know Your Portions

When my partner, boyfriend, man-about-the-house, experimented with my Round Diet, I made him little containers filled with 2 ounce nut & dried fruit snacks to keep him from over-snacking. This same trick helped my bodybuilding friend Tina who religiously pre-made meals and froze them in diet-sized portions to eat throughout the week.

Back in my bodybuilding days, I’d come home so hungry that I’d lean over the sink and eat with my hands like an animal. This made knowing my portions a lifesaver that kept me from overeating. I realized that an apple is a portion and that nature grows all her fruit in perfect portions. After a while I knew how much food I could eat by knowing that a banana is 100 calories, an egg is 80 calories, and that the amount of broiled chicken I should eat could fit in the palm of my hand.

When I dieted down for a competition, I consulted other bodybuilders in the gym. I recall one who was training a new competitor, Sam, a humongous Samoan, who was dieting down bodybuilding-style for the first time. He was told to eat chicken and baked potatoes, but not how much. So he ate several chickens and baked potatoes several times a day and wondered why he did not lose a pound. Once he ate the correct portions, he transformed into quite the lean and muscular specimen.

Measuring Portions

There are many ways to measure portions. You can count calories, weigh your food, guess how much you should eat, or keep it simple by knowing that an apple is a perfect snack portion or that for most foods the size of your fist is a portion. I will give you several options, so you can choose what works for you.

Remember to write in your diary!

This is important so you keep track of  what you eat and how you feel and any other important information that pops up as you slim down and shape up. You will be able to look back and see patterns that will give you essential insight into why and when you are most likely to eat the wrong food, or just too much food — too often. You need to get to the bottom of your eating habits, see them so you can become aware of them — then they will stop having so much control over you.

So, remember to add these important details to your daily diary entries:

• Write down exactly what you eat and drink. Make note of portion sizes.
• Jot down when and where you eat.
• Note who you ate with or if you ate alone.
• Use smiley or sad faces or other emoticons to show how you feel.
• Begin journaling the day you start your Round Diet.
• Include any diet visualization notes and draw any images.
• Look at your diary often to look for patterns, along with what works and does not work.
• Use colored pencils, pens and other festive drawing and writing tools that you thought were just for kids.

Tonight’s Homework

• Stay on the diet and commend yourself for doing so.
• Prepare any food you need to for tomorrow’s meals and snacks.
• Write in your diary and take a close look at any patterns that might be emerging.
• Visualize your smaller butt.
• Chat with your diet buddy, if you have one.
• Tell yourself 10 good things about yourself and write them down in your diary.
• Look at the smaller jeans you want to be able to wear and picture yourself slipping into them — and looking good – know you are one step closer to wearing them.