These weight loss tips are not only the quickest way to lose weight but are posted to help a parent who is trying to develop a healthy diet for children.
While eating nothing but Fruit in the morning is the best way to lose weight fast, if you find it too difficult or need a break now and then, don’t despair. As long as you eat nothing but fresh or frozen Fruit on most days you’re still off to a roaring good start. And if you’re concerned about your family’s health, relax, you don’t need to work hard to convince everybody to eat nothing but Fruit in the morning. If they like it, great – but it won’t be detrimental to their health (or weight loss) if they can’t live without their cereal. Eating nothing but Fruit in the morning until noon is a healthier way to live and a big boost to your weight loss goals but if your family isn’t buying it, let it go and work on putting into practice the weight loss tips outlined below to get them off to a healthier start in the morning.
You may eat Fruit with other foods, but with caution. Fruit must be eaten either alone, with other foods, or immediately following a meal or snack. Fruit eaten an hour after dinner will cause indigestion & weight gain. So you are allowed to eat Fruit with your meal or for dessert immediately following the meal, but wait 4 and 1/2 hours after eating a Protein meal and 2 and 1/2 hours after eating a Starch meal before eating Fruit again. If your family wants bananas or raisins in their oatmeal, let ’em. These Fruits actually help to digest Starches. I’ll be placing a chart in an upcoming Step showing which Fruits help to digest which types of food, but for now go ahead and have any Fruit with any other type of food.
Probably the most difficult part of implementing these weight loss tips for a healthy diet for your children is keeping your family happy without putting yourself in the position of preparing two completely different menus for each meal. You want them to start eating healthier, but you know you’re going to get complaints and grumblings. My advice, try fooling them rather than fighting them. To accomplish this trickery here are some suggestions for a Step-By-Step transitional breakfast plan. These tips will also work well for you if you’re like my dad (breakfast is his favorite meal) and having trouble eating nothing but Fruit in the morning.
When they sit down to breakfast have a bowl of fresh Fruit sitting at each family members place. Let them munch on that while you fix the breakfast they’re used to. If you really want to entice them, place a small bowl of one of the UnDiet Fruit Dips, Sweet Creme Fraiche Dip or Sweet Whipped Cream next to their fruit bowl.
One way to get them interested in an all-Fruit breakfast is to pour them a small glass when you make yourself a Fruit smoothie. To give them a really rich and creamy taste sensation you might try adding just a touch of heavy cream, some nondairy milk or a little sweetener such as honey, agave nectar or date sugar after pouring off your portion of the smoothie. The milk and Fruit sugar aren’t strictly forbidden for you on The UnDiet but since it’s two more steps – and quite a few more calories – I tend to skip them unless it’s one of those days where I just need something special. If they want more, or seem to like it, make a bigger glass for them next time and cut back on the rest of their breakfast. NOTE: when following any of the UnDiet Fruit Smoothie recipes you may now use soy/nut/rice/seed milk in place of Fruit juice if you prefer, it will not affect your weight loss.
Switch their frozen, canned or bottled juice for fresh juice, and don’t automatically serve a glass of milk with their breakfast. If they want it fine, but try serving up to 1/2 and 1/2 nondairy milk with the dairy milk. Keep upping the ratio of nondairy milk to dairy milk.
They may not ask for anything else, but if they do, see if you can get away with giving them more Fruit or veggies such as celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, and lettuce which digest well with Fruit. If your kids won’t touch a celery stick unless it’s accompanied by ranch dressing, make up one the UnDiet Veggie Dips to keep them happy.
If your family won’t eat Fruit and turn their noses up at celery sticks in the morning, serve fresh Fruit followed by one of the transition foods listed below.
UnDiet Transition Foods
- Get them used to whole grains by making whole grain pancakes topped with pure maple syrup, or a little butter and/or a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice, or chopped, pureed or mashed Fruit.
Try Grape Nuts (not the flakes – they have sugar in them).
- Cut back on dairy and start getting them used to non-dairy products by serving rice/soy/nut/seed milk with their cereal. If they won’t touch the “weird” milk then mix 1:4 with dairy milk gradually cutting back on the dairy milk.
- If they need sugar on their cereal (don’t just automatically serve it, let them ask for it), sprinkle on date or maple sugar. I would suggest just throwing out all the white sugar in your house. You don’t want to eat it, you don’t want to serve it to your family, and I would hope you wouldn’t want to serve it to your friends. I doubt anyone will even notice. If they ask why the sugar looks different just tell them it’s date or maple sugar, or if they’re really resistant tell them it’s brown sugar – well, it is brown and it is sugar. They’ll most likely shrug and keep eating, although they may use more than they would with white sugar as date/maple sugar isn’t as sweet as white sugar.
- Whole grain toast with butter and/or honey, or sugar-free jam. Add a dash of cinnamon (not cinnamon sugar).
- Whole grain zucchini or carrot bread made with pureed tofu (or soy egg-replacer) in place of eggs.
- Oatmeal with any of the following stirred in: Fruit, cinnamon, honey, applesauce, maple syrup, sugar-free chocolate chips.
After they’ve been eating this way for a couple of weeks, make sure they have enough Fruit and transition foods but don’t replenish your pantry with sugary cereals and Pop Tarts or whatever it is they’re eating that you want to switch them from. Children take a simple “we’re out of it” way better than “you can’t have it”. If they take this without complaints you may be able to switch them completely to Fruit in the morning. If they still don’t like it, keep transitioning them and try again in a week or so.
UnDiet Feedback
Some of you have written me to tell me that you’re still hungry after having your Fruit in the morning. There are several things you can do that will help you to feel more full.
Bananas tend to be more filling. Add them to your Fruit bowl or make a Dirty Monkey.
I’ve also been making a raw applesauce which is basically pureeing 1 banana with 2 apples, that is very filling. For variation add vanilla, a very teenie bit of salt, and/or cinnamon or apple pie spice.
Get moving. After having your Fruit, do a mini workout. Sounds strange but I find I feel less hungry both during the workout and for the rest of the morning.
If all else fails go ahead and have one of the transition foods.
Batter Breads
It’s difficult to make whole grain batter breads that are a proper UnDiet combination if you’re strictly following food combining because these recipes require mixing eggs (Protein) & flour (Starch). One simple solution is to substitute 1/4 cup pureed tofu (or soy egg-replacer) for each egg and soy milk for any milk in your recipe. Go ahead and try it in your own recipes, you’ll be amazed. I’ve even made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner this way and the family LOVED it. Of course they didn’t know I’d made it with date sugar and tofu … Future “Weight Loss Tips: The UnDiet Step By Step” will have recipes and information on how to bake with tofu as an egg replacer. It’s really an incredible weight loss tip!
If you’re not ready to use tofu in place of eggs go ahead and use the eggs. The amount of Protein in relationship to the amount of Starch makes this an okay (not great, but okay) combination.
Important Information for Babies
Children under 18 months of age don’t have the enzyme necessary to break down starches, so you’ll want to give them only fresh Fruits and vegetables for breakfast until they’re at least 18 months old. Of course, run this by your pediatrician to make sure your child(ren) is getting the nutrition he/she needs. I know several doctors who recommend serving children this age banana milk (bananas pureed with water) in place of formula.
A Word About Protein
You don’t need to eat meat and dairy to get the protein your body needs. You receive enough protein from fresh Fruits and vegetables to satisfy your body’s protein needs. Fruits and veggies don’t actually contain protein, but they do contain the amino acids necessary for your body to build the protein it needs. Protein overload is a much more common occurrence than protein deficiency. You would have to work very hard to acquire a protein deficiency – starving yourself is really the only way to end up with a protein deficiency.
Weight Loss Tips & Tricks
You don’t need to tell your family they’re going on the UnDiet. When you’re changing something just tell them you’re trying out a new recipe. When you’re fazing something out tell them you’re out of the old food and use the UnDiet substitute for awhile. If they still complain, experiment until you find something they like.
Serve a variety of Fruits including some they’ve never tried before. Make a mental note of what gets devoured and what stays on the plate. One way to get kids to eat Fruit is to get them involved. Many Fruits are soft enough to be cut with a plastic knife. Give your kid(s) a peach and a plastic knife and step back.
Make Fruit fun by cutting it into thick slices and using cookie cutters to cut each slice into fun shapes.
Make up some Fruit With Attitude. It’s a little more work, but worth it if it will get your family to eat Fruit. Fruit With Attitude is also good to have on hand for after-school and after-work snacks.
Step-By-Step
1. Print out the following recipe pages:
2. Make a shopping list.
3. Go shopping.
4. Prepare anything you won’t want to fiddle with in the morning.
5. Serve fresh Fruit and/or juice first thing in the morning.
6. If necessary make up of one of the UnDiet Fruit Dips.
7. If necessary serve one or more of the transition foods.
Talk Back
I encourage you to comment on this Step with your questions, your challenges, your own tips and discoveries … Together we can all Step Up to the UnDiet Challenge and move closer to our health and weight loss goals.
