The 20/20 Diet (20 page)

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Authors: Phil McGraw

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BOOK: The 20/20 Diet

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habits?

Yes No

Write down anything else positive you might be feeling and

experiencing.

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In the third phase, which is 20 days in length, you’ll be adding in

a wide variety of food to keep your palate from getting bored, to stop

any hint of rebellion you might experience, and to give your body the

essential nutrients it needs. (So if you’ve been missing a particular fruit or vegetable, you’ll probably find it in t
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his phase.) Each meal will still

include at least two of the 20/20 Foods, and you’ll even have some

recommendations for how and what to order out at restaurants. For

you to get what you want out of this journey and to maintain your

positive results, you need a solid plan in place for all circumstances,

and that certainly includes eating out.

The 20-Day Attain Guidelines

To keep you on tr
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ack with the nutritional content and balance of your

meals, there are still specific recipes from which you’ll choose all your meals in Phase 3.

Variety is a key component to weight loss success, so there are 80

meals (in appendix B) that you can rotate in any way you like for the

next 20 days. You might find specific ones that you love and want to

repea
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t over and over, which is perfectly fine. Or you might want to

try each of them once! Either way, I encourage you to have fun with

these, and start to make this new healthy way of eating your perma-

nent lifestyle.

This isn’t about becoming a gourmet chef and spending hours pre-

paring meals every day. That’s not realistic for most of us. And that’s

122 | The 20/20 Diet

also why these meals don’t require culinary training or lots of free

time; they are quick, easy, and designed for people with little or no

cooking experience.

This phase contains some important carryovers from the previous

phases:

Consistent Meal Spacing:
By now, you’ve likely acclimated to eating approximately every four hours. In this phase, continue w
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ith the rou-

tine of consuming four meals per day, every four hours. This consis-

tent meal schedule is a healthy, efficient way for your body to function.

By the time you’re hungry, we’re feeding you again, which not only

keeps you from rebelling, but it helps you burn more calories contin-

uously throughout the day.

Keep using the 20/20 Hunger and Fullness Scale in chapter 5 so

you can decipher physical hunger from fake, trigger-induced, or habit

hunger and so you don’t overeat at mealtime. If you’re full, stop eating!

You should be letting go of that desir
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e to lick your plate clean.

Splurge Sensibly:
As you did in Phase 2, follow the rules for sensible splurging, knowing that you are capable of having a handful of something once or twice a week, but just don’t turn it into a pig-out session.

You can accomplish your goals without feeling like you’ll never be able

to enjoy another piece of chocolate or glass of wine.

Eat Out Responsibly:
Speaking of restriction, you shouldn’t have to swear off restaura
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nts for the remainder of your life in order to succeed

at weight loss. But you do need to be armed with a clear-cut game

plan before you place your order. Let’s spend some time talking about

strategies for eating out.

Guidelines for Eating Out

Wh
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en you go out to a restaurant, you’re entering back into an envi-

ronment in which you will be surrounded by the sights, smells, and

sounds associated with triggers and temptations. The only way to

keep yourself on track and out of trouble is to know exactly what

you’re going to order before you even get in the car. This kind of active Phase 3: The 20-Day Attain | 123

foresight takes barely any time at all, and the payoff is big. Spend just a few seconds deciding what you’re going to eat and drink before you go

and you’ll guarantee that you will leave that restaurant feeling satisfied (not stuffed) and beaming with pride that you got through the trigger

gauntlet without one slipup.

Many restaurants now offer online menus, so you can review your

options ahead of time. If not, don’t worry. Given the varie
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ty of food

available to you in Phase 3, you can bank on the fact that most restau-

rants offer some basics that will work great for you.

Restaurant Rules

1. As with all your meals, make sure this one includes at least two of

the 20/20 Foods.

2. Green tea could be one of those options, and it’s widely available.

3. If you’re comfortable with it, you could bring one of the foods

with you to the restaurant (such a
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s almonds, rye crisps, raisins—

all very portable).

4. If you’re uncomfortable bringing your own ingredient(s), you

could eat one of them right before you go to the restaurant.

5. Make sure the restaurant meal contains:

 Prime produce (fruit and/or veggies)

 Power protein

 Super starc
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h (a 100 percent whole-grain item, corn, or skin-on

whole potatoes)

 Fit fat

Restaurant Meal Examples

Here are some sample meals you can order at popular restaurants, and

they a
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ll follow the above Phase 3 meal requirements. (* indicates bring

your own)

BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse

EnLIGHTened Thai Chicken Mango Salad
, add corn and substitute

almonds for wonton crisps.

124 | The 20/20 Diet

California Pizza Kitchen

Half a Roasted Veggie Salad
with grilled shrimp, paired with hot or iced unsweetened green tea*. Order the dressing on the side and use

half, or skip the dressing and ask for vinegar to season your salad.

Cheesecake Factory

Seared Tuna Tataki Salad
, dress salad with vinegar, fre
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sh-squeezed

lemon, and black pepper instead of the wasabi vinaigrette. Add

almonds for a 20/20 Food. Make sure to snack on 2 rye crisps before

or after your meal to incorporate a “super starch”!

Veggie Burger
(no bun) served with mixed greens dressed with oil and vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon, and black pepper. Ask to substitute

mustard for the mayo.

Chili’s

Mango-Chile Chicken
with corn on t
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he cob (plain, without butter or

seasoning) and side salad dressed with vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon,

and black pepper. Pair with green tea*.

Caribbean Salad
, add avocado and dress with vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon, and black pepper and add 1 crumbled rye crisp* for crunch.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Salad à la carte
made with greens, black beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, and guacamole, paired with hot or iced unsweetened green tea*.

El Pollo Loco

Fire-Gril ed Skin
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less Chicken Breast
served with side salad dressed

with oil and vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon, and black pepper. Add

1 crumbled rye crisp* instead of tortilla strips and a small side of

steamed mixed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

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caroni Grill

Gril ed Chicken Spiedini
with mixed greens dressed with vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon, and black pepper, topped with 1 crumbled rye

crisp* and paired with green tea*.

Phase 3: The 20-Day Attain | 125

Olive Garden

Herb-Gril ed Salmon
and garden fresh salad with 1 crumbled rye

crisp* or chickpeas*. Dress salad with vinegar, fresh-squeezed lemon,

and black pepper.

Panera Bread

Power Chicken Hummus Bowl
, paired with 2 whole-grain r
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ye crisps*.

PF Chang’s

Buddha’s Feast
, steamed with tofu, add almonds, with 1/2 portion of brown rice. If desired, season with mustard sauce (the sauce prepared

by your server at the table).

Qdoba Mexican Grill

Salad à la carte
made with lettuce, grilled chicken, pico de gallo, roasted chili corn, and guacamole, paired with green tea*.

Starbucks

Protein Bistro Box
(1 egg, white chedd
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ar cheese, honey peanut butter

spread, multigrain muesli bread, apples and grapes).

Increase Your Restaurant Ordering IQ

If you’re going to a restaurant with no menu available online, don’t be

afraid to have a quick conversation with your server. Let him or her

know that you’r
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e keeping it simple and that you’d prefer your food

prepared with a little olive oil rather than butter, that your vegeta-

bles be steamed instead of fried or sautéed in oil, and that you want

to avoid massive portions. You can even ask them to box up half of

it in advance and serve you the other half. Consider asking about

whole-grain options for bread or pasta, and inquire about brown rice

instea
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d of white. You’d be surprised just how accommodating they

will be; remember, they work for tips! Just be kind and gracious (not

demanding or condescending), and your server (and the restaurant

chef) should be more than willing to work with you.

126 | The 20/20 Diet

What’s Next . . .

In the next chapter, I’ll introduce the 30-Second Burn Burst Exercise

Program to incorporate into your new routine. If you’re over there

rolling your eyes, then listen up: exercise is one of the chief ways, and quite possibly the best way, to control your weight over time. If you

want to make weight loss permanent (and I know you do)
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, then incor-

porating the right type of exercise into your life is a must.

But what’s
not
required is being miserable while you plod away on the treadmill for hours. This program will change your perception of

exercise and save you time—and you might just enjoy it. So, no more

eye rolling!

In chapter 12, you will discover a clear formula for maintaining

healthy weight loss for the rest of your life.

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Phase 3: The 20-Day Attain | 127

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THE 30-SECOND BURN

BURST EXERCISE PROG
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RAM

Fitness—if it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body.

—
Cher

Did you know that your fat cells actually get larger from sitting

too much? Seriously, your fat ex
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pands when your life is made up

of a never-ending succession of various forms of seats. Have you ever

heard the term “secretarial spread”? It’s the idea that your rear end will spread out to fill the width of the chair you’re sitting in for hours on end. No disrespect to secretaries, but that’s not a pretty picture! So if your typical routine takes you from lying in bed to sitting at a desk to sitting in a car to sitting in front of a television and then back to lying in bed day after day, week after week, month after month, then I’ve

got news for you—you’re living a sedentary lifestyle. And it doesn’t

matter what yo
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u eat or don’t eat—your body will not change for good

unless and until you get up and move it.

In case you haven’t noticed, the business of fitness has exploded

over the past decade. From workout contraptions of every shape, size,

and price point to intense at-home exercise DVDs, magazines, books,

clas
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ses, and trainers, we’re talking about billions of dollars paid by

consumers with visions of six-pack abs or sculpted rear ends dancing

in their heads. As the industry has boomed, more and more stud-

ies have been conducted to discover new exercise forms and methods