The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (7 page)
Authors: Travis Stork
Fill up with H
2
O.
Water can help meals feel more filling, so I recommend that you drink an eight-ounce glass of water before each meal and snack (and with your food, if you desire). Drink an additional two to four glasses of water throughout the day.
Scramble it up.
Despite the bad press they’ve gotten over the years (we’ll talk more about that later in the book), whole eggs are actually an excellent source of protein and nutrients when eaten in moderation. Enjoy up to seven whole eggs per week (or three per week if you have
heart disease or diabetes). Use olive oil cooking spray for scrambling or frying eggs.
Go low with dairy fat.
Conventional wisdom holds that low-fat and nonfat yogurt and milk are a better choice than full-fat versions. This wisdom is being challenged lately, though, and evidence is adding up to make full-fat dairy less of a villain. We’ll go into this in more detail later in the book, but for now I’m going to suggest that in the interest of keeping calories low, stick with low-fat yogurt and milk.
Spice is nice.
Use healthy fresh or dried seasonings and herbs to liven up your foods: turmeric, curry, basil, oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and cayenne pepper, to name a few.
Slip the skip.
It’s best not to skip meals, especially breakfast. People who skip meals usually end up eating excessively later in the day.
Focus on fat-burning fruits.
I recommend you eat two fruits daily as part of the STAT Plan. During the STAT Plan, choose from one medium apple, one cup of fresh or frozen berries, or a grapefruit—compared with other fruits, these are a bit higher in fiber, lower in sugar, and thus better at burning fat. You’ll have more fruit choices on the RESTORE and MAINTAIN Plans, but for now, limit yourself to these fat-burning super-fruits.
Fill ’er up.
Certain vegetables are so low in calories that I call them Anytime Vegetables. They’re an important part of lunch, dinner, and snack Meal Plan Equations, but feel free to eat them at breakfast as well, or to munch on them during the day as “free” snacks. Or enjoy my Anytime Vegetable Soup or Anytime Garden Salad whenever you’d like. Find out how to make them in The Doctor’s Diet Recipe Guide starting on
page 238
.
Get ready for fast results.
Stay on the STAT Plan for 14 days at a time. After that, you’ll switch to the RESTORE Plan.
RISE, SHINE, AND EAT
You’ve heard it a million times: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But is it really? Instead of filling your tank early in the day, will you lose more weight if you just skip your morning meal?
Here’s the deal: Breakfast really is important, and skipping it actually leads to weight gain, not weight loss. Many studies have shown this, including a 2013 study published in the journal
Obesity
. In that study, 50 overweight women were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the big-breakfast group and the big-dinner group.
Both groups ate 1,400 calories worth of food each day. But, as their names suggest, the timing of their eating differed. The big-breakfast group ate a diet that consisted of a breakfast of 700 calories, a lunch of 500 calories, and a dinner of 200 calories. The big-dinner group ate the same foods, but their breakfast and dinner meals (and calories) were switched.
The women in both groups lost significant amounts of weight. But the women in the big-breakfast group lost an average of approximately 19 pounds over the course of 12 weeks, compared to only about 8 pounds in the large dinner group.
Another study, published in 2013 in the journal
Circulation
, found that men who regularly skipped breakfast had a 27 percent higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than those who did eat a morning meal. In addition, non-breakfast-eaters in that study reported being hungrier later in the day and ate more food at night.
Other research shows that skipping breakfast raises diabetes risk.
Why the connection between breakfast and heart disease?
Rsearchers think eating breakfast revs up your metabolism early in the morning, paving the way for higher calorie burn all day. Skipping your first meal of the day can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. So keep my voice in your mind when you’re tempted to skip your morning meal (or remember your mom telling you): breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
THE STAT MEAL PLAN EQUATIONS
Use the following Meal Plan Equations to create your daily menus:
STAT BREAKFAST:
1 Breakfast Protein + 1 STAT Fruit
STAT LUNCH:
1 Main-Dish Protein + 2 or more Anytime Vegetables
STAT DINNER:
1 Main-Dish Protein + 2 or more Anytime Vegetables
STAT SNACK:
1 Snack Protein + 1 STAT Fruit + 1 or more Anytime Vegetables
DAILY FLEX-TIME FOODS:
Each day (at the meal or snack of your choice) enjoy these additional foods:
1 Healthy Fat
1 Whole Grain
1 High-Density Vegetable
