The Petite Advantage Diet (20 page)

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt with Fresh Fruit

Directions:

1. Take the Greek yogurt and put it into a bowl.

2. On top of the yogurt, place sliced banana and blueberries.

3. Toast the bread and spread almond butter evenly over it.

Lunch: Cobb Salad

Directions:

1. Cook the chicken and slice.

2. Combine spinach, tomatoes, cooked turkey bacon, and cucumbers in a bowl.

3. Top with the cooked chicken and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar.

Dinner: Skirt Steak with Sautéed Vegetables

Directions:

1. Grill the steak until done to your liking (approximately 4-5 minutes a side).

2. Coat the inside of a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and sauté tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and green beans for 5-7 minutes.

3. Serve on the side of the steak.

Snack: Milk

Breakfast: Egg Sandwich and Fruit

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of a nonstick skillet with cooking spray.

2. Cook eggs and place on top of the toast with sliced tomatoes and mustard.

3. Cut the cantaloupe and serve it on the side.

Lunch: Grilled Chicken Salad

Directions:

1. Grill the chicken and slice.

2. Combine the lettuce, green peppers, beets, cucumbers, and feta cheese in a bowl.

3. Top with cooked chicken and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Dinner: Steak Stir-Fry

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of a nonstick skillet with cooking spray.

2. Slice steak into small strips and add to the pan and cook until cooked throughout.

3. Add sliced ginger root, broccoli, and water chestnuts to pan and cook for 6-8 minutes.

4. Serve on top of a bed of brown rice and drizzle with soy sauce.

Snack 1: Greek Yogurt
Snack 2: Milk

*
A Karas Egg is just a plain egg, a staple in this diet.

Y
es. I call eating out “The Monster.” Eating out has become an issue for
all
Americans, as the added fat and calories and the sheer size of most restaurant/fast-food portions are causing people of all sizes to gain weight. What constitutes a slight
storm
of calories for most people is a
tsunami
for Petites.

Americans are eating out approximately five times a week, either at fast-food establishments or restaurants. This is critically important, as research shows that, for each additional meal eaten out, your body mass index (BMI) goes up. BMI is a number that is calculated simply by plugging your height and weight into an equation. Here is the equation:

Your Weight / Your Height in Inches Squared x 703 = Your BMI

To illustrate, I’m going to use my Petite from the introduction again. She was 5′3” and 170 pounds when she started. Her BMI equation would thus look like this:

170 / 63
²
x 703 = 30.11.

If your BMI is between 18 and 24.9, you are considered at an acceptable weight. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. A BMI of over 30 is considered obese.

So my client started out obese, which we both knew. But when she went down to 130 pounds, her goal weight (which she hit and stayed at), her BMI went down to 130 (her new weight) divided by her height squared (63 x 63) multiplied by 703 = 23. That 40-pound weight loss placed her in the acceptable range.

With just one meal eaten out a week, the research shows that a person’s BMI will go up by one percentage point. That is how damaging restaurant eating can be to Petites, but it doesn’t have to be. Why, you may ask, is eating out such as killer to your body weight? Read on.

The research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding fruit and vegetable consumption showed that only 8 percent of Americans are eating the recommended two cups of fruit a day and only 6 percent are eating two and a half cups of vegetables a day.
¹
What I didn’t tell you was that food consumed outside the home constituted one-third of all calories eaten. But, when it comes to fruit and vegetable consumption, it only accounted for 11 percent of the calories they ate when eating out. If you do the math (and you know I
love
The Math), then 11 percent of one-third of the calories eaten out means that Americans are eating less than 3 percent of their calories from fruits and vegetables when eating out.