The Good Mood Diet

The good mood diet is another book I read a few years ago and it really has changed the way I do things it was written by Dr. Susan Kleiner. I first read this book when Anna was about a year old. It totally changed the way I ate and dieted for that matter. In her book she talks about feel good foods and feel bad foods. Your feel bad foods are your typical fried sugary just plain old junk foods. Her feel great foods are most of the healthy things you already know about. However, the way she organizes your food into an easy to understand plan is something new. It keeps you interested, it also keeps you from getting hungry and I have so much energy and feel so great while I am doing it. Her basic rules are limiting sugar to 6 teaspoons a week (that is not very much, I pretty much don't do any right now). Take a vitamin every day. Exercise of course. Drew and I have been inspired by our friend Evin who has an exercise blog wowbodynow and have recently decided to have a 16 week plan where we make some goals and plan out what we want to eat etc. Anyway, back to the diet, it is pretty simple you eat breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, then you have a hot chocolate every night (she does hers with cocoa powder, milk and a little splenda) I use soy milk because I found that I don't need splenda (I think the kind I get is sweetened with stevia.

Anyway, it is how she breaks down the foods that makes sense and makes sure you think about what you are eating. So in the morning you need to have something from the bread group, a fruit, a milk, a fat, and an egg cooked without fat (a typical example would be like kashi or fiber one cereal with milk raisins and flax meal) and an egg

Mid morning some lean protein and milk (a protein shake)

Lunch 2 veggies a bread, protein and one serving a fat

afternoon snack fruit, veggie, fat (ex. v8, peanuts, and an orange)

Dinner - 2 breads, 2 veggies, 4 ounces lean protein, 2 fats, and a fruit.

Evening - hot cocoa

So basically it is a template to organize your food, it keeps your energy up and helps you lose weight. It also helps you keep it off. Since I read this book I have consistently followed as least some of the principles in how I eat because you just feel good doing it. Drew and I just started following it completely as part of our 16 week plan. I did about 3ish months ago, somewhat (I have sugar here and a treat there, but mostly stayed with it for a few weeks) I lost 10 lbs in a few weeks and then it has stayed off since. It is interesting because with this way of doing things I will wake up and feel that I have not lost anything all week, then I will get on a scale and find that I have! Honestly, after a few days of doing it, I don't even want any of the really sugary foods because it helps you feel so good. You know how you feel when eat something bad for you and it just isn't appealing.