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Have you heard of the Flat Belly Diet?
I thought, “Flat belly? Not at 42.” I dismissed the idea, accepted that I am what I am. Then, tonight I was surfing around, looking for new recipes and I see that Prevention magazine has a whole Flat Belly Diet section. Prevention magazine? My grandma reads Prevention magazine and she’s way older than I am.
The Flat Belly Diet is not about vanity, it’s not about abs of steel, it’s about getting rid of that layer of fat around your middle that settles in at middle age. The fat is more than unsightly – it is dangerous. The diet fights two types of fat – subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat is all over the body. The visceral fat lies deeper and it wraps itself around your heart and your organs. People who carry this fat, they can develop something called Metabolic Syndrome, or Syndrome X. Visceral fat is deadly. It increases your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, high cholesterol, breast cancer, and dementia.
You can read more about here, but here’s the good part – the 5 foods that are recommended with the Flat Belly Diet, they are all vegetarian foods!! These foods, known as MUFAs are monounsaturated fatty acids. They work to lower your cholesterol and actually slow the aging process. You eat one serving of one of the list items at a meal.
The 5 foods are….
*Oils – flaxseed oil, canola oil, olive oil, sesame oil, etc
*Nuts and seeds – almonds, sunflower seeds, natural peanut butter, tahini, etc
*Avocado – avocado!!!! (my favorite food)
*Olives - black olives, green olives, tapenade, etc
*Chocolate – dark or semi-sweet (my second favorite food)
For serving ideas and serving sizes, look here. These are all foods that are already in a vegetarian diet, in my regular diet. This is absolutely do-able. Meals are supposed to be around 400 calories, eaten every 4 to 5 hours, and keeping the daily total at around 1600 calories.
I can think of some meal ideas right now………
*A serving of avocado on whole wheat toast for breakfast
*Spinach salad and a vinaigrette made with olive oil, sprinkled with sesame seeds
*A dish of noodles topped with a mixture of peanut butter, sesame oil, tamari, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds
*Brown rice cooked with slivered almonds
*Extra-thin crust pizza with little or no cheese and olives
*A square of dark chocolate for a snack……okay, not a recipe, but still, yum!
In addition, the diet recommends controlling stress, using a food diary, and developing a support system. If you are doing this diet, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are doing.
It really worked for my daughter. Since April both her and her husband have been on the plan. They do 80% vegetarian..its a new thing for them both, however she has lost 70 lbs and he has lost about the same.It has become a lifestyle and they plan to continue it.
Well I’m doing this as well. I just finished my fourth day. And I’m a vegetarian. I’ve been using tofu in the place of the meat. I also bought those vegetarian turkey slices and used those for the lunches! Not sure if it counts but it seems to be working for myself. There are spices you can have, for instance, curry powder. And for the one night we were to have 1/2 cup of brown rice, chicken breast, and cooked carrots. So I steamed the rice. Then I put 1 tbsp of olive oil (because we’re supposed to have 1 MUFA per meal) in a pan with the tofu, added some curry powder, and then added the rice in the last few minutes after it was steamed.
It’s not perfect but it worked for me!
Hope this helped!
990 days ago
[...] Tests – Abdominal fat was measured with CT scans, and blood tests assessed testosterone and estradiol levels. Medical histories determined if other factors may be responsible for visceral fat. [...]
1209 days ago
[...] more omega-3s to your diet. This is something that I mentioned The Flat Belly Diet. The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to add Flax to my diet. Both my son and I take two [...]
Alexis, I’ve been looking around and I don’t have a definitive answer for you. Did you look on the Prevention Magazine site? I think that you can write to them and they will answer the questions about specifics. I didn’t end up doing the diet for very long, but I have continued to take the flax oil and use the MUFAs in my diet. I used nuts in place of the meat. Beans don’t really work, because they make your belly bloat a bit. Tofu?
Anybody have any ideas?
I have the book, and the four day anti bloat jumpstart includes turkey, chicken and salmon. They have good veg meals for the thirty two day plan but not just for these four days! Any suggestions?
Dana, I know what you mean – some good stuff on there.
I think it’s another version of the Mediterranean diet – lots of good for you vegetables, good oils, nuts, good proteins.
As I’m reading more about it, I see that they advocate cooked over raw vegetables – something about how they fill your belly, so I will probably change that a little, but it sounds like a pretty solid plan.
I think I’ve been doing this diet for years without even realizing it!! Those are all my favorite foods.
1253 days ago
[...] *I am going to use the Flat Belly Diet [...]
1253 days ago
[...] Source:Go Vegetarian For the Flat Belly Diet Like this post? Publish It On Your Own Blog Share and Enjoy: [...]