Now that you’ve answered, all those pesky questions about yourself, it’s time to evaluate them and begin the first day of the rest of your life’s eating plan. After answering them myself, I concluded that I don’t like to cook and even if I had time to cook, I probably wouldn’t do it with any real consistency. While I have done low cal, low fat and low carb eating plans, I eventually feel deprived. When I feel deprived, then I usually go off my eating plan with a vengeance and it takes me months (okay…years) to get back on an eating plan. At the time I instituted my plan, I didn’t have time to go to meetings, count calories, count points, etc. Thus, I began looking at the “automated eating plans” such as Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and the Biggest Loser. All of them looked fabulous, except for one thing: the cost. They were all pretty expensive, even given their “starter” discounts.

Then it hit me: I have an automated eating plan…at my store! I had already learned that I liked the taste and variety of Lean Cuisine frozen meals and after doing some calculations, I could eat in a very similar fashion to the more notable automated eating plans for around $ 23 to $ 38 a week! This is a fraction of the cost charged by other programs. Even if I added in snacks and simple breakfasts, I could eat well for about $ 50 to $ 75 a week. And thus, the MIP plan was born.

So, here are the nuts and bolts of this program, in case you, too, think you need to enact a similar plan:

1. Buy 14 Lean Cuisines of various kinds for a week. Eat one at lunch and one at dinner every day.
2. Buy Atkins Endulge candy bars for snacks. Please do NOT buy the Advantage bars unless you don’t have taste buds. The Endulge bars that are my favorites are the ones that resemble Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers bars. But, they also have ones that taste like Mounds bars and brownies. Taste is important to me and these are more than edible! I even freeze mine for that nostalgic frozen candy bar sensation!
3. In the summertime switch to Skinny Cow Cookies ‘n Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches for snacks. I also found the mint chocolate ones tolerable, but I did weary of every flavor except the Cookies ‘n Cream over time–fair warning!
4. Eat something you love every morning for breakfast. Why eat something you love? Because I am not a morning person and I usually don’t have time to cook breakfast in the morning. I chose raspberry almond granola that I could buy by the pound at my local store. Fair warning–this was not cheap! But, OMG! Yum-Yum! I poured 2% milk on it. If you can handle 1% or skim milk, you’re a better person than moi and you’ll probably drop the pounds more quickly. I also have a Keurig coffee latte with Truvia (I found that the real deal on Stevia tasted best to me. Hopefully, you will feel the generic is just fine. Stevia is the safest non-sugar sweetener to use, according to research.)
5. When eating out, follow these rules:

• Find the smallest roll or chip and thoroughly chew each bite. Count to at least 10 chews per bite, if not 20! Use salsa on chips instead of guacamole or queso dip.
• Try to pick chicken or fish for your dinner entree, if not a totally veggie version.
• When dinner arrives, ask for a take-out box immediately. When it arrives, put 1/2 of your dinner in the box and shut the lid. Put the box somewhere where you will not be tempted to eat it immediately.
• Eat the remaining half. Start with the protein item first. Then, eat the veggie part next. If others are still eating, slowly eat the starchy part of your meal. When everyone else is finished, so are you!
• Order tea, water or a diet soft drink for dinner. If dessert is tempting you, ask for flavored coffee instead and put in your favorite sweetener. Savor every sip and relish in the fact that you controlled yourself for once!

A few additional rules:

1. When you just can’t leave the highly fattening foods alone, put a handful of whatever it is in a bowl or on a plate, close up the bag or box and put it away! Now, walk away from the kitchen or pantry and eat only what’s in that bowl or on your plate. Sometimes I have gone back for a second bowl/plate, but I am usually way too lazy/guilty to make a 3rd trip!

2. For late night snacks, I keep microwave popcorn and fresh fruit on hand. I like the kinds of fruit that make me feel like I’m eating popcorn or chips. So, I usually have berries, grapes and cherries on hand. (In fact I think I can eat my weight in cherries.)

3. When others are cooking for me, I use the “fist method” to determine how much I eat. In other words, my protein source and starch portion sizes shouldn’t be any bigger than my fist. Go hog wild on the veggies!

Now, if you think you’ll wind up looking like Twiggy in one month doing all of this, then you are going to be sadly disappointed. This is a slow-paced process. But you’re going to eat like this for the rest of your life and that means that, over time, you will keep resetting your “normal weight” point and keep lowering it! So, just be patient!

Don’t miss You 3.0: MIP Exercise Plan next Wednesday! (In the meantime, get rolling on your own eating plan!

Tomorrow’s Post: Celebrating love…

You might also like: You 3.0: Mindset, Part I, You 3.0: Mindset, Part II, You 3.0: Mindset Part III, Lessons Learned from Visiting Sam Moon for the First Time