The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (6 page)

For example, in the morning my Meal Plan Equation recommends having a breakfast-sized serving of a high-protein food, such as eggs or yogurt, along with a piece of fruit. If that’s all you want, great, but if you like a heartier breakfast, feel free to stir cold cereal into your yogurt, or cook up a bowl of oatmeal, using options from your daily list of Flex-Time Food choices (more on these later). It’s a great idea to eat your whole grains early in the day—research suggests that doing so gives you the best bang for your nutritional buck both for weight loss and increased energy—but I’m not going to force any food on you at any time of day! It’s up to you.

At lunch, I suggest having a protein for your main dish along with
two or more vegetables. If this is plenty for you for your midday meal, that’s fine. But if you prefer to have a bit more, feel free to drizzle your vegetables with olive oil or vinaigrette, serve yourself a slice of whole-grain bread, or help yourself to a baked sweet potato using Flex-Time Food choices.

When dinnertime rolls around, my Meal Plan Equation again calls for a protein and some vegetables. Stick with that, or if you have not used up your allotment, use Flex-Time options to add a cup of bean soup or a side of sliced avocado.

As far as snacks are concerned, my Meal Plan Equation offers one snack daily, with lots of choices. For example, you can enjoy a bowl of blueberries and a handful of almonds or sunflower seeds. Or you can choose an apple along with some veggies dipped in hummus or guacamole. If you’re someone who does better with two smaller snacks daily, go ahead and use your Flex-Time choices to add a second smaller snack.

Flex-Time Foods are an important part of The Doctor’s Diet because they help you target your hunger, which boosts your chances of successful weight loss. More importantly, they give you choices, which is something that really matters to me. I don’t want anyone telling me exactly what to eat and when to eat it, and I don’t think you do, either. That’s what fad diets do—but the Doctor’s Diet isn’t like that. My eating plan isn’t about losing a few pounds that you’ll gain back next week. It’s about making life-saving changes in your eating habits and your weight that will sustain many years of great health. The STAT Plan is designed to meet your needs on a variety of levels. It will start moving you toward dramatic weight loss. It will fuel your body with essential nutrients, while keeping your hunger at bay and ringing the bell on taste and enjoyment. I can’t promise you that you’ll never feel a single hunger pang on the STAT Plan, but I can tell you that the STAT Plan’s formulation of protein, fat, fiber, and complex carbohydrates will leave you feeling surprisingly satisfied even as the pounds start to fall away.

The STAT Plan is lower in daily calories than other parts of The Doctor’s Diet. (But don’t worry, you won’t have to count calories—all you have to do is follow my simple Meal Plan Equations.) Remember, our
goal is to “stop the bleeding” on excess weight, and the most effective way to do that is to jump in with both feet and start losing weight.

After two weeks on the STAT Plan, you’ll move on to the RESTORE Plan, which offers you even more flexibility.

Before I tell you about the specifics of my daily Meal Plan Equations, here are some basic guidelines for the STAT Plan.

Stay on plan.
For maximum weight loss and the fastest results, follow the STAT Plan as closely as possible. Use daily Meal Plan Equations to create your own daily menus. Or follow my sample 14-day STAT menu, which makes it even easier if you prefer to have your meals designed for you.

Think ahead.
If you have time, sit down each evening and plan your next day’s meals. That’s the easiest way to make sure you eat the right foods in the right amounts, and that you have everything you need on hand before you start preparing meals. This is something I learned to do a long time ago. It doesn’t take long—you can plan your meals in just a couple of minutes. Since it actually ends up saving you time the next day, you come out ahead, time-wise.

Size up your size.
The amount of food we need varies based on our size, as well as age, activity levels, and other factors. When portions are given in a range—for example, three to four ounces of lean meat, poultry or fish—choose the low end of the range if you’re smaller (under 5
feet 4 for women or under 5 feet 10 for men), older (over 50), or less active (under 30 minutes daily), and the high end of the range if you’re tall, younger, or more active. During the RESTORE and MAINTAIN Plans, active people have even more meal-planning choices.

Get served.
Serving sizes really do matter—you can have the healthiest diet in the world, but if you’re eating too much of it, you’ll never lose weight. For maximum weight loss, stick with suggested serving sizes. In cases where there’s a lot of variety in packaged foods—for example, a slice of whole-grain bread can have anything from 40 calories to 140, depending on what’s in it and how thickly it’s sliced—I will suggest a calorie limit to help you determine the best amount to eat.

Give protein a hand.
Meat, poultry, and fish servings are about the same size as the palm of your hand, so feel free to use your palm as a measuring guide for size; the thickness should be similar to that of a deck of playing cards. Measure beans and lentils with a measuring cup.

Choose drinks that accelerate weight loss.
Avoid alcoholic beverages, sweetened beverages, or diet sodas. (But don’t worry, you’ll get to enjoy your favorite “adult” beverages on the RESTORE and MAINTAIN Plans.) For now, enjoy plain water, coffee, green tea, black tea, sparkling water, or water naturally flavored with lemon juice or cucumber slices.

Keep it real.
Avoid artificial sweeteners of any kind, because they can reset your brain and cause unnatural sweet cravings. You may use small amounts of honey or light agave nectar syrup (up to a teaspoon a day) to sweeten certain foods.