5 days to a Real Food Diet

Written by Anika DeCoster, RD, CPT, CISSN - LifeTime WeightLoss

Are you looking to enhance your diet?  Maybe to lose weight, increase your energy or improve the way you look or feel? Over and again, our newsletter encourages eating a foundation of real, whole-natural foods as often as possible to improve your health and weight. And for many us, we understand these benefits, yet we may struggle on how to get started.  Well look no further; we’ve got a plan! Read on to learn what real food is and get help on how to work it into your lifestyle! 

Real or Pretend?

Before diving in, it’s important to define the difference between real and pretend food. 

Real Food:  This is food that is close with nature.  It looks like the plant it derived from and very rarely needs a package around it or a food label to tell us what it is.  If it does have a food label, generally the list should be short and you should recognize the ingredients as other real foods. In general, think of fresh/frozen vegetables and fruit, raw nuts and seeds, oils, eggs, raw oats and grains, and lean proteins as your typical real foods. 

Pretend Food:  Also called “edible foodlike substances.” They are highly processed and look nothing like the plants they came from.  They absolutely have packaging and a food label on them. Think of frozen meals, processed grains like cereal, breads and crackers, juices and sugar-sweetened beverages, and other convenience foods. Pretend food typically has artificial ingredients and preservatives added to it to make it last longer.

5-Day Action Plan

Below is your 5-day plan.  You can complete this plan over the course of 5 consecutive days or work on it one day at a time over the course of several days or even weeks. It’s important to not bite off more than you can chew, so follow the plan as it suits your household. The overall goal, at minimum, is to consume more real foods than pretend foods over the course of the day. Strive to create a real-food haven at home for you and your family!

Day 1:  Assess

Track everything you put into your mouth (food and beverage) throughout the entire day. At the end of the day, write down real or pretend next to each recorded item based on the parameters above.  Total your counts for each food category and determine which food group you are eating more of.   See example below:

• Breakfast – Instant oatmeal packet (pretend)
• Snack – Fiber bar (pretend)
• Lunch – Microwave meal (pretend)
• Dinner – Chicken (real) + instant mashed potatoes (pretend) + steamed green beans (real)

Pretend Foods: 4        Real Foods: 2

Day 2:  Add Away

Now that you have identified the gap between real and pretend foods in your diet, on the second day, start adding more real foods until your count matches your total pretend food. Don’t worry about eliminating the pretend foods just yet (unless you want to!). Make this day’s overall goal to just eat more of the good stuff. You might make a goal of adding one additional real food into your diet each day, until every meal and every snack includes one real food.  Here's the menu from above with real-food additions:

• Breakfast – instant oatmeal packet (pretend)+ ½ cup fresh blueberries (real)
• Snack – Fiber bar (pretend) + ¼ cup raw almonds (real)
• Lunch – Microwave meal (pretend) + 1 cup of baby carrots (real)
• Dinner – Chicken (real) + instant mashed potatoes (pretend) + steamed green beans (real)

Pretend Foods: 4        Real Foods: 5

Day 3:  Quick Substitutes

Because of our hectic lifestyle, it can be easier to choose the processed versions of real foods. For instance, we might choose to make an instant rice because it cooks faster (and has the convenient flavor packet worked in!) versus using a whole and natural brown, unflavored rice. Substituting these foods with their less processed versions is a next-best step because it won’t drastically change the look and feel of typical foods in your home. See below for additional modifications using this strategy:

• Breakfast – 1 cup of steel cut oats w/cinnamon (real) + ½ cup fresh blueberries (real)
• Snack – Fiber bar (pretend) + ¼ cup raw almonds (real)
• Lunch – Microwave meal (pretend) + 1 cup of baby carrots (real)
• Dinner – Chicken (real) + baked potato (real) + steamed green beans (real)

Pretend Foods: 2        Real Foods: 7

Day 4:  Bulk Up the Volume

On day 2, our initial goal was to have at least one real food at every meal.  Now let’s increase the portions of those foods so we fill up more on them and on the back end, decrease our available hunger for the pretend foods.  We should eat 9 to 11 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

• Breakfast – 1 cup of steel-cut oats w/cinnamon (real) + 1 cup fresh blueberries (real)
• Snack – Fiber bar (pretend) + ¼ cup raw almonds (real) + 1 cup green peppers (real)
• Lunch – Microwave meal (pretend) + 1 cup of baby carrots (real) + small apple (real)
• Dinner – Chicken (real) + baked potato (real) + steamed green beans (real) + side salad (real)

Pretend Foods: 2       Real Foods: 10

Day 5:  Eliminate the Survivors

At this point, your real food intake absolutely outweighs your pretend count! Because of the boost in real foods, I’d expect your energy has increased and you feel great about your diet. It’s now rich in vegetables, some fruit and many other whole, natural foods. But there still might be some pretend survivors in your daily routine. Try to limit these foods as often as possible. If your typical snack is a bar, find one that is made with whole, natural ingredients or do a complete snack make over.  Below are the last alterations to our starting menu with this strategy in mind: 

• Breakfast – 1 cup of steel-cut oats w/cinnamon (real) + 1 cup fresh blueberries (real)
• Snack – ½  cup of raw almonds (real) + 1 cup green peppers (real)
• Lunch – Chicken salad (real) + 1 cup of baby carrots (real) + small apple (real)
• Dinner – Chicken (real) + baked potato (real) + steamed green beans (real) + side salad (real)

Pretend Foods: 0       Real Foods: 11

Do you strive for a whole foods diet?