Publications
Partners
Not only will having everyone on board make it easier to stay motivated, it will also do wonders for everyone’s health.
Even though your children or partner might not need to lose weight, staying away from sugar and eating more nutritious food in the right quantities is good for everyone.
And developing good eating habits from when your kids are young is important, says Adrian Penzhorn, a sport scientist and dietician at Food for Sport in Cape Town. He says food behaviour and taste preferences are learnt early in life.
Exposing your kids to the right kind of food can have long-term health benefits such as the prevention of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Healthy eating habits also improve immunity.
Part of educating yourself and your family when it comes to maintaining good health is knowing how much you should eat to maintain your current weight or to lose weight,which nutrients are important and the portion sizes you should aim for.
As such, Adrian designed this eating plan for families, and gives guideline on exactly how much each family member should be eating.
The nutritional guidelines and meal plans in this article can be adjusted so the whole family can benefit – and even drop a clothing size if necessary.
Just ask Joburg office manager Noleen Mendace. The 36-year-old mom was our guinea pig for our Adrian's Family Diet, and felt the weight slipping off in a matter of weeks.
In fact, she liked it so much that she kept going after the three weeks were up, losing roughly a kilogram a week -- which experts say is the max you should aim for if you want to keep the weight off.
"It didn’t feel like I was on a diet," she says. "I was constantly full and never craved anything, unlike with my past diets.
In fact, Noleen says she even felt like she was overeating! "Normally, I don’t eat more than twice a day and I eat small portions at a time – I’ll have half a sandwich for lunch and sometimes I don’t even eat dinner. So on this diet I was always full!
Most of the ingredients were easy to find and there was a lot to choose from, she says.
"I trained myself over the years to cut out carbs, so reintroducing them into my diet was a bit of a challenge. But while I was on the eating plan, I felt healthier and more confident."
Would she recommend it to other moms? "Most definitely! Although it’s only a 21-day eating plan the diet changes your eating habits for the better.
What's her top tip? "Drink lots of water in between meals, try to be active – walk up the stairs instead of taking the lift, walk more generally and snack on vegetables if you get hungry between meals.
