Holiday alert! Need to lose a few pounds? The 7 day diet plan that works!

With the holiday season fast approaching, plenty of people are looking to lose a few pounds in order to look their best for the round of parties, holiday photo ops and encounters with family and friends you may not have seen for a while. Women seem to be particularly sensitive. Men’s clothing tends to hide a lot of flaws, but your LBD does not. If you need to lose 5-7 pounds to look trim and svelte in your party dress, give this 7 day diet a shot. It works, is healthy and requires minimal discipline and is relatively easy to muddle through for fast results. Interested? Let’s see how you can succeed.

The biggest advantage you can gain is to indulge in daily exercise. Yes, indulge! When you think ‘exercise’, a boring, strenuous routine probably comes to mind. It doesn’t need to be any of these things. You can fit in exercise on a daily basis, that burns significant calories, in four 8-minute stints you’ll hardly notice. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park far from the grocery or work entrance and walk briskly. You won’t waste time looking for the closest parking spot, while indulging in a little weight loss. Trim your tummy and thighs with a dozen sit ups in the morning before showering.

Now for the food: remember, this is only a 7 day diet. Instead of a cup of coffee and a pastry for breakfast, make a fruit smoothie with your favorite fruits, juices and yogurt. This is a low-calorie meal, full of antioxidants, fiber and vitamins that fills you up. If you need a mid-morning snack, munch on a bran muffin washed down with a glass of juice.

If you normally stop in for lunch at the fast food place for a burger and fries, treat yourself to a salad (the fast food places have caught on to their health-conscious customers) or, better yet, make your own salad at home. Supermarkets now stock plastic containers of spring greens, mescalin, spinach and other healthy and tasty dark green leafy lettuces. A large container runs about $5 and contains sufficient greens for about 4 large salads. Add one sliced, hard-boiled egg, slices of fresh mushrooms, wedges of tomato, grated cheese and some lean meat, such as shrimp or chicken, douse it with a balsamic vinaigrette and you’ve got a filling lunch, full of fiber, protein, more antioxidants and an array of vitamins and trace minerals your body needs, enjoys and is easy on the calories, paving the way to your 7 day diet success and a nicely fitting LBD.

Dinner usually presents more temptations than breakfast and lunch. While the rest of the family is chowing down on meatloaf with gravy, a baked potato and a serving of buttered corn, you want to treat yourself to a piece of fish garnished with salsa or marinated in ginger and sesame. Indulge in a piece of garlic bread and a dinner salad. Feel superior! Alternative dinners which help you reach your goal include a plate of whole grain pasta and high-fiber veggies, marinated chicken breast, pork tenderloin (the ‘other white meat’) and a giant chef’s salad. Your 7 day diet regime will pay off. Besides, with a menu like this, you can hardly feel deprived! Fix a fruit cup with non-dairy whipped topping as the dessert for the whole family.

The success of your 7 day diet plan requires a calorie counter. Plan your menus in advance and calculate your daily calorie intake. With foods like these, counting your calories will be a pleasure!

Following these guidelines, your 7 day diet plan will be a success. In fact, you may find you want to continue with this eating plan and lose yet more weight. Make lean meats, high fiber foods and whole grains the centerpiece of each meal. By the time you’re hosting and attending holiday events, you’ll be the picture of health, full of energy and a great complexion. Try the 7-day diet. It works!