Make the planner work for you
The LiveLighter meal plan is specially tailored to meet your individual energy requirements; it contains the right balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy.
For the first 4 weeks we’ll provide you with recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you will be able to choose from a wide range of snacks to help you snack smart. Once you have completed the first 4 weeks we plan five days of the next few weeks and hand the reigns over to you for the other two days and for the final 4 weeks we will plan three of your days and leave the rest in your hands.
We designed it like this because we don't want you to feel too restricted and this will also help you start planning your own meals so once you finish the 12 weeks you can maintain those habits long-term.
- Eating regularly and not getting too hungry is important as we tend to make bad food choices when we’re hungry.
- It is recommended that we eat 2 serves of fruit a day. If fruit isn’t included in your meal plan for that day then use your snacks to get your 2 serves.
- Keep healthy snacks on hand, in your bag and at your desk at work so you don’t get caught out. Snacks that store well include dried fruit, unsalted nuts, crackers and cans of tuna or beans.
We have included 1 cup of low fat milk in your meal plan every day. You can either drink this straight or use it to add to your (unsweetened) tea and coffee.
Apart from tea and coffee we recommend you drink water. It’s fat free, sugar free and virtually free out of the tap! No other drinks are included in the meal planner, so please note that any other drinks you are having will be on top of your energy needs and could lead to weight gain if you are not doing extra exercise to compensate.
As we try and cater for singles, couples and families some of our recipes include a larger number of servings than others and it can be tricky to know what your single serving is.
Try one of the following methods:
- The simple way - have a good look at it and divide the dish equally into the number of servings the recipe says it makes by slicing it (for dishes like lasagna or cake) or spooning it out into that number of plates.
- If you want to be more accurate, weigh the whole dish and divide the weight by the number of servings the recipe makes. For example: If a stir-fry weighs 1400g and serves 4 people, then 1400 ÷ 4= 350, so one serving of stir-fry will be 350g.
- Measure the volume of the whole dish. Divide the total volume by the number of servings the recipe makes. For example: If a soup recipe makes 12 cups and serves 6 people then you simply divide it (12 ÷ 6 = 2) so one serving of soup is 2 cups.
- Every recipe will tell you how many ‘servings’ a dish makes. If you want to make more or less than the recipe says, try doubling or halving all the ingredients.
- Making bigger or smaller batches works better for some recipes than others. Salads, sandwiches, curries and soups work well.
- Baked goods like muffins and cakes can be a little trickier and we don’t recommend making batches bigger than double the recipe size.
- The cooking time will generally increase for bigger batches and decrease for smaller batches.
- Take the time to do a big cook-up on the weekend and freeze your meals. These will come in handy when things get busy and you don’t have time to prepare a meal.
- Remember to label containers and bags with the contents, number of servings and date cooked.
- Foods that freeze well: curries, stews, cakes, pasta sauce, rice, couscous.
- Foods that don’t freeze well: raw vegetables with a high water content (e.g. lettuce, cucumber, tomato)
- Write a list before you hit the shops to avoid buying things you don’t need.
- Read the recipes ahead of time as some may need to be started the night or morning before (e.g. desserts to in the fridge/ freezer to set, meat needs to be marinated)
- Defrost meat, poultry and fish on a plate in the fridge overnight or use the microwave, do not leave on a counter-top or kitchen sink.