Week 1 diet plan Week 2 diet plan Week 3 diet plan Week 4 diet plan

        Dear readers, meet the Cincinnati Diet. The Cincinnati Enquirer and Jewish Hospital Weight Management Center are teaming up to offer readers this balanced four-week meal plan. We hesitate to call it a diet, because this plan is more a way to eat for good health, enjoy your favorite foods and live it rather than diet.

        Two plans are provided: 1,300-a-day calorie menus are for older or sedentary women; 1,800-a-day menus are for men and active younger women. As you look at these menus, you will notice that the foods probably look very different than the kind of foods you and your family typically eat. In fact, you may say, it looks like a dietitian wrote these.

        Well, you are right on both accounts. The menus were designed, using the latest information about weight loss and with the goal of making them easy and tasty.

        Current thinking promotes eating more vegetables and fresh fruits, eating more whole foods (i.e. a baked potato instead of low-fat potato chips), drinking more water and eating throughout the day, not saving calories for the evening meal.

        At first, you may feel that you are spending more time in the kitchen and thinking about food more often. That is normal when you change your eating habits. You do need to spend some extra time developing a new skill.

        As the month goes on, most likely you'll settle into using a few breakfast and lunch meals that fit your lifestyle and that you like. Most likely you do that now anyway.

        You may also feel like you don't necessarily like the changes you are making. That's normal too. Most people eat the way they do because it's convenient or they like the foods they are eating. It takes most people six weeks to develop a taste for a new way of eating.

        We encourage you to be honest with yourself as you go through the next four weeks. Acknowledge that changing your eating habits is tough. And you may not like all of the changes at first.

        But once you begin to see results and you become used to a different style of eating, chances are good you'll be glad you changed your eating style.

Week 1 diet plan
Week 2 diet plan
Week 3 diet plan
Week 4 diet plan

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