Reality Check and a Compromise

So I spent all yesterday coming up with a meal plan for the week for our new "Flat Belly Diet" I was so excited about. Then I sat down with the family and explained what the meals were and what we would be doing..*silence*...."No coffee?!, Avocados?! I hate those!!" C'mon people, do you really think a "flat belly diet" would consist of Oreos and fries? I realized that my mom would never be able to give up coffee, Charles will never grow to like to avocados, and me, I would never be able to do this diet on my own with the rest of the family eating junk food. I took a quick trip to the library this afternoon to rethink my strategy. I liked the idea of keeping to the 400 calorie meals, but needed a slightly more realistic diet plan. I stumbled across the book "400 Calorie Fix". It's by one of the co-authors of "Flat Belly Diet" and was just what I was looking for! It's basically a book of 400 calorie meals, with the same idea in mind, except that you can drink coffee (yay!) and instead of having a MUFA for every meal, you just have one a day, which is much easier since I can cook one meal a day with olive oil or dark chocolate no problem. =)  You also are eating only three 400 calorie meals a day (for woman, men get 4 meals a day). One nice thing is that if you up your activity level you are allowed to add an extra meal (or 2!) depending on how active you are. I also love the fact that this book doesn't tell you what to eat or what not to eat. First it gives you tons of meals that equal around 400 calories, then it shows you how many calories are really in the most common foods Americans eat (goodbye Chinese buffets forever!) In so many words the book says "Would you rather have 1 cookie or a whole plate of food for your 400 calorie meal?" I'll be honest, once in awhile I'm going to choose that cookie and be hungry till the next meal, but at least I have that option. In the past 24 hours I have already learned how important it is to choose a diet that fits into your lifestyle instead of trying to change your lifestyle.