The One Cup Diet

For those who enjoy quantity over quality this is going to be very hard to get used to. Basically you are supposed to eat one cup of food three times a day. That’s one cup for breakfast one cup for lunch and one cup for dinner. In the beginning you can have a snack in between meals but ultimately they want you to only be having the three, one cup meals.

There is not much too it and once you get used to portioning out what you eat it’s pretty easy to follow as long as you don’t mind being hungry. In the beginning you are going to become intimately involved with the hungry gnawing feeling in your stomach. But they say it takes three weeks to form a habit, so don’t give up. After the three weeks we have noticed that it does become easier.

As to what you are supposed to eat, just because in the beginning you are going to lose weight simply because you are limiting your portion size doesn’t mean you should still eat unhealthy foods. They want most of your one cup to be protein, which will keep you fuller for longer and supposedly keep you going. Then the rest is supposed to be made up of mostly fruits and vegetables.

Knowing that we were going to have to begin this diet soon, Ally and I decided to prepare big batched of meals and then portion them out into the one cups and freeze. We made a stir-fry, a chicken marinara, omelets and a cauliflower potato cheese soup (which was disgusting and was trashed).

Chicken Marinara

For this we just took chicken, we used the precooked/cut stir-fry strips, but you can cut up a chicken breast or thigh, anything really. Measured ¼ cup into a Ziploc bag, then measured out ¼ cup of marinara sauce into the same bag, we just got a jar from the grocery store comparing what was available to make sure we got the healthiest (looking at things like sodium, protein, sugars, and carbs). We also threw 1 Tbs. of shredded cheese (cheddar) into the bag. Do this into separate Ziploc bags until you run out and throw into the freezer.

Then whenever you are in the mood take it out and heat it up in the microwave. Since this is only ½ a cup we served it with broccoli, just throwing ½ a cup of frozen broccoli into a pot while the chicken is warming up. I like having the sauce over my broccoli too, but since Ally likes it separate so she just puts more chicken and less sauce into each of her bags.

More to come on the stir-fry and omelets later.

XOXO, Evie & Ally