How I create my own meal plans following the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet guidelines.


How to Freestyle and create your own meal plans following the
CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet guidelines.

Introduction to Freestyling -
Freestyling is what most people call it when we create our own meal plans based on the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet guidelines. When I first joined TWD in June 2018, I determined that the suggested meal plans didn't appeal to me, so I decided to create my own meal plans based on their guidelines. 

It really is important to understand that you don't need to blindly follow the meal plans to have success. Losing weight in a healthy way is NOT about eating a particular brand of bread or only eating a type of low fat cheese with 15% fat, or one brand of high protein milk.

It's about making healthy, sustainable choices that fit YOUR taste preferences.
Once you do this, it changes from a diet to a lifestyle and becomes SUSTAINABLE...

For example, I know that chicken breast is 'healthier' as it has a lower fat content, except I find it dry and unpalatable. If I forced myself to eat this, I would not enjoy my meals, and then I might binge on something unhealthy. So instead, I choose chicken thighs, and just adjust my portion size to meet the TWD guidelines. It means I may eat a smaller portion, but the meal plan will be sustainable to me.
The same for dairy. I find low fat cheese flavour-less, so instead, I choose a smaller portion of cheese I enjoy the taste of.

A healthy diet is about eating food from all food groups (including carbs and indulgences).
It's about understanding and practicing portion control, especially with my indulgences.

It's about making healthy choices the majority of the time.
It's about accepting that I am a food addict, and that sometimes I'm NOT perfect, and overeat my indulgences. When I do over-indulge, I need to accept that I am human, refocus, track my food intake and ensure that I make healthy choices the MAJORITY of the time.

A healthy diet is NOT about restriction.
Restriction quickly becomes unsustainable to me and will lead to binge eating, which I definitely want to avoid.
I want a healthy relationship with food, one where 'I control food', and 'food does not control me'.
I want to 'eat to live', not 'live to eat'.

Portion Control is critical.
A key component of my success is portion control.

This means I 
- Weigh EVERYTHING
- Measure EVERYTHING
- Track EVERYTHING

I then ensure I reach but not exceed my daily food units, except for vege units which are unlimited.
This ensures I have a healthy balanced diet, and as a benefit of this, I reach my health goals.

Can you lose weight freestyling?
Well, here's my personal results from freestyling since Day 1.
I lost 100 kg in just under two years, and have kept it off 15 months now (September 2021)



TWD has an official guide available on their website which is available here
 - Link 

Important -
Some screenshots and info below are from over three years ago when I started my journey weighing in at 185.5 kg. I started on the highest plan with the highest food intake, so it is critical to your success that you follow your recommended food unit values and not go by my totals in the images below. I have provided my original plans below to give you a guide to my thought processes on how I planned my freestyling.

Freestyling - Getting Started - 

My first step was to look at the TWD template (available when you sign-up) to see what my daily food units were, and to look at how the food units were spread across the day.

I then made a list of my favourite foods and used the Food Search to determine how each food tracked, and calculated the amount of how much of each food equaled one food unit. 

Examples - 
I was allowed five bread units a day.

Examples of one bread unit are -
One slide of multigrain bread equals one Bread Unit.
70 grams of cooked Basmati Rice equals one Bread Unit. 
150 gram potato equals one Bread Unit

The screenshots below are from an Excel spreadsheet I created to help me plan my initial meal plans before I finalised my daily meal plans and then entered my meals in the TWD Food Tracker. 

DISCLAIMER - These food unit values are over three years old and may have changed.
Make sure you use the tracker when entering your foods as these values may have changed.

Bread units - Five per day
- Tip - Basmati Rice and pastas are low GI. Low GI is one of the primary focuses of the TWD plan.


Dairy - Three per day
I just eat cheese for my dairy now days.
It might be a bit boring for some people, but that is the beauty of freestyling, you can just change the meal plan to what YOU want.
As long as you meet but don't exceed your daily units, you're following the plan and making it sustainable FOR YOU.


Meat / Protein - Three per day
Note that these are original screenshots from three years ago and some food values have changed.
I have included this to show you the methods I used to create my meal plans, so please don't use these values, enter them into the Food Search / Food Tracker to get the current values.


Healthy Fats and Oils - 5 per day


Veges - 2.5 per day - MINIMUM


Fruits - 2 per day


Healthy processed foods.
I broke up my favourite processed foods to help with my meal plan creation.
I could then plan out my days taking into account the Bread units and Healthy Oil units as well as the Meat / protein units,  to ensure I met but didn't exceed my daily unit totals.



Protein / Meat comparisons
To allow me to understand my choices better, I added many different meat / protein options and used the tracker to create this table with comparisons of the calories, fat, protein, TWD units etc for a 100 gram serve.

I put them in order of Calorie values and it is amazing to see the differences, especially when comparing the highest and lowest. Of course the highest is a highly processed Kofta, and when compared to Basa fish, there are over triple the calories for the same 100 gram raw serve and over ten times the saturated fat content.

This is one of reasons I prefer fresh home made meals over processed foods, and why TWD scores a lot of processed foods as indulgences rather than protein (deli ham etc). Although the Koftas track as meat / protein only, you can see in the comparison table below the health benefits in preparing fresh foods against processed foods.  


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Example of a typical day early into my journey - 22nd January 2019
This was about seven months into my journey, and back then I didn't eat my indulgences, as Peter's Raspberry Ripple was classed as a dairy, not indulgence.
TWD has since changed the classification of the Raspberry Ripple to indulgence due to the processed nature of the ice cream.

My daily units - 


Typical Breakfast during weight loss


Lunch and afternoon tea
(I love that I tracked that my watermelon was EXACTLY 601 grams... not 600 grams !


Dinner and dessert


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Meal Prep

Like most people, I lead a busy life and I am time poor, but most importantly I MAKE TIME for my meal prep. I know that if I make the time to prepare my meals, I am far more likely to keep on track.
I just pop in my ear-buds and crank up some music or my favourite podcast, and cook it all up.

I start early by cooking up my weekly batch of Pumpkin and Corn soup.
As virtually all vegetables except potato and sweet potato track as Free vegetable units, I make a big batch of healthy, delicious Pumpkin and Corn soup. This gives me seven HUGE serves of soup which I use currently as a morning tea. Many people have commented in the Facebook groups that they love this soup, and many people add extra veges or tweak the recipe to suit their tastes.

That is the beauty of Freestyling, you can tweak the meals to suit your taste buds to make it SUSTAINABLE to you!

You can check out this blog post for the Pumpkin and Corn soup recipe - Link 



Breakfast prep - bulk cooking of eggs for breakfast
Note that this is while I am on maintenance, so the portion sizes and food unit allowance is higher than when I was on my initial weight loss journey. In fact, initially, I had mushrooms on toast as I didn't have enough protein units. 

As my eldest son eats the same breakfast as I do, I do a bulk cook up of two dozen eggs in my sous vide machine. This allows me to cook up eggs and then keep them in the fridge until I want them for breakfast. The sous vide process gives me an egg that is similar in consistency to a soft poached egg, which I then 'smoosh' up and create a toasty with a single egg, or two eggs on two pieces of toast and cheese. The cooked eggs are placed back in the fridge to be consumed for breakfast each morning. As they are already cooked, this saves time each day before I go to work.

Luch prep - bulk cooking for lunches
My weekends are also spent cooking up a heap of my favourite meats that I can freeze for lunches and / or dinners. I use my meats and proteins as a 'template' for my lunches and dinners.

Once I cook up my rissoles / burgers / seafood etc, I then portion up and use as the 'template' for either lunches or dinners. 

For dinners, I choose not to add any bread units (I save some bread units for my pre-bedtime snack of Vita-Weats, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese). I just cook and portion up the protein serves and freeze to be served up for dinner when I get home after work. This reduces my stress level as I know that I can cook dinner in about five minutes just by adding a heap of veges, and half a can of Heinz Big Red Tomato Soup to the pre-cooked, pre-portioned meat / protein serve. 

Lunches use the same prep method, except that I add pasta or basmati rice to the 'template'.
I have pre-planned and allocated the appropriate amount of bread units. In my case, that is 70 grams of cooked basmati rice, or 35 grams of uncooked pasta. Both basmati rice and pasta are low GI food and meet the TWD guidelines.


Lunch prep example - 


Seafood Marina - 

Cook 750g of fresh marinara mix in a wok with minced garlic


Split up into three equal portions


Add some frozen veges


Add half a small tin of Heinz Big Red Tomato Soup (the condensed version) and some mixed herbs for flavour.
If freezing for lunches, I add my lunch serve of bread units, which for me is 35g of uncooked spaghetti, which equals around 90g of cooked spaghetti.


Pop in the freezer for future lunches.

On the day when I am taking to work, I cut up a heap of mushrooms and baby corn and add, ready for lunch.

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Lunches and Dinners - bulk cooking of 'protein' for lunches and dinners.

Protein / meat examples

Meat Burgers - These can be cooked in bulk and frozen to be used in both lunches and dinners.
I wrap the cooked single burgers in cling wrap and freeze individually and just take out the day before or just microwave as needed. The burgers can be used either in one of my burger lunches, or cut up with veges, and Big Red Tomato Soup for dinner.

I also create lunches by adding either pasta or basmati rice to the burger, veges and Big Red soup.

ALDI marinated chicken thighs (the lemon herb ones are awesome)
I cook these in the air-fryer at 200c for five minutes, flip, then cook for another five minutes.
These make great healthy home made burgers.


Olga's chicken patties and Coles Chicken and Cheese Burgers.
The Coles chicken and cheese burgers are awesome in my burgers.
I also use the Olga's chicken patties as a template for lunches and dinners with veges, Heinz Big Red soup and rice or pasta for lunches.



Ingham's Turkey meatballs
These are awesome. Just cook in the air-fryer / oven and serve as a healthy spaghetti meatballs or with basmati rice.


Ingham's extra lean turkey burgers
Once again, I cook these in the air-fryer or oven and use for burgers or mix with Heinz Big Red, veges for dinner and add pasta or rice for lunches.
 

Home style chicken burgers and Aussie country style burgers - (Woolies)
I cook these in the air-fryer, portion up with three mini burgers and use in lunches and dinners with Heinz Big Red and veges for dinners, and add pasta or rice for lunches.
  

These mini burgers cooked are awesome!


Steggles Southern Style Chicken Breast Burgers
These taste great and make an awesome burger.


A variation to my template is when I use the leftover roast chicken that my son has for his lunches.
I simply pull off the last bits of meat from the chicken cage and portion up. Depending on how much he ate that week, I usually get one or two portions for lunch / dinners.

As I don't think the roast chicken goes well with Heinz Big Red Tomato Soup, plus I want a bit of variety, I mix it up and replace the soup with half a tin of creamed corn, which also tracks as vege units. This gives me a yummy vege filler which goes better with roast chicken. I also use the same process if using other leftover roast meats like pork or lamb.

To finish off the meal, I add some gravy and a heap of veges for filler, usually fresh mushrooms, baby corn and some frozen peas, corn and carrot. The end result looks disgusting, but tastes great, and is super healthy and filling.

The prep containers below are complete except for the chicken. I am actually taking one with me today when we visit my Mum, so the family can have chicken and bread rolls, and I will add my chicken portion to my meal prep as it will be more filling with the extra veges. The second one will have some leftover chicken added for lunch tomorrow.

Note that I will be getting some hot chooks from Woolies rather than going to Red Rooster to avoid the struggle I would have with their chips, and I am also avoiding our traditional meal of hot fish and chips from the local takeaway.

Success is just not about meal prep, it's also about preparing and planning to avoid those temptations (like fish and chips, or Red Rooster chips) that will derail my success.


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Here is a typical burger lunch.
As the burgers are already cooked, I just microwave them till ready with a slice of cheese on top.
For the burger bun, I use the wholegrain buns that are cooked fresh in the local Woolies, but any wholegrain bread bun will be fine. For more flavour, I add some smokey BBQ sauce which tracks as indulgence.


I then add beetroot and tomato


And finish up with lettuce on top.


I also eat a truckload of tomato, beetroot and lettuce to fill me up for the rest of the day.
I eat two burgers during the week, and for that, I buy and split up over two lunches - 
- Four big tomatoes
- A full lettuce
- 850g tin of beetroot.

As you can see below, this is a really filling lunch, and plenty of fresh veges for fibre!
And this is separate from my burger !!!


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I also love a good slab of salmon cooked in the air-fryer.
My favourite is to get the salmon packet from Coles that comes with a lemon herb crumb.


This comes out perfectly in the air-fryer (180c - 4 minutes, spin or flip - another 4 minutes).
I then keep the leftover crumb for future cooks.
I don't think this in the tracker, but the crumb would probably use up a little bit of your bread units.

I also love a good slab of steak cooked sous-vide style and then sear finished on a super hot hotplate.

I also love my Basa fish.
I use a Cobb cooker and smoke the fillets for 45 minutes with some Cherry wood chips.
It tastes divine and is a family favourite.
The smoking process is time intensive and sometimes I cook a second fillet for myself and just reheat in alfoil in the oven the next night.


I'm pretty boring with my steak and fish meals and just cook a cob of corn in the oven for 20 minutes.
I just spray the corn cob with canola spray and wrap in alfoil and then cook for about 20 minutes on 160c.
Simple, but filling, and like I said, I am time poor, but enjoy tasty, healthy meals.

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Desserts - 

I save and use my indulgence units for ice cream.

I tried these recently and they're pretty good and track well. 
I just weigh the tub and measure out half a tub and enjoy.
This keeps my indulgences around 1.5 indulgence units (100 calories is one indulgence unit).
        

And as the calories are advertised, it's really easy to calculate the food unit values for my indulgences.

Other great options that provide good 'bang for bucks' are the FroPro range.
Plus, these are already portioned out so it is easier to track, I just need to make sure I only eat one!
 

Their Salted Caramel is also really yummy, and tracks about 1.3 indulgences for 1/3 tub.


If you're on a budget, the Peter's range of Light and Cream is also good value and yummy.


Just remember to weigh / measure and track all food, ESPECIALLY indulgences.

So there you go...
My strategy on creating my own meal plans on the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet.

As you can see, it really is limitless on how you can freestyle and create your own meal plans.
Many people mix up freestyling and follow the recipes in the program, and of course many people just follow the set meal plans,.

It Really is up to YOU, but as I said, the key is to make this a lifestyle change, and not a diet.

Make this change SUSTAINABLE and you will have success.

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Join us in my Facebook Group to share your journey.

Come on and join my private Facebook Group (only members can see what you post). 

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New Video - My strategies for getting back on track after a weight gain - Link


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Join us at my Facebook motivation and support group (Private) 
 
Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthJourneyOzCommunity/
We now have over 2,800 members!

I'd love to hear about your health journey, so come on and join my private Facebook Group (only members can see what you post). 
There are now over 2,800 members in this group and we would love to hear from you!


More about Terry and his media appearances and interviews - Link 



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