My Plan, and I do have a plan

I am basing my Healthy Eating Plan on the USDA's MyPyramid guidelines. I chose to start with the 2,000-calorie plan for a woman my age. If I start to lose an appropriate amount of weight (1 to 5 pounds per week) on this plan, I will stick with it until I stop losing weight or until the amount of weight I lose each week drops significantly.

On this plan, the daily recommended amount for each food group is:

Grains: 6 ounces
Fruits: 2 cups
Milk: 3 cups
Meat/Beans: 5.5 ounces
Vegetables: 2.5 cups -- The vegetable category also has weekly recommendations for each type of vegetable:     Dark green Veggies: 3 cups
                      Orange Veggies: 2 cups
                      Dry beans & peas: 3 cups
                      Starchy Veggies: 3 cups
                      Other Veggies: 6.5 cups

This plan also allows for 6 teaspoons of oil a day and an extra 265 calories for solid fats and sugars.


My plan also is to include as many of the "super foods" in my diet. There are several resources, books, websites, etc. out there that have identified a basic list of highly nutritional foods.

I drink iced tea, but I'm staying away from coffee. Mostly because I prefer coffee loaded down with creamer, and that's not too healthy.


Additionally, I want to add exercise to my lifestyle, but I haven't worked that in, yet. I realize the importance of exercise, but I'm taking this one step at a time.