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Adjusting the Meal Plan (November 2012)

Our One Day Meal Plan may not exactly fit your individual needs, so we’ve provided some ideas for how to adjust carbohydrates and calories below.

For Less Carbohydrate…

Your healthcare provider may ask you to limit carbohydrates more than our meal plan suggests. This means you should cut back on the carbohydrate foods that you eat throughout the day. To keep your calorie intake about the same, substitute sources of lean protein or healthy fats in their place. Here’s an example:

To lower carbohydrate intake for the day and keep calories about the same (make carbohydrates about 40% of calories), make the following adjustments to our original meal plan:

• At breakfast, mix just 1 tablespoon of dried cranberries into your oatmeal and add another tablespoon of dry roasted almonds.
• At lunch, add another teaspoon of olive oil when roasting your sweet potatoes and decrease the amount of garbanzo beans on your salad to 1/4 cup.
• Decrease the amount of hummus in your afternoon snack to 3 tablespoons.
• At dinner, have an extra ounce of turkey but skip the dinner roll and decrease the amount of stuffing to 1/3 cup.
• For your night time snack, add another teaspoon of natural peanut butter.

To Adjust Calories…

Depending on whether you are trying to lose, gain, or maintain your weight, you may have different calorie needs as well. Here are some ideas for adjusting the calories in our One Day Meal Plan.

To cut about 200 calories:

• Have have 1/2 cup of oatmeal at breakfast instead of 3/4 cup. (This saves about 40 calories.)
• Use half the amount of hummus (2 tablespoons) when dipping your carrots and celery for your afternoon snack. (This saves about 70 calories.)
• At dinner, skip the whole wheat roll with trans-free margarine. (This saves about 90 calories.)

To add about 200 calories:

• At breakfast, add a 6-ounce glass of 100% orange juice. (This adds about 80 calories.)
• At lunch, add 2 tablespoons of crumbled gorgonzola cheese to your salad. (This adds about 75 calories.)
• Add 4 whole wheat pita chips to your afternoon snack. Have them with your veggies and hummus. (This adds about 45 calories.)

*Note: Our meal plans are developed based on the American Diabetes Association’s general nutrition guidelines. However, nutritional needs can vary from person to person. Your healthcare team can help you set up a meal plan that works for you and will help you meet your health goals.

Featured Cookbook

The Family Classics Cookbook

This book features over 140 tasty recipes plus other tips and techniques from our Diabetes Forecast Magazine. For the new or aspiring chef, there is a section called Cooking 101, featuring tips and tricks for developing your kitchen skills.