Once
the system determines your daily caloric expenditure your caloric
requirements will be prescribed according to your nutritional goals and
needs. Since this is not a calorie counting plan, the system will set
your macronutrient distribution (percent distribution of calories from
carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and translate the percent
distribution to number of servings allowed from all food groups. For
example, you may be assigned 5 freebies of G&S for your meal
plan. So if you ate one cup of oatmeal at breakfast (1/2 cup is one
serving, thus you have eaten 2 freebies of G&S) then you will
have 3 freebies left of G&S to eat later in the day. When you
have your consultation, these numbers may be altered by your Coach.
Since the serving sizes within each food group provide the same amounts of macronutrients and calories, you have many food choices to eat from and you can trade within each food group so you don’t have to always keep eating the same foods. For instance, on Monday you could eat a cup and half of cereal which will counts as 2 G&S but on Tuesday you decided not to have cereal so you will trade your 2 G&S for 2 slices of toast. You decide what to eat from each food group as long as you keep the serving sizes and freebies in check.
If you go over the freebies provided in one of your food groups, you can then eat less on another day to retain your balance. This way you can take the guilt out of eating. Each number of freebies can be used on a daily basis but you can flex your freebies throughout a week-long period. For example, say you attended a party where you consumed 8 servings of G&S and you were only supposed to eat 6, then you could make up for it by eating only 5 servings of G&S for the next two days to repair the average. By the end of the week you will have averaged your 6 freebies of G&S per day. You can decide which day of the week is day one and which is day seven.
You will be assigned servings from G&S, fruit, NFM or 1% milk, NSV, VLM and fats. This does not mean that you cannot have 2% milk, whole milk (WM) or higher fat meats (LM, MFM, HFM), but if you do then some of your fats freebies will be deducted because these items are higher in fat. The idea is that if you choose to consume non-fat milk products and very lean meats then your fat freebies will not be used on saturated fats and you can save them for heart-healthy fats (see below).
Food Groups and Fat Deductions
-Food Group Fat deductions from your total fat freebies
-2% Milk For 1 serving of 2% M, 1 fat freebie is deducted.
-Whole Milk (WM) For 1 serving of WM, 1.5 fat freebies are deducted.
-Lean Meat (LM) For 2.5 servings of LM, 1 freebie is deducted
-Medium-Fat Meat (MFM) For 1 serving of MFM, 1 fat freebie is deducted
-High Fat Meat (HFM) For 1 serving of HFM, 1.5 fat freebies are deducted