An Ideal 1200cal/day meal plan, with food we like.

My Dinner: A roti, 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup dal, 1/4th cup fish curry.

This post is totally dedicated to my childhood friend who is still one of my best friend, Binni. We are friends since we were in class 3. I still remember the day she came in to our class. Bakht apa, one of our teacher introduced her to us. She was such a pretty little girl from Libya. I mean Bangladeshi but they just came from Libya after living there for a long time.
She was one of the smartest girl I have ever seen. No matter how much fun stuff we used to do we never saw a bit of wrinkle or any kind of spots in her school dress. Her hair was always neat & tidy. It's still a wonder how she always kept her that way. Now my friend wrote me that she needs some help loosing her last few stubborn pound.
After analyzing her height & weight & her weight loss goal I came up with the result that she has a daily calorie requirement of 1906/day.( I am considering her as moderately active person, who exercises at least 4-5 times a week). To loose 1 lb a week she will have to be 500 calorie deficient each day. So, she has net 1400 calories she can take each day. So, I came up with a meal plan which includes 1400 cal/day. Any one of you can use this as a template. I know, in Bangladesh it is hard to count the calories as not all of them has their calorie counts written on the back of the food packet. But now a days you can get everything in the Gulshan market. So, until you reach that goal weight try to eat the food you know the calorie count or buy the foods that has nutrition value written in it.
Here is a meal plan, For Binni or any one of you who is in same need.

Start your morning with a glass full of warm water with a half lime squeezed in it & 1 tsp full of honey stirred, to sweeten.

Breakfast is a must. Buy a box of cereal that has nutrition fact written in it. I use one that is multi grain. Look at the serving size. It says, 1/3 rd cup=one serving or some of them may say 1 cup=1 serving, then they total calorie count will be written underneath. As eg. my cereal has 1/3rd cup= 1 serving & total calorie count is 110 calorie & with a cup of skim milk, it is 150calorie. so I take just 1/4th cup of milk, to reduce the calorie count & add some berries like strawberry or blue berry, which is very low in calorie count but very good source of antioxidant.
If berries are not available you can use banana too. But, be watch full with the banana. A standard size banana has 110 cals. so you can chop half of the banana or a spoon full of raisin to make the cereal a little tastier. Chopped date in the cereal is a good option too. An average size date has 5 calories in it. you also can soak some almond over night & chop it in the morning & eat with the cereal. Around 5 almonds will have 25 calories. So, that way you take-

BREAKFAST:

1 serving of cereal with 1/4th cup of skim milk- 140 cals
1/2 q banana chopped= 55 cals
5 almonds chopped = 25 cals
one water poached or boiled egg=70 cals. ( I avoid using oil to make egg, to avoid some unnecessary cals)
Another tip is, avoid peeling food as much as you can, as they contain essential nutrient or if not can add a lot of fiber, Average person needs 25 gms of fiber each day. Also as fibers are not easy to digest, the help burning fat also. So, do not peel your almond, apple or cucumber next time you eat it.
So, in the above plan you just had only 290 calories.

Mid morning Lunch:

1 Apple or 1/2 of your morning banana , An average size apple contains 80 calories. & 1/2 of your banana contains 55 calories.

Lunch:

1 whole cucumber- slices with peel ( choose the young one) sprinkle some rock salt or beet lobon & some chili powder. You can use two whole cucumber also as an average size cucumber has only 35 calories and they are very good for loosing weight.You can also use 1 tomato, with some lemon juice over your cucumber & tomato mix. One tomato also has same amount of calories, ie 35 cals.

2 slices of whole wheat bread ( 11o calories per bread) with some chicken mix. ( Boil chicken breast, tear it up into fine threads, mix with light mayonnaise, onion, green chili & cilantro or dhania pata, sprinkle some salt & pepper. Use light mayonnaise, which has fewer calories). Average sized chicken breast has 200 calories. 1 tbsp of light mayo has 35 calories. So assuming you made the above mixture with one piece of chicken breast & 3 tbsp of light mayo, & 1 small onion, 1 green chili, salt & pepper) the whole mixture will have around 350 to 400 calories. If you use just 1/4 the portion of the above mixture for your lunch to make the sandwich, it will add hardly 100 calories. Be careful about choosing bread, some of the bread has 220 cals in one slice. In that case just use one slice & make an open faced sandwich.

500 ml of ice water with lemon round floating in it-0 calories!!!!!!!!!

So your lunch was total of 70+220+100=390/ 400 to round up. Believe me you will be full like anything.

Evening snack:

Take cup of green tea with honey & a cup of jumbura/ grape fruit. very good for weight loss. but I know grape fruit is not available in Bangladesh but jumbura is.

Option 2: A small pack of cookies. I know one brand is available in Bangladesh in Agora or any good departmental store, the white & blue packet. the box or tin comes with prepacked biscuit which is 110 cal per small pack.

option 3: Now a days the chicken stock, beef stock cubes are available in the market, just put 2 cubes in 4 cups of water put few ginger pieces & 1 small onion cut into 4 pieces, let it come into a rolling boil, once the soup comes into boil put some cauliflower florets, cut carrot, papaya or any vegetable just handful, cover & turn off the heat. Let it sit there for couple of minutes until the vegetables r little tender but yet crispy. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, lemon juice as needed.

whatever you choose, if you like a heavy dinner, limit your calorie here for the big dinner. try to fit your evening snacks to less than hundred calories.

Dinner:

1 cup of rice-200 cals.
1 piece of chicken leg cooked=80 cals.
1/2 a cup of dal-40 cals. ( try cooking the dal with minimal amount of oil)
1/2 a cup of mixed vegetable curry- 50 cals.
Total=370.

Drink a cup of decaffeinated green tea or just a glass full of plain water with lemon rind.

Grand Total: 290+80+400+100+370=1240. so, we made it very nicely. The extra 40 calories you might have burnt already taking stairs in your office. And for Binni, remember you can take 1400 calories/ day to loose 1lb/week.

Enjoy!