Upside Down Days

I’m a HUUUGE fan of breakfast. You might have noticed – I talk about it a little bit. A few years back, I started upping my breakfast (sometimes having two a day) and gradually cutting back what I ate as the day goes on. I realized that once I stopped eating my biggest meal at the end of the day, I felt better, had more energy, less stomach pain, slept better, AND it helped with my weight loss.

Our culture has dictated that dinner be our biggest meal. Since we’re working or at school during the day, dinner is usually the hour we convene together. That has been the standard for, well, decades and it’s pretty much how all Americans eat. But think about how you expend your energy: for most people, we start moving as soon as we get up and slowly, slowly wind down towards the end of the day.

We refuel our cars at the start of the journey, not when we come home and park it in the garage. I didn’t come up with that analogy, and I wish I could remember where I heard it to give due credit – but nonetheless, it’s such a powerful image that I feel compelled to share it. So think about that: we need more fuel to go, and less as we slow down. It’s marvelously simple, but it takes a little bit of effort – in fact, it requires going completely against the grain of what we’re used to.

Picture an upside down triangle: spreading your calories out so you have more early on and tapering off towards the end of the day. This is the Upside Down Day. Summer is the perfect time to start practicing the Upside Down Day for many reasons. Typically in the winter months, we tend to crave starchier, heavier “comfort foods.” This isn’t so in summer, and many people find they’re satisfied with lighter meals in summer anyways. Also, with the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer, you can make a high VOLUME meal (read: looks really really big on your plate) out of produce with a little bit of protein and it will still be a very light meal, calorically speaking.

If you’re cooking for or eating with others, it doesn’t mean you have to make everyone else change their way of eating. Just select smaller portion sizes for yourself – if there are leftovers, then you have lunch ready for tomorrow!

If you eat out, choose a salad and something from the appetizer section. You’ll probably find that that is plenty of food!

One very important key to the Upside Down Day is you MUST eat enough throughout the day. This isn’t going to work if you come home at 5 pm ready to eat anything that isn’t nailed down. The greatest sabotage to eating this way is insufficient calories throughout the day.

If you work, pack a bag the night before with breakfast, lunch and ideally 2-3 snacks. 1 mid-morning, a 2nd if you eat a late lunch, and one to eat right as you’re heading home. Ideal snacks are fruit, vegetables, yogurt, ½ oz nuts or 1/2 Cliff or Odwalla bar. If you’re home during the day, aim for structure: rather than mindlessly grazing throughout the day, aim to eat a mini-meal every 3 hours. Have breakfast be the largest meal, and gradually taper off as you go. (See my video on a breakfast idea.)

And here’s one final hint: if you find yourself raiding the cupboards about 3-4 hours after dinner with a growling tummy: drink a glass of skim or 1% milk, or grab a piece of fruit and then…. Ready for this? GO TO BED. Sleep helps with weight loss too, remember?

I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.

Tags: calorie counting, metabolism, strategies