This is a meal plan for one full day of nothing but indulgent desserts. Have dessert for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner! This post details a 1,300-calorie meal plan for one day where each meal is a dessert.
Sounds crazy? Well it is, because we would never put this sequence of meals into an actual meal plan. It has way too much sugar for a day’s consumption and the nutritional balance does not follow Australian Dietary Guidelines for macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients.
So, why are we posting it? Our purpose is to show that, when you count your calories and make a thoughtful plan, it is possible to eat whatever you want yet still maintain a calorie deficit. We want to illustrate that you can lose weight whilst eating nothing but indulgent treats like ice-cream, bread pudding and rum cocktails.
A sweet dessert diet is something we most certainly do not recommend, but it does show how something we do recommend (counting calories and making a meal plan) works in practice.
The truth about weight management is that you do not need a dietician or nutritionist or personal trainer or psychic or wizard to tell you what to eat. You can make your own mind up about what to eat and when to eat it, yet still control how much of a calorie deficit you maintain. The key is to know, record and plan your daily calorie intake.
But don’t let your reluctance to follow somebody else’s plan get in the way of your goals. You can take control right now and start planning and counting calories on your own.
In that spirit of seizing the initiative and making your own life and meal choices, read on to see what an independent-minded dessert-obsessed adult might plan to eat daily to lose weight.
1,300 calories is not a lot. In the clear majority of cases, anyone would lose weight quickly if they stuck to a 1,300-calorie meal plan for a few weeks. For comparison, many fast-food single serve meals easily top that total. One Hungry Jack’s Ultimate Double Whopper with a side of Large Chips (no drink) contains a massive 1,668 calories!
The sky will not cave in if you do happen to follow this plan for one day, but we urge you not to make an actual go of it. That said, it would be a good idea to add a couple of these desserts to your weekly meal plan, if they are spaced out uniformly in a balanced sequence amongst a variety of other meals. Each of the desserts has nutritional merit and will be a good addition to a healthy balanced diet. Life is too short to skip dessert!
Evening Drink: One small glass of pre-mixed Rum and Cola (100 calories)
Water: 2 litres of water, taken throughout the day
The Recipes:
These everyday recipes contain common ingredients sourced affordably from local supermarkets.
Creamy Fruit Salad
This is an indulgent fruit salad which plays upon the contrast of tart blueberries and pineapple and sweet creamy banana and thickened cream. For best results, keep some of the fruit in the fridge overnight so that you can enjoy the chilling pop of grapes and watermelon in the morning. Feel free to serve this with hot black coffee (no sugar). You won’t need milk or sugar in your coffee with all this sweet creaminess going on!
Ingredients:
1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 apple, cut into cubes
¼ cup cubed watermelon
3 halved strawberries
5 whole grapes
¼ cup cubed pineapple
½ cup whole blueberries
50ml low-fat thickened cream
Directions:
Mix everything in a bowl and serve.
Banana Bread
You could probably get away with buying a slice from a café (check to see their nutrition information if available!), just remember not to spread any butter on it. Alternatively, have some fun in the kitchen and make a whole loaf so that the rest of the family can enjoy some. This is a simple, basic recipe which will yield 12 slices.
Combine flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl and mix well.
Combine remaining ingredients in a different bowl and mix well.
Fold in contents of the first bowl. Add a little water if mixture is too dry to pour.
Pour mixture into a loaf tin and place in hot oven.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool before serving.
Banana Split
This is not the same banana split you get from your local ice-cream sundae purveyor but it still hits the right indulgent spot. Yes, you are eating a banana split for lunch and yes, it is sweet but no it does not have any ice-cream or chocolate sauce in it. This is the banana split for people who want the sensation of eating dessert without overloading on refined sugar and fat.
Ingredients:
1 banana, peeled and split lengthways down the middle
4 sliced strawberries
180g low-fat Greek yoghurt
¼ cup nutty granola
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:
Place split banana in a bowl with curved ends facing up.
Layer on remaining ingredients.
Serve.
Frozen Peach Swirl
Think about this recipe as a guide to making guilt-free frozen desserts for summer. It is a good alternative to ice-cream for when the kids ask you for golden gaytime and paddle pops. No artificial flavours or colourings, yet still fun and treat-worthy. Simply change the fruit for variations – pretty much anything works!
The measurements below are for a single-serve, so just double everything for two, and so on.
Ingredients:
70ml low-fat Greek yoghurt
¼ cup tinned peach slices, drained
Small pinch cinnamon
One drop vanilla essence
Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender.
Place mixture in a freezer-safe container and freeze overnight.
Serve as a scoop for maximum pleasure.
Cottage Style Bread Pudding
Nothing says stodgy, rib-sticking yum like a good bread pudding. For some people, there simply is no other pudding but bread pudding. Bread pudding is one of those homely solid staples that never makes it into the fad-frenzied modern food blogosphere, yet it is unlikely to ever disappear from the tables of millions of households. Too many childhood memories of Mum’s go-to dessert. Besides, what else are you going to do with your stale bread? This recipe makes four servings.
Ingredients:
2 ½ tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups low-fat milk
4 slices bread, torn to small pieces
½ cup raisins
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Place bread and raisins in an oven-proof bowl.
Mix remaining ingredients well in a separate bowl.
Pour mixture into the oven-proof bowl and stir well, ensuring that the raisins are evenly distributed.
Bake for 35 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
Serve whilst warm, but not hot!
Evening Drink
Yes, there is an alcoholic beverage in this plan. You will never have an alcoholic beverage recommended to you by any health professional in a weight-loss meal plan. The reality, however, is that people do drink and enjoy alcohol responsibly.
When you make your own food choices, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from planning and enjoying a drink in the secure knowledge that you are staying within your calorie plan and losing weight.
You do not have to have the rum and coke, but you can if you want to. The point is that, when you count your calories and plan, you are in control. Instead of the drink, you could have custard with your bread pudding, or perhaps a hot chocolate before bed instead.
There is no limit to what you can eat whilst still maintaining a calorie deficit and losing weight, if you measure, record and plan your meals. The above example is a full day of desserts with a combined calorie count of just 1,304 calories!
