{"id":47832,"date":"2016-02-24T11:15:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T16:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=47832"},"modified":"2021-11-18T11:14:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T16:14:08","slug":"superfood-swap-diet-my-diet-is-better-than-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/superfood-swap-diet-my-diet-is-better-than-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"My Diet Is Better Than Yours: What Is The Superfood Swap Diet?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My
Photos courtesy of Dawn Jackson Blatner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’ve got it all figured out. The key to losing weight: Control your cravings. Right?<\/p>\n

Not so fast. Dawn Jackson Blatner<\/a>, RDN, thinks we\u2019ve got it all wrong. Instead of steering clear of bad-for-you food, she believes you should embrace our cravings \u2014 just do it with healthier ingredients. The Chicago-based nutritionist recently proved her approach is effective, too. She beat out six other celebrity weight loss experts<\/a>\u00a0to nab the crown on ABC\u2019s My Diet is Better Than Yours<\/em>. Using her Superfood Swap Diet, Blatner helped contestant Jasmin Queen lose 26.5 percent of her body weight, dropping 53 pounds total over the course of the show.<\/p>\n

“If you\u2019re not losing weight, your portions may be too big. Keep tweaking them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How the Superfood Swap Diet Works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Superfood Swap Diet is based on an approach Blatner has honed over 20-years of nutrition counseling and involves three simple steps: 1) Identify what you want to eat, 2) Balance it in the right ratios<\/a> on your plate, and 3) Swap in good ingredients. That\u2019s it. No more hours spent weighing food or memorizing cumbersome lists of no-no foods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sick of people thinking that they had to eat super healthy, boring food to lose weight,\u201d says Blatner. Instead of eating the same veggie stir-fry or dry chicken breast<\/a> every day, she teaches her clients that weight loss can be fun. \u201cIt\u2019s all about leaning in to what you crave. The only catch is, I\u2019d like you to do it with superfoods,\u201d she says. That means swapping a white English muffin for a sprouted whole grain one, or making mac and cheese<\/a> with real cheese, cauliflower and brown rice pasta instead of reaching for the boxed variety.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> 12 Things Nobody Told Me About Losing Weight<\/a><\/p>\n

Why This Diet Is More Than Just Hype<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While there are no fancy rules, the Superfood Swap Diet works because it encourages long-term habit changes. According to Blatner, depriving yourself of certain foods will lead to a cycle of restricting and binging<\/a> and ultimately, you\u2019ll regain the weight<\/a>. Instead, she eliminates all the \u2018should\u2019s\u201d and \u201ccan\u2019t have\u2019s\u201d associated with most weight loss plans. \u201cI believe the magic is in the word \u2018want\u2019 because most of the time diets are about what you should do and what you have to do,\u201d says Blatner. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to become a mini-me of whoever the author is [to lose weight].\u201d The plan is customized to you.<\/p>\n

Mindset is also critical to Blatner\u2019s plan. For example, she and Jasmin signed a contract at the start, which included provisions like no negative self-talk<\/a>, no comparing to other contestants, and no emotional freak-outs over the scale. (Blatner encourages you to think of that number on the scale as just a scientific data point). \u201cShe understood I was there for way more than just eating less calories,\u201d says Blatner.<\/p>\n

As a result, Blatner says you\u2019ll lose weight in a healthy way while potentially decreasing your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease<\/a>. And, hey, for the first time, you might even enjoy the process, too.<\/p>\n

How to Start Your Superfood Swap Diet<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ready to get your own reality TV-worthy results? Blatner offers these five tips to get you started.<\/p>\n

1. Balance your wants.
\n<\/strong>This is the most important step. \u201cGet in touch with what you want and get it into the right ratios on your plate,\u201d says Blatner. Her general rule of thumb: Fill approximately a quarter of your plate with protein (here\u2019s what 25 grams of protein looks like<\/a>) and a quarter with whole grains like quinoa or brown rice. The remaining half of your plate should be filled with vegetables. \u201cBut not the same boring salad every day,\u201d says Blatner. \u201cMake sure you\u2019re having a good time with them and it\u2019s not just drudgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Keep tweaking.
\n<\/strong>Blather doesn\u2019t have hard and fast rules for a reason. \u201cI have no idea how to feed your body. You do,\u201d she says. You\u2019ll start to develop what Blatner calls visual wisdom \u2014 the ability to eyeball your portions. If you\u2019re not losing weight, your portions may be too big. Keep tweaking them.<\/p>\n

3. Cut the CRAP.
\n<\/strong>Blather wants you to cut the crap from your kitchen \u2014 C<\/strong>hemicals you can\u2019t pronounce or don\u2019t use in your own kitchen, R<\/strong>efined sugars and flours, A<\/strong>rtificial sweeteners, flavors and colors, P<\/strong>reservatives. \u201cIf you use this to read ingredients and you get rid of things that have a lot of CRAP, <\/em>generally, you\u2019re going to start eating a healthier diet,\u201d says Blatner.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> How Bad Is Your Food from 1 to 10? Try This Food Calculator<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Mean it when you eat it.
\n<\/strong>That means sitting in a chair at a table and using a plate. No more eating out of takeout containers or on the run. \u201cUse a table, plate and chair so you\u2019re more mindful when you eat<\/a>,\u201d says Blatner.<\/p>\n

5. Eat functional snacks.
\n<\/strong>\u201cA lot of snack companies promote healthy versions of snacks, but none of these things are filling people up to get them from one meal to the next,\u201d says Blatner. Her advice? Have a solid produce-and-protein snack like cherry tomatoes and string cheese or an apple and almonds. Good-bye, 100-calorie pack.<\/p>\n

Most importantly: \u201cDon\u2019t make this hard. Don\u2019t make this a struggle,\u201d she says. \u201cJust enjoy yourself when you\u2019re making these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On ABC\u2019s My Diet is Better Than Yours, Dawn Jackson Blatner\u2019s nabbed first place with her Superfood Swap Diet. Here\u2019s the scoop \u2014 and how you can try it yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7,18],"tags":[291,41,51,341,343,285],"class_list":["post-47832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","category-weight-loss","tag-clean-eating","tag-diets","tag-food-choices","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2exercise","tag-weight-loss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}