Frugal Abundance Exchange Plan For Weight Management
(Formally titled Frugal Fat Loss)
This is the plan I’ve been using to lose weight (currently down 55-pounds). The PDF booklet is 43 pages, explains how the diet works, lists hundreds of foods and their exchanges, and gives you 22 food plans from which to choose. Click on the link or picture above to download it for free.
Food Exchanges have been around for many years. Weight Watchers® used exchanges up until 1997. Joanna Lund’s Healthy Exchanges® and a Christian program called First Place® use food exchanges. Even Richard Simmon’s Deal-A-Meal® from the 1980’s used exchanges. Food Exchanges are not New and Improved! They are not based upon Cutting-Edge Scientific Breakthroughs! Food exchanges are time-tested and family-friendly. They have been used by literally millions of people since the 1950’s, to successfully lose weight. They offer a nutritious, practical and budget-friendly way to manage your diet so you can achieve a healthy weight and a healthier body. I like them because they are easier than counting calories, fat, protein, cholesterol and carbohydrates. Plus they are easily customized to my itty-bitty budget. There are no joining fees, no public weigh-in’s, no fancy, expensive specialty foods. You don’t get a bonus gift for Ordering Now! It’s simple–just me, the plan, and a notebook to keep track of what I eat. How much or how little I spend on food is up to me, or you, if you choose to use it.
The document is still in it’s BETA stage. If you see typo’s, mistakes, are able to offer constructive criticism, or simply share your opinion on the plan, please let me know. I really need feedback on it to make it as useful as I can.
Basic Balanced Diet Food Plans (Printable PDF’s)
High Carbohydrate Food Plans (Printable PDF’s)
High Protein Food Plan Plans (Printable PDF’s)
Dairy-Free Food Plans
Coming Soon
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. — Philippians 4:13
11 Responses to “Frugal Abundance Exchange Plan Diet”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I look forward to reading through it.
You seem to be doing wonderfully!
Love ya sis!
Hey Honey, Thanks 🙂 I’m trying so hard. Every morning I wake up and pray for the strength to keep trying for another day. It’s so much work to keep doing it every day when I want to quit a dozen times a day. And the exercise, good grief, I want to quit it every morning too, but I just keep trying. It’s only God’s grace that has gotten me this far, and I still have so much farther to go. Thanks for the encouragement. I sorely need it.
If you do manage to read through it, let me know what you think, and it’s okay to be honest. I may have gotten some things wrong, or been too strongly opinionated in some areas. I pray while I write, but I still get my own ego in these things sometimes. And when I do, it’s good to have it brought to my attention.
Love you too Mel 🙂 Huggles
Maggie, I was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic in August 1971, after having been in a diabetic keto acidosis coma for a week. I was put on the exchange diet that was the “official” diabetic eating regime at that time. Some people freak out when you try to explain the plan to them but it’s really quite simple. Think of a large circle divided into different “pie shaped” wedges. The wedges won’t be equal in size. Some will be large and some will be medium, some will be small, and some will look miniscule. Carbohydrates will have the largest wedge. Each carb wedge will be further divided into sections that the total will equal how many carbs is your allotment for that day. The next largest sized wedge is usually protein, and that will also be divided into the amount of protein exchanges (number of servings) allowed for that day. And fat is almost always the “skinniest” wedge with usually 3 fat exchanges allowed per day.
The idea of exchange portions is that there are many food groups (fruit, for example, a carb) if you have 1/2 grapefruit planned for breakfast but there are none in the fridge, instead you can have 1/2 cup unsweetened orange juice or 1/2 of a small banana. Each of these items are more or less equal in carbs and calories as the other ones. Therefore you can eat any item in the fruit list (paying attention to 2 things–it must be free of added sugar and must be the same carb and calorie amount — as it is stated in the exchange list).
If you use commercially canned fruit labeled “lite” may not be packed in water, but in unsweetened fruit juice (usually pear); then there’s fruit packed in extra light syrup, and last but not least is the fruit packed in heavy syrup. What to do?
First, read the label. I can .tell you up front that the fruit packed in heavy is the first can to return to the supermarket shelf!
For other two, read and compare the labels and if the calorie and carb numbers are very close in size,
it’s usually safe for you to eat it. A word of caution, BE TOTALLY SURE THAT YOU ARE NOT GETTING FRUIT FLAVOR DRINK INSTEAD OF REAL JUICE. THE DRINK MAY BRAG THAT IT CONTAINS 10% REAL FRUIT JUICE, BUT GIVEN THAT THE PRICES OF THE REAL STUFF AND THE FAKE COST ABOUT THE SAME IN THIS DAY AND TIME, BESURE TO PICK THE 100% STUFF AND NOT THE 10% WHATEVER IS IN THERE. LOTS OF CHEMICALS THAT ONLY A CHEMIST COULD PRONOUNCE AND NO NUTRITION, BUT LOTS OF CALORIES. SPEND YOUR CALORIE $ ON WHAT IS THE MOST NUTRITIOUS AND NOT SOME WITCH’S BREW CONTAINING EYE OF GNUT AND SLUG BUTTER.
‘Nough said?
Frankie
Hey Frankie, thanks for sharing your experience. That’s how we learn. 🙂 You make excellent points about the canned fruit and using 100% fruit juice. I don’t want to waste my exchanges on sugar, I’d rather get real fruit 🙂
A carb focused diet is not appropriate for diabetes. I am also a diabetic. The intent and idea of helping is good, but a diet that is half or more carbs is a nightmare. The 1400 “high protein” diet that Maggie has here is much more appropriate, although I think it needs more fat, just my opinion. 🙂 This is the best website I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Thanks Dodie. That’s the beauty of this plan. You can adapt it however you like so it’s custom designed to meet your needs specifically.
Hi Maggie: THANK YOU!!!! Back in 1992- 94 I lost 80lbs on the old exchange WW plan. Then they changed it to points. Between the math of it and the whole taking nutrition out of it (measuring, knowing exactly what and how much you can have) – I gained ALL my weight back and then some. I have tried ALL the other diets and gained weight b/c there aren’t any strictly defined perimeters. I mean if you tell me I can eat as much bacon as I want – I am gonna do it and I can eat A LOT of bacon! So – I am SO in infinite love and gratitude to you for laying out all of this in the booklet! I have started back today and feel SO much better already. I found an app to let me count my exchanges (it’s called Food Tracker Pro I think) and you put in your food goals (I used your charts on the daily exchange amounts) and then off you go. I can even have my pizza date night with my boyfriend with this. You have NO idea how happy I am to be back in control of my eating and knowing this works.
I do have a question though. I remember there were some leeway on optional exchanges – like if you had a party or holidays to attend you could use extra exchanges. Do you know what that would be? I am using the basic balanced plan with 1800 calories to start. Or do you suggest doing something like – plug in the number of exchanges for the 1500 calorie plan and then optional exchanges would be going up to the 1800. Example – my daily bread exchange under 1500 would be 5 but I can go up to 7 if I need to b/c I am going out to a party and still be able to stay within the plan? Does that make sense? I just can’t remember what the “optional” extras were…. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Michele
I agree totally!! Had the same experience. I also did the ketogenic diet, and as soon as I stopped, all the weight came back. I mean, 13 pounds in 2 days, and it just kept coming. Anyway, I am so grateful to find this site tonight, a definite answer to prayer. I do believe that God cares about the things that bother us, and I was asking for help. I think I found it. Is there a facebook group associated with this page?
I don’t have a Facebook page for this plan, no. I actually don’t understand social media very well so it’s just not in my skill set.
This is such a wonderful program. I used this when I needed to change my calorie level from a different weight loss program. One thing that is nice about this one is that you can incorporated other diabetic resources that are available either through ADA (American Diabetic Association) or American Dietetic Association.
Looking forward to your dairy FREE plans!!! I Have a hard time figuring how to exchange for the diary.