Ninety percent of an individuals diet is made of less than 100 items.  If you take the time to go through the full food list and transfer just the foods you use a lot, into your personal food list, when you enter your daily consumption it is like having everything in one category.

Don't put everything you "might" use in the Personal Food List because this defeats it's purpose.  The foods you seldom or rarely use can still be entered from the full list.

2.   The early part of the diet is the hardest to figure out what to eat. We suggest you just go ahead and eat the way you think you should and don't worry about messing up.  You will learn quickly.  A good thing to do is come up with a consistent breakfast, snack, and lunch menu.  Use this menu every day for about a week.  After that, as you learn, you can gradually add variety.

3.   Eating 5 to 6 times a day is better than eating just 3 times a day.  However, the total quantity for the day should remain the same.

This practice keeps the stomach above the "hungry" level more of the time and allows it to "shrink."  When you are exposed to larger amounts of food you will feel full sooner.

This practice also allows the body to maintain more constant levels of blood sugar and other nutrients so it does not have to adjust to high peaks and valleys.  Remember, the total quantity and dietary balance don't change, just the number of times you consume the food.

4.   Learn what a "Portion" or "Serving" looks like.  To make estimating what you have eaten easier, Master Diet lists all of its foods in common full measures, i.e. cups, table spoons, ounces etc.  If you learn what a cup or half cup of green beans, corn, etc. looks like you will be able to accurately guess the amounts you have when you are away from home.  This is easy to learn to estimate amounts and it doesn't take long.

We suggest you get a good measuring cup and a 2-6 pound kitchen scale and measure things only when you are at home.  We don't want you to do this for a long time nor is it necessary.  Just measure everything at home for a week or so and pay particular attention to what the servings look like.  After about a week or so stop measuring except when you are not sure.  Then, check yourself every once in a while to keep your accuracy up.

5.   Use a Daily Log Sheet during the day to keep track of the food until you enter them into the computer.  You can print a Daily Log Sheet in the help section on this site, ordering pads from the Master Diet Store, or just using a plain sheet of paper.  The only thing you need to write down is the Quantity, Unit of Measure, and a description of the food.

Qty.  Unit      Description
   8      oz    1% milk
1.5      cu    Life Cereal
   2      ea.   Whole wheat toast

At the top of the Log in the help section or from the store is a place for the date and at the bottom of the Log is space to put your weight for that day and other information you are tracking, i.e. blood sugar, blood pressure, etc.

This log can act as a record if you like but once the information is added to the computer it becomes a permanent part of your personal record so you do not need to keep them.

The Daily Log Sheets are especially useful when you are away from home for several days and don't have access to a computer.  When you return, simply enter the data one day at a time by setting the date for the entry when you go to the entry section.  All of your records and charts will automatically be current.

Once you have learned the process and set up your personal food list, it only takes about five - six minutes a day to enter everything you need to enter.

I get up in the morning an weigh myself.   Then I eat a light breakfast which varies but is always similar.  i.e. Cereal, milk, toast.  Then, I don't eat again until noon at which time I usually have soup and a sandwich.  Then, mid-afternoon I have a snack which is usually some sort of fruit and cottage cheese.  For supper I have a large variety of meals to choose from all of which I have preplanned to include about the same fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.   After supper I enter my all of my foods for the day into the computer and see how I have done for the day.  At that point I can determine what type of snack I can have in the evening.

This routine allows a lot of variety and flexibility.  If I have a special function that makes it hard to stick to my diet and I go "over" one day I make adjustments over the next two days so it doesn't effect my diet or my routine very much.

You are dieting for health.  And, your mental and emotional health is important too, so RELAX..