Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Deal-A-Meal Poster Tutorial

May 11, 2018

Okay, so this is the day we make this poster. A reader asked about this poster, and in particular the cards you “deal”, so I thought it was time to revisit. The original post goes all the way back to 2011 and, sad to say, I do not have the poster or cards anymore. However, it is really easy to make and so we’ll just have a little craft project today. I will link to info where applicable.

First here’s all the materials you’ll need:

Poster board – I originally used the really large size, but the smaller size would work equally well.

Construction paper or colored card stock (in the picture it’s origami paper because that’s all I have right now)

Blank Journaling Cards from Project Life (in the second pic above) – you could also use white index cards

Markers and/or pens

Tape or photo tape – I used packing tape so the pockets would stay on well and hold up to use.

Now, let’s put it all together.

Cut the construction paper into the pockets that will hold the cards. Here’s the colors, their corresponding nutritional elements, and the calorie count per serving each card will represent. All of which I wrote on each pocket:

Red – Protein – 75 calories

Brown – Starch – 80 calories

Blue – Dairy – 90 calories

Green – Vegetables – 25 calories

Pink – Fruits – 60 calories

Yellow – Fat – 45

Here’s where I deviated from the original – I did not use the joker or freebie card. I did make a pocket for water cards to track water intake and the last pocket is the one that will hold all the cards used during the day. So, 8 pockets in all.

After cutting the pockets so that the cards will fit in them (you will need to measure cards and pockets to make sure everything fits), affix them however you wish to the poster board. Like I said, I used packing tape, but use whatever you have.

Now, for the cards. It’s easy, but time consuming. On the first card, which I kept in the pocket, is a list of various foods and the serving size for the calorie amount per card. On the other cards, the ones I’ll actually use, I only color the top and bottom. I also only wrote down what I knew I’d be eating. I don’t eat quinoa or chia seeds so you will not find those on the cards, but I do eat wheat and white bread so I put those down. I know the original Deal-A-Meal was based on food exchanges so I’m sure there is a lot of info online related to that.

I used different sources for the food list:

https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate

My Richard Simmons Food Mover (yeah, I have one of those too) info booklets

First Place 4 Health materials

Here are the semi-finished cards. Yours will look different and you can put as much or as little info on the card that you like.

The last thing is how many cards will you use in a day? Well, that depends on how many calories you eat per day. Here’s where to find that information on the Deal-A-Meal page (it is simply too much to write out here):
http://members.tripod.com/sue_in_nj/rich.htm.

I will break down what a 1600 calorie a day meal plan would look like (this is my level by the way) in cards that you would deal at the beginning of the day:

Starch – 6 cards

Protein – 6 cards

Vegetable – 6 cards

Fruit – 4 cards

Fat – 3 cards

Dairy – 2 cards

So that’s how many cards you need in each of the pockets for a 1600 calorie per day meal plan.

Here’s how it goes – every time you eat a serving of food you move the appropriate card(s) over to the used cards pocket and the remaining cards are what you have left to eat for the day. When the cards are used up, you are done eating for the day. I love this idea because it gives me the appropriate amount of food and nutrients my body needs every day to be healthy. I need to get back into this because I know that lately I’ve not been getting what I need in the food department. :-(

Anywho – I hope that helps to explain how I made the poster and how the system works. You can click on any of the pictures for a closer look too if that helps. Good luck to you all! And thank you Richard Simmons for all the help and love you have given us over the years.

9 comments
Comments

On June 27, 2020 at 4:55 PM, Rhonda said:

Thank you for posting this! My friend and I will be copying , modifying and using this to be healthier.

On July 3, 2020 at 9:55 PM, java_queen said:

You're welcome! Glad I could help in some small way and good luck with your health goals. :-)

On June 25, 2021 at 7:53 PM, gina said:

how do I get the foods that where listed on cards and watch counts as a serving size?

On July 1, 2021 at 6:56 AM, java_queen said:

Hi - Well looks like the link in that post is not valid anymore - sorry about that. Here's the current website - www.myplate.gov. Go to the Eat Healthy section and there will be information for all the food groups including serving size. Also, if you google serving sizes for foods there will be oodles of sites that you can get that information from as well. I used the Deal A Meal/Food Mover books for that information but it's readily available on the internet. Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by!

On August 24, 2022 at 8:20 AM, Teresa said:

BTW I forgot to mention the best part about using the cards. Some days I just didn't do well. I messed up. But I learned a valuable lesson from them: His mercies are new every morning. In other words, Every day I get to start out with a whole new set of cards. I don't have to punish myself for failing one day by not getting to eat everything on every card I allow myself per day. I start fresh. I get the same cards every day ...no matter what! Woo hoo!

On August 29, 2022 at 1:28 PM, java_queen said:

Teresa - I love this! I'm going to write this down somewhere for me to remember too. Thank you and I'm glad the cards are working for you!! - Alice

On June 24, 2023 at 8:37 AM, Dawn said:

I’m looking for what is on the freebie card and the cards used for 1200 & 1400 calories

On July 25, 2024 at 8:02 AM, Miss Miss anna crystal said:

wow so good what was on the free card

On September 17, 2024 at 5:33 PM, java_queen said:

Thanks! Here's a link to the update I did earlier this year - hope this helps! http://mom28kids.com/2023/07/answering-a-question/

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