Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stripping Down a Plan

Stripping Down a Plan

I know everyone is sooooo excited about the 28 Day Challenge!!!  I know I am!   I will be publishing notes and posting them to the team.  To make sure that everyone has access to them, I will post them to Fabulous Fitness Facebook page and on my personal page.  I will also put these notes into my blogs on blogspot.com and Sparkpeople.com.  Additionally I will put links to those blogs on the Facebook pages and chat groups that I lead.
I’m sure you would like to know what you will be eating and some of you are new to clean eating.  In a nutshell, clean eating is eating foods that have not been processed.  As you clean up your nutrition you will be eliminating sugar, sugar substitutes, preservatives, additives and excess sodium.  Sea salt is totally clean, just watch your intake.
During the 28 Days, you will have to employ your best focus on your future goals to avoid the desire for immediate gratification.  Question every bite you take.  Is this a living whole food?  You should be able to answer yes to these questions . . .
  1.  Did it grow on a plant (tree, vine, bush, root, etc)?
  2. Did it walk, run, swim or fly?
  3. If I read this label out loud to a four year old, could I pronounce the words and explain what they are in nature?  For instance:  Peanut Butter.  If it is a clean peanut butter it will say the ingredients are PEANUTS!  No sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, no additives.
  4. If it comes in a box and has a barcode, it could still be clean if the ingredients say things like oats, flax, corn, wheat, water, etc.  There are a few bread items and crackers that are clean, just read the label.  If you can’t pronounce it, your body does not know what to do with it.

I’m not here to write a specialized plan for each of you.  I am here to teach you how to use these tools to meet your goals.  Each of these notes will discuss different aspects of how I use these programs to reach my goals.  We will be using Eat Clean Diet Recharged Cooler 1 and Cooler 2 plans.  The Eat Clean Recharged Family Meal Plan and The Gluten Free Plan will be used (all in the recharged book).  We will also be using the Eat Clean Diet Stripped menu plans.
I have been asked how the plans are different.  Here is the short answer and I will go into more detail in the next note.
Stripped = Purpose:  28 day plan to eliminate inflammation & bloating caused by dairy  and to help you drop those last 10 lbs.   No dairy, no bread or processed grains of any sort.  Lots of lean meats, green veggies, fresh fruit, berries, nuts and seeds and healthy fats.  Fabulous menu plans and recipes.
Recharged Cooler 1 = This plan is a two week plan to help get you ‘picture ready’ and to make your jeans fit a little looser in a short period.  This is the plan I use when I am travelling because the foods are simplistic and repetitive making it easy to batch cook and use leftovers up.  It is your no frills plan.  There are not ‘recipes’ on cooler one . . .it is Chicken breast, ½  sweet potato, green beans type menu plan.
Recharged Cooler 2 = This is a maintenance plan.  You will get some dairy and some bread products on the days we take menus from this plan.  Clean breads are either fresh baked breads that have all whole ingredients in them or you can purchase Ezekiel bread.  Ezekiel bread is found in the freezer section in the grocery store.
Recharged Family Meal Plan = Also a maintenance plan.  It has some family friendly recipes that follow all the clean eating guidelines.
Recharged Gluten-Free Meal Plan = Also a maintenance plan.  The menus look very similar to the menus in the stripped plan, except it does have dairy.
I hope this answers some questions you may have about the meal plans.  If you want to start doing some shopping to build your pantry and stock your freezer for next week, here is a list of things you may want to get.  (Organic is best, when you can afford it.  Grass fed beef it best, when you can afford it.  When you can’t afford it, just get the leanest best quality foods your money can buy.  Quality is important, but feeding you family is vital)

Lean Ground Beef
Flank Steak
Tuna (canned in water or in a pouch)
White Fish
Salmon
Chicken Breast
Bison (ground, steaks)
Eggs
Almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pumpkin seeds (nuts and seeds should be RAW, not roasted)
Greek Yogurt 0% Fat Plain
Almond milk (plain, unsweetened) Do Not get rice milk, it is nutritionally different than almond milk
Rolled Oats
10 Grain Whole Wheat Cereals Blends  (I like Bob’s Red Mill brand)
Quinoa
Brown Rice and/or Farro
Flaxseeds
Lemon
Sweet Potatoes
Natural Peanut Butter
Nonfat cottage cheese
Veggies I always have on hand: zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, kale, raw spinach
Fruits:  apples, pears, strawberries, mango, blueberries, bananas

In the next note or two I will give you the menu ‘schedule’ so you will know what specific fruits and veggies you will need for the first week or two.  I really like repeating the same menu two weeks in a row, it helps me use up leftovers and veggies before they go bad.
I hope you find this useful!  We are here to help you reach your goals!

Blessings,
Carolyn

2 comments:

  1. My books aren't supposed to get here until the 26th! Eek! So I will just eat my version of clean for the first few days until I can fully join in. Thanks for breaking down the different books for us! I was wondering what they were but just ordered them anyway :P I think I will like the "recharged" better than "stripped" but maybe I will do stripped the month before the wedding I'm attending :) Anyway! Thanks again! So excited to start!
    ~Ang

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carolyn, I'm still considering... I have to determine just how commited I am... do I want to jump in with both feet or allow one foot to get used to the water temp before adding the other.

    ReplyDelete