Our Plan

Okay, so we finally figured it out. What did we figure out, you may be scratching your head and asking yourself. The healthy eating or fresh eating concept I previously discussed. Calling this venture a diet would simply be the wrong word and would set up the wrong expectations. A diet usually denotes a temporary change in food selection and exercise habits to reach a desired goal, especially when it is considered a verb. Our goal as previously stated is to break our addiction or reliance on processed foods, become healthier, and loose weight while taking a holistic approach. How do we plan to get healthier? By taking the following approaches listed below:

1)      Incorporating juicing and at times replacing a meal to juicing

2)      Eating solely fresh foods, mainly raw and then slowly incorporating back in certain foods over a specified time period.

3)      Incorporating exercise and a healthy lifestyle (example opting to get up and do or make something versus being sedentary)

4)      Incorporating healthy thinking and action into our daily lives

5)      Understanding that this is a process. We did not become unhealthy and overweight overnight and will not become healthy and slimmer overnight either.

We have read up a good bit on juicing, nutrition, successful weight loss, healthy living, healthy eating, and have decided to do a combination of things. We also saw the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and that also helped to inspire us to begin this journey. We have over time simply become conscious of the world around us and are interested in taking SMALL steps and actions to do our part to limit our negative impact on the environment, our bodies, and the future for those yet to come. To start, juicing can be defined as, extracting the juice of a fruit or vegetable to mainly reap the nutrition benefits without actually eating the produce. By juicing, one is able to consume more fruits and vegetables and reap more benefits in a shorter time. Okay so getting back on track we have decided to do the following and I will give a daily update of our progress (and eventually the updates will move to be several postings a week).

Week 1 incorporating Day 1 thru 7 (Saturday through Friday) We will limit our meals to fresh foods, mainly in raw form, incorporating at least one juice per day. We will mainly eat fresh fruit salads for breakfast, day one to three our juices will mainly consisting of fruit juiced, day four to seven we will incorporate juices with more vegetables. We will also begin exercising lightly (I have suffered from several injuries recently including a small break in my right ankle bone and as I previously mentioned my husband has a number of  health issues some related to and the major one unrelated to weight).

Week 2 incorporating Day 8 to 14 (Saturday through Friday) We will continue with the previous week’s plan but begin to incorporate legumes like beans and peas while keeping fresh produce the majority of our meals. We will continue juicing one per day.

Week 3 incorporating Day 15 to 21 (Saturday through Friday) We will continue with the previous week’s plan and begin to slowly incorporate grains like rice, couscous, quinoa, barley and the likes while keeping fresh produce the majority of our meals. We will continue juicing but will begin cutting back from daily doses to 3 to 5 juices per week.

Week 4 incorporating Day 16 to 21 (Saturday through Friday) We will continue with the previous week’s plan and begin to slowly incorporate meat and dairy products (in small portions). We will try and incorporate small amounts a meat (no more than five to six ounces in a day) several times a week (not every day and definitely not with every meal). Fresh produce will remain the largest portion of our meals and cutting juices to 2 to 3 times a week.

By the end of Week 4, day 28 we will re-evaluate our progress and determine what course of action to take going forward.