Dessert or Snack Meal Plans

Recipe or plan contributions can be seen by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this posting. If you have any desserts or snacks you'd like to contribute, please add as another comment here so that others may try them:

Breakfast Meal Plans

Recipe or plan contributions can be seen by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this posting. If you have any breakfast meal plans or recipes you'd like to contribute, please add as another comment here so that others may try them:

Lunch Meal Plans

Recipe or plan contributions can be seen by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this posting. If you have any lunch meal plans or recipes you'd like to contribute, please add as another comment here so that others may try them

Dinner Meal Plans

Recipe or plan contributions can be seen by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this posting. If you have any dinner meal plans or recipes you'd like to contribute, please add as another comment here so that others may try them:

Basic Dietary Guidelines - Foods to Avoid

Fruits: Oranges, orange juice

Vegetables: Corn; any creamed vegetables. Optional - Nightshade vegetables - potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers.

Starch: Wheat, corn, barley, spelt, kamut, rye; all gluten-containing products.

Breads & Cereals: Products made from wheat, spelt, kamut, rye or barley.

Legumes: Tofu, tempeh, soybeans, soy milk; other soy products.

Nuts & Seeds: Peanuts, peanut butter

Meat & Fish: beef, pork, cold cuts, franfurters, sausage, canned meats (other than water-packed fish), shellfish.

Dairy Products: Milk, cheese, cottage cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream, frozen yogurt, non-dairy creamers, soy milk, eggs.

Fats: Margarine, butter, shortening, processed and hydrogenated oils, mayonnaise, spreads, palm oil, poultry skin, deep fried foods (chips, donuts).

Beverages: Sodas, diet sodas, sports beverages, and other soft drinks and mixes; alcoholic beverages; coffee, tea, other caffeinated beverages.

Spices & Condiments: Chocolate, ketchup, chutney, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, bottled mustard, other condiments. Food sensitivity alert: Ketchup and other condiments may contain corn syrup.

Sweeteners: White or brown refined sugar, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or evaporated cane juice.

Other: Processed foods containing and baking soda or corn starch. Processed starch foods containing any ofthe the ingredients or sweeteners to avoid.

Basic Dietary Guidelines - Recommmended Foods

Fruits: Fresh, unsweetened, dried, frozen, canned, water-packed fruits; fruit juices (except orange)

Vegetables: All fresh raw, steamed, sauteed, juiced or roasted vegetables

Starch: Rice, oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, tapioca, buckwheat, potatoes

Breads & Cereals: Products made from rice, oat, buckwheat, millet, potato flour, tapioca, arrowroot, amaranth, or quinoa

Legumes: All legumes including peas and lentils (except soybeans)

Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, sesame (tahini), sunflower, pumpkin, nut butters (except peanut).

Meat & Fish: All fresh or frozen fish, chicken, turkey, wild game, lamb; canned water-packed fish.

Dairy Products & Milk Substitutes: Milk substitutes such as rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, or other nut milks; egg replacer.

Fats: Oils, cold-pressed olive oil, flaxseed, canola, safflower, sunflower, sesame, walnut, pumpkin, almond, grapeseed.

Beverages: Filtered or distilled water, decaffeinated herbal tea, seltzer or mineral water

Spices & Condiments: Vinegar (except malt); all spices including salt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, dill, garlic, ginger, carob, oregano, parsley, dry mustard, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, or turmeric.

Sweeteners: Brown rice syrup, fruit sweeteners, blackstrap molasses, stevia, agave nectar.

Exercise?

Don't kill yourself.  

For the Taut Tan and Gooch contest, just think in terms of stepping up the exercise you are already doing. 

If you aren't exercising now, then start. But start SLOWWWW. Start by walking and then think about doing some hills, and then upping your pace.  

If you are already exercising, try increasing the effort both in repetitions and stress (weight, incline, speed). Also, don't forget that we humans are basically lazy. You have to change up your routine regularly or else your body will "expertly" minimize your effort to accomplish the task.

And keep the peripheral efforts minimized. Huh? What I mean to say is, if you have to "find" a solid 1 + 1/2 hour break every day to work out, then this is going to be difficult to do for 30 days and impossible to sustain thereafter - at least is would be for me. I've just got too much going on. Try to figure out how to incorporate exercise into your day. 

Example: I could pack my workout bag with all my toiletries, bring my work clothes with me, drive to the gym, put my stuff in a locker, go do an elliptical machine for 45 minutes, then turn around and do some weight training for another half hour, and then go shower, get dressed and go to work. Then, when I get home, I have to unpack my stinky bag, and get my clothes together for the next day. 

How long do you think you''re going to stay motivated to do this routine? Good grief Charlie Brown, getting ready seems like more work than the exercise itself. If you have a gym about a mile away from your house as I do, forget the eliptical, just walk to the gym and back and stick to the weight training at the gym. If you aren't so lucky, then break it up. Do the weight training in the morning or evening and do the walking at lunch time. The point is, you need to make it easy to get a workout in. Plan for the worst day. If you really aren't looking forward to working out today, then how excited will you be to have to struggle just for the opporunity?

Happy puffing!