Phase 2 - My Eating Plan

The month of June (phase 1) was about one thing and one thing only:  Get Moving.  It was my goal to power walk for 30-45 minutes six out of every seven days.  I'm so excited to report that I was 100 percent successful in this goal.  Did I lose massive amounts of weight?  No.  That was not the goal.  The goal was to create an enduring exercise habit that I could count on as I move through this process.

July is here and its time for Phase 2: My Eating Plan.  I will be traveling for the entire month of July, so sticking with an eating plan will be important as I visit family, navigate fast food places that cater to travelers, etc.  I'm confident though about implementing a reasonable plan that will work for me.  All of the principles outlined below are based on my own tendencies and needs.  My "diet" (meaning what I'll be eating) has two parts:  What to eat AND How to eat it.  I also have a "No Thanks" list of all the foods I am removing completely from my diet. I will not be counting calories and I will eat when I'm hungry.  The idea is that by eating mostly raw, whole, unprocessed foods void of refined sugar and preservatives, I won't need to watch the calories.  Your plan, of course, would be different based on your own needs.

The Plan - What to Eat

Only fresh juices and raw fruit in the morning.  Eat as much as I like.
NOTE:  My body does not require a punch of protein in the morning to get me going.  What I need most is to be light on my feet and clear headed.  Fruit and raw, fresh juices suit me best.  (Fresh juice and water will be the only beverages I'll consume during the day.)

Lunch will entail protein, preferably plant based, and vegetables / salad.
NOTE: There are lots of way of getting protein without eating meat as I outlined in THIS previous post.  I will be making my own salad dressings from the Raw Food Detox Diet book.

Snacks can be most anything as long as it is not processed or cooked. 
NOTE:  This includes nuts, any kind of dried or fresh fruit, Lara Bar, Greek yogurt, or vegetable sticks (carrots, celery, jicama, zucchini, green beans, etc.) with almond butter, homemade guacamole or tahini to dip.

Dinner will be a sensible meal, the largest percentage of which will be vegetables / salad.
NOTE: I will eat fish, whole grain pastas, eggs, sweet potatoes, legumes, etc.  Beverages can either be water or a glass of wine.

I love sweets treats, so I will allow one properly portioned sweet treat once a week.  Knowing me, this will probably be a small bowl of real ice cream!

Food Combining - How to Eat It

Here is my short and incomplete explanation of food combining:  Certain foods, when consumed together take two or three times as long to digest as other food combinations.  I am interested in eating easily digestible foods so that I don't have, as most Americans do, a backlog of food in my tummy and intestines.  This creates all sorts of havoc for me and my eliminative channels (liver, kidney, spleen, skin, colon) slow way down causing constipation, poor metabolism and weight gain.

Basically, there are four food groups that should NOT be consumed together: starches, flesh, nuts/seed/dried fruit, and fresh fruit.  Fresh fruit should always be consumed alone, otherwise it will ferment the other food in your system causing putrefaction and other yuckiness.  Fruit takes 30 minutes to leave your system.  The other groups take about 3 hours to leave your system.  So eating the right food combinations and spacing my meals will be an important part of my plan.  It might sound complicated, at least that's what I thought at first, but now that I've been trying it out for the past few weeks, it seems much simpler.  There is great information on the web about proper food combining, but here's a quick chart for my purposes.

The "No Thanks" List: 

beef

processed meats

refined sugar

white flour

white bread

processed spreads, dressings and dips (margarine, etc)

microwave meals

most dairy

 soda

I know this looks like your usual "diet" fare, but I consider this shift a permanent one that will endure beyond my one year journey to lose 75 pounds.  (I'm cutting beef and most dairy on the basis that it makes me feel bad and phlegmatic.) The diet will change, I'm sure, as needs arise.  However, this is my starting point. I do all of the cooking in my family, so I will be able to oversee this eating plan 100 percent.  My family is committed to joining me as I "cleanse the kitchen" and serve healthy non-processed meals.  In the end, we'll all benefit!  So, what are your thoughts?  I'm new to this and as always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.