Five key areas of focus over the next 30 days:
1. Eat Clean
This plan focuses on eating organic, non-GMO foods, free of preservatives, additives, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial flavors, and all other toxins. Food is either fuel or poison. Simply put, anything that can't be used as energy, add nutritional value or trace minerals that benefit the body or aid in flushing out waste, such as fiber, is a toxin. Organic fruits and vegetables contain up to 40% more antioxidants than those conventionally grown. This plan will help you learn how to fuel your body for optimal health by eating clean, close to nature, and TOXIN FREE!
2. Increase Nutritional Intake
Due to the overabundance of pre-packaged and fast food, many people today are overweight, yet malnourished. They carry toxic fat, while their bodies are starving for real nutrition. This condition can be reversed by eating whole foods and supplementing with nutrients to fill in possible deficiencies created by mineral deficient farm soils.
3. Eliminate Allergenic, Addictive, & Acidic Foods
Many people experience symptoms of premature aging or poor health and have no idea that the solution may be as simple as removing possible food allergens and sensitivities. This plan includes removing possible allergenic foods, like gluten, dairy, soy, and processed sugars. If you cringe at the thought of removing a certain food, chances are, you are sensitive to it! Generally speaking, the food you crave is likely the food that is harming you.
4. Balance Blood Sugar & pH
The 30 Day Clean Eating Program encourages eating low on the glycemic index for many reasons. The high, moderate, and low "glycemic index" is a measure of how a given food affects blood-sugar levels, with each food being assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the more gradual the infusion of sugars into the bloodstream and the more balanced the blood sugar.
High glycemic meals cause you to feel hungry soon after you eat and also increase inflammation in the body. Eating low glycemic meals reduces hunger cravings. When blood sugar goes up in response to a high glycemic meal, a process called "glycation" takes place, which promotes thinning of the skin, wrinkles, and more wrinkles...plus inflammation. It's not just candy bars and cupcakes that elevate blood sugar...pasta, bread, potatoes, white rice, and high glycemic fruits are also responsible.
For the 30 days, we also try and get your body more alkaline, verses acidic. Diseases, cancers, viruses, etc. cannot thrive in an alkaline environment! Take a look at this
food chart to see some examples of acidic/alkaline foods!
5. Support Elimination Organs
As good as the 30 Day Clean Eating Program is, it would be incomplete if it did not support the body's FOUR elimination pathways: the liver, kidneys, intestines, and your largest detoxifying organ, your skin. It is nearly impossible to avoid the toxins we come into contact with on a daily basis. If toxins enter your body faster than they are removed, you will experience signs of toxicity. If, on the other hand, you give your body the support it needs to eliminate these toxins, it will perform optimally.
*All 5 areas are supported by Arbonne's nutritional line that is certified vegan and free of gluten, dairy, soy, and artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners!
Get Ready, Get Set...There are a few KEY things you'll want to prepare over the next few days if you haven't already...
- Put the 7 Day Cleanse AWAY...you won't need this until Week 2.
- GO SHOPPING!!! Bring your grocery list (included in menus) and get all your meal ingredients. Get your healthy snacks as well!
- Prepare your snacks in grab bags so they are ready to grab and go! (i.e., cut up your veggies, prepare baggies of a small handful of almonds, have your fizz and protein bars ready to go for the next day).
- Make a batch of protein bars! (click here: Protein Bar Recipe; you can always half this recipe, it makes a lot!). If you are a carb person...having something compliant that you can bite into will make this a smooth transition and help you avoid caving in.
- Remember to drink WATER! It is important to consume at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day, to help flush everything away.
- Prepare your MINDSET. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Rather than thinking "I can't have this or that," start creating lists of what you CAN have. If you get clear on this from the get go...this will be SOOOO much easier.
Food prep is key to your success!
PREPPING FOOD IS THE KEY to your success with this program. It will make your life so much easier, and on days when we are super busy or just super tired, you will have all the pieces ready to go to throw a meal together in minutes!!
I put aside time after I grocery shop to do all my chopping and pre-cooking, that way it is all just part of the time it takes for me to stock our kitchen, and I am not having to set aside more time to do it. So while groceries are being put away, I have eggs boiling, quinoa cooking, and I am chopping veggies. Make sure you have pre-cooked proteins in your fridge (chicken, ground turkey, hard boiled eggs, etc.) and a rainbow of veggies chopped up. I do bell peppers, carrots, purple cabbage, cucumbers, so they are all just easy to grab and go for lunches, or grab and toss in a pan/pot for a quick dinner.
I always have pre-cooked brown rice or quinoa in the fridge too! Then if there is any left at the end of the week (usually there isn't), I do a hearty soup or chili and throw everything in a pot with some organic diced tomatoes and veggie stock that can either be frozen for meals for later or eaten!
