The No-Excuses Jump-Start Meal Plan

Here she is. Go get 'em.
Links go to actual recipes and a * means there'll be a rough guide down the bottom of the post.
PS. If you're curious about the actual calorie content of the meals, let me know and I can email you the full calorie breakdown of each day/meal/recipe.


Monday


Breakfast
     Apple Pie Porridge 
Snack
     23 almonds
Lunch
     Rice Paper Rolls
Snack
     1 cup air popped popcorn
Dinner
     Char-Grilled Vegetable Stack


Tuesday


Breakfast
     Avo Toast (Two slices of wholegrain toast with 1/2 small avocado, mashed, salt and pepper)
Snack
     ½ an apple with 1 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch
     Epic Salad (2 cups mixed leaves, ¼ cup carrot, grated, 1 tomato, sliced, 3 inches of cucumber, sliced, ¼ cup roasted red pepper, sliced, 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, ¼ cup canned chickpeas, ¼ avocado, diced)
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yoghurt
Dinner
     Bangers and Mash


Wednesday


Breakfast
     Cereal (1 cup puffed rice, ½ cup multi-grain cheerios, 1 cup puffed wheat, ½ small banana, 1 cup light soy milk)
Snack
     20 large grapes
Lunch
     Hearty Sandwich (2 slices wholegrain bread, 2 tbsp hummus, ¼ cup shredded carrot, 1 handful baby spinach, 5 sun dried tomato halves, thinly sliced, 4-5 rings of red onion)
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yoghurt 
Dinner
     Taco Salad


Thursday


Breakfast
     Smoothie (1 banana, frozen, 1 cup soy milk, ½ cup strawberries, plenty of ice, ½ tbsp honey)
Snack
     23 almonds
Lunch
     Soup with roll (Vegetable Soup, tinned/homemade/bought, max 200 calories, with a small wholegrain roll)
Snack
     1 cup air popped popcorn
Dinner
     Two-mato Pasta Salad


Friday


Breakfast
     Avo Toast (Two slices of wholegrain toast with 1/2 small avocado, mashed, salt and pepper)
Snack
     2 5in stalks of celery with 1 tbsp of peanut butter each
Lunch
     Chunky Vegetable Pasta
Snack
     1 small apple, sliced, sprinkled with cinnamon
Dinner
     Vegetable and White Bean Stew


Saturday


Breakfast
     Simple Pancakes with Strawberry-Almost-Compote
Snack
     1 large orange 
Lunch 
     Brown Rice and Vegetable Salad
Snack
     Cucumber-hummus bites (1/2 cucumber, sliced into coins, dipped into 3 tbsp hummus)
Dinner
     Super Simple Stir-fry


Sunday


Breakfast
     Coconut-Banana French Toast
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yogurt
Lunch
     Baked beans on toast (2 slices wholegrain bread, toasted, topped with 3/4 cup baked beans)
Snack
     1 apple
Dinner
     Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

So


What do you think?

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo

The Perfection Program Presents...

The No-Excuses Jump-Start Plan

From my personal experience, starting a diet, exercise plan or lifestyle change of any sort is a big deal- its exciting, and empowering, and motivating. You go completely crazy, setting huge goals and plans. 

New schedule (5:00am: Jog; 6:00am: Yogilates; 7:00am: Bike to work; 5:30pm Zumba), new grocery lists (nothing white, nothing refined, no sugar, no carb, no fat), scary new ingredients (What the f#*k is okra?!), you get the idea.

So you make all these huge goals and your expectations are raised really high. Then, comes the week one weigh in:

Nothing.

Or worse, you gained weight. 

All of a sudden, any motivation is gone. You want to drown your sorrows in pasta and ice cream (or both. Together). The diet starts to slip. The workouts get shorter, less passionate. You start using your yoga mat as a shower mat. Trainers banished to the back of the closet. Vegetables sadly wilting in the crisper. All because of one weigh in.

This diet plan is designed to help you drop enough weight in the first week of so to get you started AND keep you motivated. 

A few notes about this diet:

• If you are already following a healthy eating plan, you won't lose as much weight as someone coming from a diet of crap. Just sayin'.

• This is considered a VLCD (very-low-calorie-diet), so I don't recommend any strenuous exercise. Seriously. Do some yoga, walking ten minutes a day, things like that. I'll talk more about this in the Workout Post.

• If your job or lifestyle required you to be more active than a basic retail job, then please add some extra healthy snacks. Even if you just double up on the ones I recommend.

• I am vegan, and as a result, my menus are also vegan. This is a personal choice for me, and I didn't feel comfortable making menus including animal products as I don't feel I have enough knowledge to properly recommend any. If you want to substitute something, feel free, however remember that this will change the calorie content and possibly your results.

• If you find you really like one meal and hate another, or you need have a packed lunch, or have allergies, go ahead and switch the meals around a bit. Nothing is set in stone, and each meal type (eg all breakfasts or all lunches) has similar calorie contents.

• THIS IS NOT PERFECT! Some days will have a ton of carbs. Or be missing a vitamin. Or not have enough.... fibre. Or whatever. What this is, is a meal plan for normal, every-day people, by a normal, every-day person. I want it to be easy, and quick, and fun.

This is how it is. 7 days, you, me, no excuses.

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo