General Rules.
1. No refined sugar – choose agave syrup or maple syrup for sweetening.
2. Maximum two or three alcoholic drinks a week. Cut it out completely if you can for the first 30 days.
3. Try to leave caffeine drinks out for the first 30 days. We drink decaffeinated tea and Whole Earth no caff coffee alternative.
4. No meat products including milk, cheese, butter and yogurt etc.
5. Cut right down on carbs such as bread pastry etc. Include these types of carbs, if you must, in only one main meal a day, (although we do have a small packet of gluten free instant porridge for breakfast).
6. Drink loads of water.
7. Eat loads of fruit.
8. For quicker weight loss, (not too quick as you will only put it back on again quickly), for the first 30 days replace your lunch with a protein smoothie see below for recipe.
How to prepare for the new regime:
1. We love our tea so had to find a good alternative. We use Yorkshire Decaffeinated tea with cashew milk. It tastes a tiny bit different but hardly noticeable I promise. Once you get used to it you won’t want to go back to cows milk in your tea ever again.
2. Make up a large jar of mixed seeds, chia seeds and chopped nuts. You can buy all these in the supermarket. These are great for adding to your smoothie, putting on top of salads and for sprinkling on your porridge in the morning.
3. Get yourself a nutri bullet for your smoothies.
4. Get some dark chocolate covered rice cakes for when you desperately need a sweet kick.
5. Get rid of anything naughty so you are not tempted to snack on bad stuff.
6. Buy the fruit you like, it’s no good having a bowl full of apples if you don’t like them, (or like me you find them boring), if you like peaches, plums or oranges then indulge yourself and buy the best.
7. Start to love veg, try new stuff, veggies should cover 2 thirds of your plate with the other third made up of protein like lentil dahl, chick pea curry, stir fried tofu etc.
What we have for Breakfast:
We have an instant porridge sachet with water, not milk in the microwave. Once cooked add a large teaspoon of the seed mix and a squeeze of agave syrup and top with some almond milk. You can also add to this some fresh berries, blueberries, raspberries etc. I also buy them frozen and add them to the porridge before it goes into the microwave.
Lunch for us is a protein smoothie:
Mix 2 scoop of protein powder, (make sure it’s vegan, we get ours through my daughter, here is the link if you want it, http://www.arbonne.com/Pws/Anna-MariaKalebic/store/AMUK/product/Protein-Shake-Powder-Vanilla-2979,6560,486.aspx
(My daughter can get a large discount for you if you want any Arbonne products. Contact me here and I can arrange this for you.) it’s a very large bag and will last you for probably 6 months at least). Add some spinach or kale leaves and a spoonful of the seed mix with water or pure apple juice half and half. Zap this mix in a nutri bullet or a powerful liquidizer adding more liquid if it is too thick.
Follow with a large glass of water.
Evening meal is our chance to do some cooking.
If you like chilli then make it the same way but replace the meat with chopped mushroom.
If you like curry, replace the meat with oyster mushroom, tofu or jack fruit adding orange lentils to thicken, (they take about 15 minutes to cook down but add a lovely flavour to the curry).
Most normal recipes can be veganized quite easily.
Just remember to keep veggies to 2/3 of the plate and the protein to 1/3.
If you like to finish with something sweet then try some vegan yoghurt or vegan icecream, (available in most larger supermarkets) with some berries and little agave syrup.