28 Day Eating Plan

28 Day Eating Plan: Real food to help you achieve your goals

First things first, this is not a DIET. Diets don’t work. If they do, they last for a few weeks before you realize that you can’t sustain the amount of food you are eating or they are so restricted that you throw the towel in.

What we are aiming for in the 28 days is weight loss:

Educate you on the types of foods that you can eat regularly
Lose body fat and improve body shape
Provide you with healthy, tasty recipes that you can eat and enjoy
Give you a feeling of how the body should feel. Not tired, achy, bloated, flabby
Show you how to integrate exercise into your lifestyle which is short and sustainable

The major benefits of this eating plan are that you get to eat real food. There are no more point systems, calorie counting, or weighing of food. You may have tried many diets or eating plans previously. However, if you have found you have regained the weight or still feel tired and bloated, then the diet didn’t work. You have probably heard us say before “Abs are made in the kitchen” or “You can’t out-train a bad diet”. These quotes don’t imply that everyone wants a flat stomach but often we believe that we can eat LOTS of junk food regularly and undo this by exercising, this doesn’t and will never work, sorry. This program will include exercise but our main focus is nutrition. Exercise and activity are essential for a healthy lifestyle and helps us burn calories, shape our body, increase energy, and play an important role in weight loss.

Read more: Best 6 Food Choices For Fat Loss

Nutrition

This program is going to feel different from anything else you may have tried. You get to eat lots of yummy foods. Everything we eat during this plan has the aim of increasing energy and vitality and not leaving you feeling hungry, deprived, and craving more food. The majority of us eat a lot of processed quick-fix foods regularly. When we eat like this we often need, pills, supplements, and loads of caffeine just to get us through the day. This is not great for our short or long-term health and it makes us sick. Eating lots of processed foods puts a major stress on our bodies because we aren’t designed to eat them regularly. This means that our body ends up working overtime to clear the toxins we have eaten from it. One of the main aims of this plan is to give your liver a break. Our liver has many roles such as removing toxins from our body, balancing blood sugar levels, breaking down hormones after they have served their purpose, and storing nutrients. Therefore, if your liver cannot work properly you will experience many problems, such as weight gain, intolerances to food, tiredness, bad skin, etc.

Caffeine

Caffeine is addictive and we are consuming too much. Most of us like a nice cup of coffee but we don’t want to start relying on it for energy. We often drink coffee and have a maximum of two cups a day. We often try and drink these before 2pm so it doesn’t affect our sleep. Drinking a substance that stimulates the body doesn’t make much sense before going to bed. We all tolerate caffeine differently so be aware of how it makes you feel. If you are consuming high levels of caffeine (10 cups a day) try and reduce it by half to start with.

Treats

This is a lifestyle plan so we have included treats. These are healthy treats that actually taste great and contain lots of health benefits, not something we get from process treats such as biscuits. Just be aware that they are still to be eaten once in a while. Eating all the homemade fudge is still calories and won’t help you with your weight loss goals.

Bread

Bread has been introduced to the plan as having a piece of bread once in a while is fine. People often rely on bread for breakfast lunch and sometimes even dinner. It’s so convenient, but not always the best choice, especially the shop-bought bread. We have used sourdough bread in our plan. We believe this is the healthiest bread for us with minimal ingredients and it also tastes great. You can choose another type of bread but please be aware of the highly processed shop-bought bread

This may seem like a lot of things to cut out but with this overload of toxins on the liver, you can see why you may have fat stored that you just can’t shift.

Nutrition Cont.

We realize with work commitments and people’s social lives that sticking to a plan isn’t always as easy as we would like. Therefore, please think ahead to allow yourself a better chance of making the right choice. This plan has been designed for OPTIMAL results. Everyone who has followed this plan has had great results. We are all different and want different things from the plan. The more you stick to the plan, the better the results. Once you get the results and feel great, look great, you don’t want to go back to feeling tired, bloated, overweight, and feeling like you are out of control with your weight and health.

We realize for some people the thought of cutting out caffeine, alcohol, or anything from the list makes your diet sound like hell. If you are someone who drinks lots of caffeine you may feel that halving the amount will make a difference and benefit you when it comes to weight and health improvements. For some of us, this is a life-changing plan where some of the foods and meals are so different from our regular eating habits. We just want to stress the emphasis that you might opt to change 50% of your habits and not change the others. As long you are aware that you may not get all the results you are after, it will still be a small step in the right direction to a healthier life. All recipes are provided in the recipe card section. Meals such as fruit salad and other snacks are not in the recipe card section as you can either buy them or don’t need to be explained how to make them, such as carrots.

Regular Basis – I have highlighted this because people who live healthy lifestyles sometimes eat foods that aren’t on the approved list during the 28-day plan, like chocolate or ice creams. A healthy eating plan doesn’t encourage eating these foods because they don’t provide the body with lots of healthy nutrients. However, we accept that from time to time these will be eaten - that’s life

Exercise

Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Over the 28 days, we would encourage that you integrate exercise into your plan. We have provided you with 2 different workouts that you can follow in the gym. You can also join some of the classes provided at the company, please check the board. Any regular exercise will benefit you during this plan. Please try and exercise at least twice a week during these 28 days. Also aim to walk 30 minutes a day for at least four days a week.

Food for thought

It is often said that healthy food is expensive. This may be the case but the benefits are certainly worth it. Also, there are always ways of saving money when shopping and cooking ensuring that you can still eat on a budget. Remember that buying oils, spices, and certain ingredients for the first time may seem expensive but they will last you for lots of meals.

When making healthy meals in bulk, you can start to feed a family of 4 for less than £7. Suddenly buying a bargain bucket for £10 from KFC isn’t such a bargain. We have listed some common items that we often buy and don’t also consider the actual expense.

A pint of beer costs £4 A large glass of wine costs £6 A packet of cigarettes costs £7-8 A a cup of coffee costs £2.50 These items above are remarkably expensive for what you actually get. Considering it cost 3p to make a cup of coffee we are willing to pay £2.50.

I am not saying don’t buy coffee with friends but we have to start to become aware of our decisions on what we spend our money on. Everyone has a budget and people spend their money how they want to. However, with knowledge and awareness, you can start to eat healthy food at a reasonable price. As a society, we are often looking for cheaper and cheaper foods. Often the cost of things increases over time.

With food, we often expect to buy it cheaper and cheaper. This comes at a price (excuse the pun) and food is being produced with chemicals, poor (unhealthy) ingredients, and even items such as feathers to keep prices low. Hopefully, over the next 28 days, this plan will make you more aware of the types of foods you are eating and how, with preparation and thought you can eat well, for less.

Meal Plans – Important

We would like you to stick to the meal plan as best as you can. If there is something on the menu that you don’t like, then please select something else from the meal plan to eat. It’s ok to eat the same meal twice. Example: Quinoa, seeds, and nuts, replaced by porridge and berries. The foods chosen on this plan give you a wide variety of different meals to eat throughout the week. Trying new foods and meals helps maintain a balanced eating plan as all foods provide different nutrients to help maintain a healthylifestyle.

Breakfast Quinoa with berries and seeds
Snack Sweet Potato Crisps (see recipe)
Lunch Beef Burgers and salad (cooked the night before eaten cold)
Dinner Southern Fried Chicken, Parsnips Chips (see recipe)
Drinks Min 2 liters of water / herbal teas

10 Important Points

You will have to take some time to think about food preparation. We all have time; we just need to make it. Most of us leave the house daily and hope that we can buy food from the shops, which tends to be unhealthy. Most of the time it’s quick convenient and full of hidden ingredients that aren’t great for our health or our waistlines. Places such as BP with a Marks and Spencer’s store offer some of the best options for food choices if you are caught leaving the house without your own food.
It is 28 days, not 28 years. Therefore, it is a very short period. Please remember this if you are struggling after the first week. The results, in the end, will be worth it. You will always experience difficulty when you make a change, stick with it and you will feel great after.
When going to a social event it’s not hard to stick to the plan. You can still have a glass of wine, eat meats and vegetables, etc. You may be surprised by how accommodating people can be.
It won’t be easy… most things in life that are worth achieving aren’t. When you continue throughout the process, things will become easier.
Ignore the Doubters. People, who can’t do things themselves, often try and drag people down with them. Ignore them, stay on track, and let your results speak for themselves.
Please remember the basic rule of calories in vs calories out. Not all calories are equal but eating a whole bag of nuts because it says eat high levels of fat will still encourage weight gain. Think about portion control. The advantage of this plan is it increases satiety, which leads to people eating less.
Do not underestimate the power of water. Often we are thirsty, not hungry. Drink lots of water, not diet coke or orange squash water. Increasing your trips to the toilet is worth the trade-off for great results.
Try to do your best to follow the plan. If you fall off the wagon and eat junk food, don’t stress about it. Check your plan and get back to eating proper food. This isn’t an all-or-nothing plan. One mistake doesn’t make you unhealthy.
Please forget all of the conventional wisdom that you have been educated with over the last 40 years, i.e. that fat makes us fat; It’s bad for our heart and health. We have eaten good sources of fats for thousands of years. There is no clear evidence on how eating good sources of fat is bad for our health. It has only been during the last 40 years that we have reduced our fat consumption (even olive oil, butter) and the average person now weighs 3 ½ stone more than they did in the ’70s. Something is not right. This is a discussion for another time but the key statement to remember is that FAT does not make you FAT.
This plan is encouraged to make you aware of healthy food choices, improve your energy levels, and make you feel great. The by-product of eating well and feeding your body with healthy nutritious food is you will also weight loss. Don’t become obsessed with the scales.

Read More: Diet And Exercise For Weight Loss

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