Since the results from my transformation started to become physically apparent I’ve had bucket-loads of requests for more detail on the exact meal plan that got me to where I am. If you haven’t read the series of posts I wrote detailing my journey earlier this year, please note that this meal plan was developed to heal my adrenal glands. One of the side benefits of doing this was that I turned on my fat-burning hormones and healed my metabolism at the same time. Result!
I split my plan into two sections – week days and weekends. I’m hardcore on week days. I find it saves a lot of time and effort, and is way easier to stick to if I don’t have to think much during the week when I am full-on at the day job. Being prepared also prevents a lot of the food hi-jacking that can occur when you’re stressed, busy, or faced with cupcakes and other *inSANE treats in the employee kitchens and cafes.
Here’s what my week days look like in the food department:
Monday – Friday
Breakfast – Hard Core Green Smoothie, plus all my vitamins and supplements.
Lunch – Large salad of 100% non-starchy veggies + roast chicken, smoked salmon, or hard-boiled eggs. Choose your lean protein of choice. I pack my own lunch every day. It takes 5 minutes to throw together the night before and then I just grab it from the ‘fridge as I head out the door in the morning. I used Heinz Salad Cream for my dressing – it’s from England and I have loved it since the first time I remember eating it as a child. The fabulous Dr. Mike sends me Salad Cream care packages to keep me going. Stud.
Dinner – Soup from Eat Smarter! Soups – favorites include Bacon and Brussels Sprout Chowder, Salmon and Leek Chowder, Clam Chowder; with sautéed veggies or salad if still hungry. I make a big batch at the weekend and eat it all week so when I get home I just re-heat and slurp it down.
Snacks (if hungry) – handful of hazelnuts or macadamia nuts. Most days I find I do not need a snack.
At weekends I tend to go with the flow and cook since I have more time. Weekends are also where I get a lot more variety in to keep my mouth super-happy.
Saturday / Sunday
Breakfast – Egg dish (typically 4 eggs) at home or a *SANE Big Breakfast Adventure. I love to eat eggs for breakfast on the weekends, I think because it reminds me of Sunday breakfast when I was growing up – we always had a cooked breakfast and it was my favorite meal of the week.
Coffee – Usually black, but sometimes I’ll treat myself to a cappuccino.
Lunch – Soup from Eat Smarter! Soups or a large salad of 100% non-starchy veggies + roast chicken, smoked salmon, or hard-boiled eggs.
Dinner – *SANE dinner from one of my recipes, lean protein with sides from Eat Smarter! Smoothies and Sides, or, when I am in recipe development mode I’ll eat whatever new *SANE dish I have created.
Dessert – *SANE Ice cream from Eat Smarter! Ice Creams.
Your mileage my vary depending on various factors such as where you are starting from, what your goals are, what your work schedule looks like, etc., but at the very least this should be a good launching-off point for your own plan. In terms of quantity – I ate until I was full at every meal and found that this kept me satiated until the next one. In terms of beverages – water, green tea, peppermint tea, and coffee on weekends.
Note: While the food I chose to eat was a critical part of my transformation, check out all the other things that I did to heal my hormones and metabolism.
Happy Eating!
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Susan - I’m just curious but why do you opt for lean protein? I noticed that some of your smoothies call for non-fat yogurt. Are you avoiding fat for a reason?
carrie - Hi Susan – we love healthy fats! The reason we use non-fat Greek yogurt (or other dairy) and lean proteins is to increase the protein content, not to reduce the fat content. We definitely don’t avoid healthy fats. Hope that helps!
Yossi - Doesn’t Heinz salad cream have rather a lot of sugar and canola oil in it.
carrie - Yossi – Salad Cream has rapeseed oil and some sugar in, so it’s not the healthiest dressing around, but it apparently didn’t stop me from burning fat – probably because of the tiny amount I used in comparison to the enormous pile of veggies. It made eating all those veggies far easier for me, so that’s a great thing. I am not advocating it’s use to others, I am simply sharing what I ate.
Emily from Quorn - Meal plans are such a great way to keep on track diet-wise. Great tips! Hope you can make it out to our event in August. We’d love to meet you and see what you think of our products
carrie - Emily – thank you so much for the invitation. I unfortunately have another commitment on that date, but appreciate the invitation.
Veronica - Hi Carrie, I love your story and the video with Jonathan on how you healed your body – you’re looking even more absolutely fabulous! I’m ready to go hard core – I have quite a few food sensitivities which are challenging but I guess that means I do have plenty of healing to do! Question please – in the video, Jonathan mentioned you healing your body over the 3 months…but I’m wondering – do you think your healing actually began when you started eating SANEly way back when, albeit not hard core, but was not yet visible and then it showed externally with your weight falling off when you reached critical mass point coincidentally just as you went hard core but healing can actually take quite a length of time? Sorry it’s such a long sentence, I hope you get what I mean! Thanks for your inspiration/encouragement. Cheers, Veronica x
carrie - Veronica – I am sure that you are right! Thank you for all your kind words.