Day 23: Banishing Your Dessert Demons

The long-standing habits associated with the concept of “dessert” are some of the hardest to break, because in many cases, they’re as old as we are. The kicker is that it takes only a few days for your brain to develop a craving, and a pattern, with sweet foods.

Dr. David A. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, referenced one study in which people were given a high-sugar, high-fat snack for five consecutive mornings. For days afterward, they wanted something sweet at about that same time each morning… despite the fact that they had never previously snacked at that time. In just five days, desire had already taken hold. Now imagine 20 or 30 years of “Eat all your vegetables or you won’t get dessert.” No wonder we don’t feel satisfied until we’ve had our sweet stuff after meals!

Banishing Your Dessert Demons

Your safest strategy for successfully banishing all of your sugar cravings is to try to break the habit of idea of dessert altogether. Slip a small amount of sweet stuff (which is usually fruit-based) in with the rest of your protein and veggies, instead of saving it for after your meal. Follow the Whole30 meal planning template, making sure your fruit consumption isn’t taking over your plate.

Make sure your meals include plenty of healthy fats – fat’s satiety signal to your brain may help you quell some of those dessert longings. Swap out dessert after a meal for a new tradition, like a cup of hot herbal tea (my personal favorite).

And when all else (including willpower) fails, go ahead and eat the fruit for "dessert", but understand it’s not your body sending you a “hunger” signal, it’s just your brain responding to conditioning.

Day 22: Keep It Up!

So you've been following this plan for weeks now. For some of you, you are in a groove and feeling great. For others,the magic still just doesn't seem to be happening. Do you feel more sloth than jackrabbit? First, depending on your past dietary and exercise habits, it might take you more than a month to go through the complete adaptive process and to let your body "heal" from all of those inflammatory foods you used to eat. You can't expect to completely undo decades of poor dietary and exercise habits in just 45 days. Be patient and persistent, as it might take more time before things start to really hum.

However, run through this checklist first: 

1. Is your food quality truly 100% clean? Those small but regular diversions (just one cookie here, that on-the-run sandwich there and that one glass of wine or beer when your really needed it) is enough to impede progress, so take a good, long, honest look at your recent habits and see if your food quality has slipped more than you care to admit.
2. Are you eating three (or more) meals a day? The meal planning template is built around 3-ish meals, so don't cheat yourself out of valuable nutrients by eating too little or too infrequently. This especially means don't miss breakfast, and don't forget your post workout meal.
3. Are you adding plenty of good fat to each meal? Healthy fats are a necessary part of every meal so don't skip this part or cut back on your added fat.

Keep up the good work, and make modifications, as needed. You can do this!

Day 21: Apples, bananas and oranges... Oh my!

Fruit is often a go-to for a healthy choice for many. We do, however, want to caution you against over-eating fruit. We don't want fruit pushing vegetables off of your plate just because it's more fun to eat. In addition, too much fruit can keep those sugar cravings alive in an unhealthy way.

Start with one or two servings a day (berries are a best choice). If you are relying on fruit as a healthier replacement for your candy habit, stop and think every time you reach for something sweet. We don't want you feeding sugar to your brain, even if it is "natural" sugar from fruit.

If you are including fruit in your diet, lunchtime is the best time to do so.

Why no fruit with breakfast?

If you are trying to manage sugar cravings, energy slumps or hunger throughout the day, giving yourself the sweet stuff first thing in the morning is a mistake. Focus on protein, healthy fat and low-sugar vegetables (like spinach, peppers, onions, etc.) to start your morning off right.

Consider consuming the following 15-30 minutes before exercise for energy: bananas, oranges, apples, grapes, seasonal berries, mangos, pineapple and other fruits.

Day 20: Probiotics

What are probiotics, and what role do they play in the body? 

Let’s back up a second before talking about probiotics and talk about gut flora.  Inside our digestive tract we have somewhere around 100 trillion bacteria happily living in us.  We’re like a giant high-rise building, and the bacteria are our tenants.  About 7 lbs of “you” is really bacteria that live in your intestines, from your mouth to the other end. Our understanding of gut flora has advanced by quantum leaps in the past decade or so but we’re still just scratching the tip of the iceberg here. 

We now know that our gut flora helps us properly digest our food, protects us from pathogens (harmful microorganisms), helps us detoxify harmful compounds, produces vitamins and other nutrients, keeps our guts healthy, and balances our immune systems.

Probiotics are a culture of “good” bacteria.  Most often when we say the word probiotics we are talking about a supplement (a pill or powder) of beneficial bacteria, but we also use the word probiotics when talking about fermented foods.

 

Gut health and gut flora are a very chicken and egg type of thing.  Bad gut flora causes poor gut health.  Poor gut health causes poor gut flora.  Depending on how severe the dysfunction, sometimes we have to address both in order to get things working properly, sometimes not. There are a variety of reasons that a gut can be messed up.  If the main reason is food-based (i.e., if the person is having food reactions), then a program like the Whole30® is superb for helping. However, a generally Paleo lifestyle (which includes such things as adequate sleep, appropriate exercise, and stress management) along with healthy whole foods would reduce the need for probiotics. 

Day 19: Paleo diet food substitutions

Here is a link to an article outlining 27 great food substitutions which will help you stay 100% on track!


http://paleogrubs.com/paleo-diet-food-substitutions

Day 18: Paleo for the vegetarian or vegan

Below is a link to a very useful paleo shopping list for vegans and vegetarians!

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-veg-shopping-list.pdf

Day 17: High Protein Food Options

Examples Of High Protein Foods

 

Beef

•Hamburger patty, 4 oz – 28 grams
•Steak, 6 oz – 42 grams
•Most cuts of beef – 7 grams per oz

Chicken

•Chicken breast, 3.5 oz - 30 grams
•Chicken thigh – 10 grams
•Drumstick – 11 grams
•Wing – 6 grams
•Chicken meat, cooked, 4 oz – 35 grams

Fish 

•Fish fillets or steaks, 3.5 oz cooked - 22 grams 

•Tuna, 6 oz can - 40 grams  

Pork 

•Pork chop - 22 grams 

•Pork tenderloin, 4 oz – 29 grams 

•Ham, 3 oz  – 19 grams 

•Ground pork, 1 oz raw – 5 grams; 3 oz cooked – 22 grams 

•Bacon, 1 slice – 3 grams 

•Canadian-style bacon, slice – 5 grams  

Eggs 

•Egg, large - 6 grams 

Protein Powder 

•Whey 21-25 g per serving 

•Pea or Dairy Free 17 g per serving

 Nuts and Seeds 

•Almonds, ¼ cup – 8 grams  

•Cashews, ¼ cup – 5 grams 

•Pecans, ¼ cup – 2.5 grams 

•Sunflower seeds, ¼ cup – 6 grams 

•Pumpkin seeds, ¼ cup – 8 grams 

•Flax seeds – ¼ cup – 8 grams