So, you’ve read the rules.
You think it sounds like a good idea.
You need to know a little bit more.
What are you REALLY getting yourself into?
As I was planning this challenge, I struggled a little bit as I tried to figure out what foods I wanted to include and what foods I wanted to eliminate. In the end I decided that I want you to feel like this is doable. I don’t want to ask you to eliminate so many foods that you feel like you would never be able to do this. That defeats the purpose.
The main goal is to eliminate processed foods and get back to eating a more NATURAL diet. You have to start somewhere. To recap what I said a couple of posts ago your diet will consist of:
Meats
Vegetables
Fruits
Nuts/Seeds
Select Grains
Beans/Legumes
Good Fats/Oils
I struggled as I decided whether or not I wanted to include dairy. While I feel that in most cases it would be better to avoid, or strictly limit dairy, I’ve decided to allow it on the challenge. It’s still possible to get great results if we include it, so with that said, that last item on that list is…
Dairy
Now, let’s talk about what foods you must avoid.
The Dirty Dirty
The following foods are a not allowed on the Real Food February Challenge. This is the basic level program. I will give you an option later on to crank it up a notch if you want to, but for now, these are the things you must avoid.
Processed Meats: Hot dogs, cold cuts, most packaged sausages, bologna, spam, etc. When picking your meats, you want to avoid things that come in boxes or packages with added ingredients. You want your meats to just be meats. You will be the one to add spices and seasonings and flavors to the meats. You can’t trust food manufacturers to do that for you.
Processed Oils/Fats: Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil, Margarine, Imitation Butter, Crisco, Vegetable Shortening, Soybean Oil, Cottonseed Oil – You might be confused by this list as some of these are advertised as “healthy” oils. I don’t believe these oils are healthy and if you saw the process it takes to make most of these edible, you would understand why I don’t consider them natural. We are going to try to stick to cold-pressed oils as these are closer to a whole food than the oils listed above. I’ll list the better oil options later on.
Wheat Products: This includes breads, cakes, cookies, crackers, etc. I’m even including WHOLE WHEAT in this category. Yes, whole wheat is better than refined wheat, but just because it’s better doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. You could give up just wheat products and feel a dramatic change in your health. Many people are sensitive to the gluten in wheat and don’t even know it. Not only that, but the affect it has your blood sugar is something we definitely want to avoid. Give up the wheat. You’ll be glad you did.
Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners: Sugar is just bad. As a society we eat entirely too much of it and it can be quite addicting. The more you eat it, the more you want it. It causes your blood sugar to spike, and then later crash, which leads to more cravings for sugar. It’s a vicious cycle and you don’t want to be a part of it. Artificial sweeteners aren’t any better. A good mantra to live by when choosing the foods you eat is — IF MAN MADE, DON’T EAT IT. Artificial sweeteners are just that, ARTIFICIAL. You want to eat real food, so skip the Aspartame, Splenda, Equal, etc. These items are not food.
Most things that come in a Bag, Box, or Can: You’ve probably heard of people talk about shopping the perimeter of the store. That’s where the real food is. The meats, vegetables, fruits, dairy and seafood. This is a good standard to follow as most of the food in the middle is processed crap. You want to stick to simple, whole foods and most of the packaged products do not qualify.
There ARE some acceptable packaged items and it’s easy to tell what those are. You’ve been told to read labels, right? Well I’m going to say the same thing, but I don’t mean the “Nutrition Facts” you see in the little box on the back of the product. I want you to look below that at the ingredients list. This is the important part. If everything listed on that label is a food that you recognize as a food, and it can found by itself at the perimeter of the store, then that is a decent packaged item. Try to buy fresh fruits and vegetables instead of canned or jarred, but a can of black olives to throw on a salad is better than a bag of croutons. Be smart about it. Make the better choice. If you aren’t sure about something, then skip it.
You want to avoid frozen, pre-packaged meals. These are loaded with artificial flavors and lots of sodium to make them taste better. A bag of frozen veggies or fruit is fine, just read the label to make sure that’s all you’re getting.
That’s pretty much it for the forbidden list. Not so bad right?? Well, for some of you it might sound bad if you eat a lot of processed or pre-packaged foods. I understand it might be scary to think of giving up some of these things, but it’s totally worth it. Trust me. It can change your life and I’m not blowing smoke here. It’s pretty incredible.
Now let’s talk about all the amazing, wonderful, spectacular, fresh, healthy, delicious food you can eat as much as you want of for a full 29 days. Yes, it’s a leap year.
The Goods
Remember, you can eat as much of these foods as you want to eat. As the month progresses, you’ll probably start eating less than you were at the beginning. It’s amazing how the body requires less food when the food you’re feeding it actually contains nutrients. The following foods are allowed.
Proteins: Beef, Chicken, Pork, Eggs (with the yolk), Bison, Duck, Venison, Buffalo, Elk, Lamb, Bass, Mahi Mahi, Salmon, Sardines, Tuna, Trout, Tilapia, Clams, Mussels, Oysters, Halibut, Catfish, Snapper, Lobster, Shrimp, Crawfish, and on and on and on.
I know I’ve missed a bunch, but you get the idea. While it’s best to choose grass fed beef, pastured chickens and eggs, wild caught fish, and humanely raised pork, I don’t want you to get bogged down by those details. That’s something you can worry about later on. If you already try to seek out these options, then keep doing that, but if you’re new to this don’t worry about it. You can think about those things once eating real food becomes a natural part of your life.
Fats: Avocados and Avocado Oil, Olive Oil and Olives, Butter, Coconut Oil, Coconut Milk, Coconut Butter, Ghee, Bacon Fat, Duck Fat, Sesame Oil, Macadamia Oil.
These are much more natural fats than the ones I listed previously and that’s what we’re going for.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds/Almond Butter, Peanuts/Peanut Butter, Cashews, Chestnuts, Flaxseeds, Chia Seeds, Hazelnuts, Macadamia Nuts, Pecans, Pine Nuts, Pistachios, Pumpkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Poppy Seeds.
It’s best to choose the raw versions of these nuts. Try to avoid nuts with anything on them like sugar/candy coating, etc. Try to stick to plain nuts and dress them up later if you want to.
Vegetables: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots, Asparagus, Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Onions, Mushrooms, Spinach, Seaweed, Cabbage, Lettuce, Collard Greens, Beet Greens, Chard, Bok Choy, Squash, Zucchini, Eggplant, Pumpkin, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Parsnips, Rutabaga, Turnips, Celery, Endive, and on and on and on.
These are just examples for you to get an idea of the abundance of food you can eat. Have fun with your veggies. Spice them up how you want. Roast them, grill them, saute’ them, eat them raw. The options are endless. At first stick to the ones you know you like, but try a new one every week. The more vegetables you eat, the better. Try to make your plate at least half veggies if you can.
Fruits: Apples, Pears, Oranges, Tangerines, Mandarins, Nectarines, Pomegranate, Pineapple, Papaya, Bananas, Coconut, Peaches, Lemons, Limes, Mango, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Honeydew Melon, Grapes, Plums, Figs, Persimmons, Star Fruit, Grapefruit, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Durian, Kiwi, Pomelos, Kumquats, etc…
Again, you get the idea. As you cut out sugar, feel free to let fruit satisfy that sweet craving. Some people will argue that you should stay away from fruit because it’s still sugar, even if it’s natural, but I don’t want you worrying about that right now. It’s about making better choices and fruits are full of healthy phytonutrients and vitamins that your body is probably not getting. Don’t shy away from fruit just yet. What’s better, an apple or a cookie? Enough said!
Beans/Legumes: Try to choose dried beans over canned beans. Avoid baked beans, bbq beans, pork n beans, and others of the sort. They have things added that we want to avoid. Just choose plain BEANS. Black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, lima beans, lentils, and peas would all be better choices but there is one thing you should keep in mind. Many people have a hard time digesting beans. Ummm…I think you know what I mean. I would limit them, as you’ll feel better by doing so, but if you want to throw some black beans into a mexican style salad, or some lentils into a veggie soup, that’s totally fine.
Grains: The most important grain to give up is wheat. After that, you can help yourself to a little bit of Rice, Quinoa, Millet and Oats. I’m sure there are some other grains that would be fine, just do a little research on them and if they contain gluten it would be better avoid them. Think of your grains as a side dish. They should not be the bulk of your meals. One thing that’s great about a whole foods diet is that you consume a ton of nutrients that you don’t get from processed foods. Vegetables, Fruits, and Meats have many more nutrients than grains do, so to maximize your nutrition try to make grains a smaller portion of your meal.
Dairy: If raw dairy were legal for everyone (as it should be, but don’t get me started) I would recommend choosing raw versions of milk, cream, butter and yogurt. As this is not an option for most people what I’ll say is, try to limit your dairy. Most people are lactose intolerant whether they know it or not and once milk is pasteurized, the enzyme that our bodies need to break down lactose is destroyed, thus we can’t process it.
A good way to find out if your body doesn’t like dairy is to give up all dairy for a couple of weeks and then reintroduce it. You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly whether you can handle it or not. Try to avoid drinking milk, but if you want to add some goat cheese to a salad it won’t kill you. Yogurt is a decent option, but I’m not talking fruit on the bottom yogurt. Those have added sugars and other things that are not cool, so stick to plain yogurt and add your own fruit to it. Do your best to limit dairy as this will give you better results, but if dairy is a deal breaker for you, I don’t want to discourage you from making the other healthy shifts we’ve already talked about.
There You Have It!
As you can see there are tons of options for you to eat after cutting out all the crap. The more you eat this way, the more you’ll realize that fresh, whole foods are much more delicious than the fake stuff that comes in a box. Your tastes will start to change as you no longer have artificial flavors screwing with your taste receptors. Processed foods are full of compounds that trick your brain into thinking certain foods taste a certain way. It’s crazy and quite annoying once you find out how they’re tricking you into buying certain foods over and over again.
For the majority of you, making the switch to the acceptable foods above will change your life considerably. I’ve seen people lose up to 15 pounds in a month just by sticking to the green foods above. They didn’t count calories or limit themselves as far as portions go and they lost 10-15 pounds. Not only that, but they felt so much better by the end of it. I know because I was one of them.
If you’re looking for an even greater challenge or you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, then there are a few tweaks you can make to maximize your results.
You will see the greatest benefits by sticking to just:
Meats, Veggies, Fruits, Nuts/Seeds, and good Fats/Oils
Cut out or strictly limit:
Dairy, Grains, and Bean/Legumes
Remember, this is not necessary. You can get amazing results by just making the changes mentioned above, but I want to give you an option to GO BIG! I also want an option for people that are already used to eating mostly whole foods.
That’s pretty much it. If you’re still freaking out about doing this, then stop by the blog tomorrow. I’ve got a tip that will make this seem more doable for those of you afraid of commitment.
It’s a tip that those of you already committed will appreciate as well!
