Hi everyone,
Thanks for coming to read this post. You will be able to find all of the information you will need to complete a four-week Yoga-Inspired Diet and Lifestyle change. I will provide to you recipes you can use for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and also several recommended snacks throughout the day.
I want you to read all this information along with the recipes and decide what you can incorporate into your existing diet. I don’t think you should completely change your diet overnight. Making sudden changes in your diet, (particularly if your normal routine is drastically different than the one I suggest), can cause some discomfort, physically and mentally.
TIPS TO INCORPORATE NEW DIET:
If your current diet consists of a lot of processed foods like cookies, crackers, bread, cereal, lunch meat, soda, desserts, sugary coffee, etc. (the list goes on and on), I recommend slowly removing these types of foods from your diet completely, and replacing them with healthier options. For example, if you like to eat a bagel slathered with cream cheese in the morning and a Caramel Frappuccino, replace these with healthier alternatives. Instead of a bagel, have a bowl of steel-cut oats with a sprinkle of Stevia, a pinch of salt, cinnamon, and topped with a handful of fresh blueberries. By replacing your bagel with steel-cut oats, you are still getting a serving of grain, but one which is less processed. A bagel has almost zero nutritional value, and is essentially empty calories, so avoid processed breads. Start easing away from sugary coffee. If you love coffee in the morning, try drinking it black, or sweetened with Stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener and should become your best friend over the next month. Stevia is derived from a plant, whose sweet leaves are 300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia has zero calories and when consumed, has hardly any effect on glucose levels. This is SO important! Did you know when you consume simple carbohydrates like white potatoes, sugar, bread, desserts, crackers etc. it spikes your glucose levels, which affects your blood sugar levels and increases insulin production? Without getting too scientific, it is vital to know that eating refined sugars is very unhealthy and will lead to energy crashes and even Diabetes. So let’s try to wean ourselves away from Sugar, and replace it with Stevia, a much healthier option. Also, I highly advise against using all artificial sweeteners. They are really, really, bad for your health, and I would rather you eat real sugar than fake sugar. Or better yet, just use Stevia and don’t worry about it.
If you must eat cereal in the morning, try Kashi’s GoLean. (Avoid the crunchy flavor). Have a little protein with this meal, to A) Prevent your glucose levels from spiking (because of the cereal’s carbs) and B) Keep you feeling fuller longer. Scramble an egg to go with the cereal. To replace lunch meats with less-processed alternatives, look for meat that is preservative-free (Nitrates Free), or cook your own chicken breast or lean pork, turkey cuts for sandwiches. Replace your white bread and wheat bread for a 9-grain bread which has a lower glycemic index. Try Ezekial 4:9 sprouted grain bread. As far as cookies, crackers and dessert goes, there aren’t a lot of healthy alternatives that come to mind. If you are craving sweets, have a bowl of strawberries, blueberries and mango. Avoid crackers and cookies!
Drink LOTS of purified water. If you have the funds to purchase purified drinking water (reverse osmosis is the better way to filter your water) then please drink only purified water. Tap water has lots of unhealthy chemicals, so it is best to avoid it. I recommend drinking a glass of water for every hour that you are awake. I bet you didn’t know this (I just learned this recently myself), the human body can only process about a glass of water per hour, so if you, like me, tend to chug all your daily allowance at one time, you have to stop doing this. You will pee out most of it without absorbing it, and there goes all your expensive water. Drink one glass per hour – you will be better hydrated and you will feel lighter, more energetic and clear-headed. Try it out!
WHEN YOU HAVE CRAVINGS:
It might be hard at first to rid yourself of sugar cravings, but trust me, once you get it out of your system, you will have more energy than ever! Our body does not need sugar or simple carbs, at all. If you do have cravings for something you know will not serve your body (fast food, sugar, desserts, refined carbs), I want you to take a 5-minute break, leave the kitchen, and reflect on why you are making these diet changes. Get your journal out, and answer the following questions:
1. Am I hungry, or just feeling bored?
2. What was I thinking about before I had this craving? – Pay attention to your thoughts, your internal dialogue. Most of us have emotional connections with food, and these are not always the healthiest! Write down whatever comes to mind.
3. How will I feel if I stay strong and stay committed to my diet? How will I feel tomorrow?
4. Is the “cheat” now worth the energy crash I will have later?
And take a walk around the block, listen to some fun music, and call a friend. Distract your thoughts and you will probably free yourself from that food craving. Come to Yoga, meditate, or go hiking outdoors. All of these things will make you feel better, more relaxed and less likely to cheat.
JOURNAL YOUR DIET:
I want you to write down everything you eat, down to the smallest nibble, because each nibble adds up. Be honest in your evaluation, the only person who has to see this is you, and interestingly, we tend to underestimate the true amount of food we actually eat in a day. Women, you should be consuming roughly 1500-2000 calories a day. Men, 2000 to 2500 (more if you are very active). These calories should be coming from lean protein, complex carbohydrates, legumes, and healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds).
AND YOUR THOUGHTS:
I also want you to take 15 minutes at some point each day, and reflect on your thoughts and feelings. You can write about whatever you want, but if you would like some ideas, feel free to write about your successes throughout the day, things that are challenging you, any questions you have, etc. Find a comfortable place that you can write, somewhere sunny, quiet and isolated. I personally like to go somewhere very beautiful, like the beach, or my backyard, and meditate within nature. 
Turn off your TV and telephone. It is good to be alone with your thoughts and away from others. Let this be your “YOU” time, where you can reflect, vent, and recharge. You will find that, over time, your thoughts and feelings will become elucidated, and you will start to make connections with your pattern of thoughts and your pattern of behavior. Our thoughts form our perception of our life, and the way we perceive things to be is necessarily our reality. In other words, if you believe your life to be ONE way, it IS that way. If I think good things always happen to me, if I believe I have willpower, if I think that I have a healthy relationship with others, chances are that these perceptions are the same as my reality. So I encourage you to journal every day, and I believe you will start to become more aware of your inner voice, and you will understand how this inner voice is affecting your emotions, moods, and behavior. Pinpointing this inner dialogue will help us determine our relationships with food and exercise, and ultimately, help you create new behaviors.
Thank you for reading all of these tips to get started. Read the Recipe Posts I will put up soon to get ideas for changing your diet and let me know if you have any questions.
~TPH~
theprettyhippie 