MRP Q and A with Alice - Best Practices After Maintenance [March 21, 2025]

Hello lovely ladies. Happy Friday. Welcome Patty. Welcome, Nikki. Welcome, Corinda. Happy Friday to you all. Ladies, thank you for joining us today. Let me know if my music is again too loud. I apologize in advance. It looks like it's good. Perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much, Nikki. Lovely to see you today. Happy Friday. Awesome. Awesome. So I'm just gonna quickly write in here to our lovely community that we've started and I'm just going to give it a few more minutes to kind of let everybody fall in collect and we're gonna get started with some fun kind of best practices for today. In the meantime, while we wait for everybody to slowly join in, I would love to hear, you know, some of the wins, some of the exciting things that we're able to celebrate today. It could be on the plan, it could be off the plan. We're happy to hear personal wins as well. So as always, I love hearing your voices. Please feel free to unmute yourselves and if anybody has anything to share or a big win for this week. Lovely to see you, Jennifer. Hi, Barb. Hi Becca. Welcome, welcome. Happy Friday everyone. We are just waiting for a couple more people to bop on in before we get started and then we will go ahead and jump into our presentation for today. But before that we have a fun little meditation practice that we are going to do and of course our gratitude practices as well. So I would love to shout anyone out and if you have any wins you would like to share for today, please feel free to unmute yourselves or type it into the chat. I have a win. I'm driving so I, I can't see anything. So this is Patty. Hi Patty. Lovely for you to join in. Thank you. My win was I had a two hour body work, reiki and reflexology session yesterday and it was phenomenal. Oh my feel amazing. That's amazing. Good for you. Two hours. I hope they massaged all the kinks, moved all the stagnant energy. That sounds fantastic. What a way to, to just enjoy the week. So thank you for sharing that. Take your time. Awesome. I am celebrating today that I have cooked a lot of my own meals this week, almost everything from scratch in fact. And found healthier ways to make some of the things that I enjoy. My boyfriend isn't completely on board with every way that I am eating so I have to sneak ways to, to, you know, find him enjoying actual food that he would normally not necessarily be completely fond of or willing to do. Same with my brother in law. So I always make them like gluten free cookies without telling Them, you know, and make dishes with healthier swaps and they end up loving it. They have no clue. So a lot of that happened this weekend. I made my partner spaghetti squash instead of his regular bolognese and we just used, you know, half of a spaghetti squash and put all the fixins and all the good stuff in it and he was blown away. So I always love when a non healthy believer kind of turns into a healthy believer. So that is a huge win for me today. And also finding just healthy, fun recipes to make that are super simple and easy and kind of follow along with the topic that we're going to be chatting about today. So before we get started on that, I would love to just shout everybody out that wrote some comments here. So Nikki is saying, I'm just grateful to be here with you. You make a fantastic coach and have motivated to start practicing my lymph work. Thank you, Nikki. Thank you so much for your beautiful words. I truly appreciate it and I'm so grateful that anybody that wants to help themselves can come here and have information to do so. So it's, you know, you're always welcome. You know, lifetime access to these calls. Any and all times you have any sort of, you know, you need some sort of community or connection or clarity. We're always here for you. So thank you so much for your feedback. Jennifer is sleeping more than eight hours. Very out of the ordinary, especially on a weeknight. Congratulations. What's the secret sauce?

I don't know.

I was just really tired and I went to bed, which is probably what I should always be doing instead of looking at the clock at 10 o' clock and going, no, I can do something else now. Yep, it's that constant to do list that's always plaguing us. But I'm glad, I'm glad you're listening to those tired cues. And I remember years ago in actually high school, I used to pull all nighters all the time. I was that person and I partnered, there was a group project and I partnered with a girl that was the complete opposite of that. And I remember her teaching me at such a young age. She's like, once it's past 10, what, what else? What good more can happen like in the day? Like, what else do you really need to be doing past 10? And I'm like, nobody's ever questioned me like that. You know, I actually need to listen to that. Like nothing good happens past 10. So whatever you can do up to 10, do it. And the rest, it can wait till tomorrow. So just a Nice subtle reminder we can all use for ourselves. I know I still can from time to time, especially when the kitchen's dirty. I'm like, oh, I just need a. Just one more thing. I need to get that for the morning. So sometimes things can't wait, which is nice. Nikki is saying time change has really affected many of my patients this week. They're all saying the same. Yes. Yeah, I know a lot of people have in the last week or two, myself included, have had a lot of sleeping issues, just random nightmares, waking up, and also some stomach bugs, which was very interesting. So some people, I noticed just because I have a broad, you know, sweep of many different people's health journeys, for a short window, they were waking up in the middle of the night with, like, intense stomach pains, which I thought was very interesting and kind of weirdly aligned with some people and not with others. So very interesting what the full moon can do sometimes. So for today, I'm going to be going into a quick little meditative practice with you all. This one is specifically catered towards reclaiming our maybe misplaced power. So sometimes we place power in the hands of food, you know, or maybe other comforts that we rely on, and we think that, you know, we're almost powerless or food is in control of us and it could be even with our relationships with ourselves, you know, maybe we've misplaced where that power comes from within ourselves. And so this meditation just kind of helps you realign something, see where and in fact how powerful you really are and how to reclaim some of that power back. So for whoever can participate, would love if you could, you can just sit in your chair comfortably. Feel free to have your eyes open or closed. Cameras can be off or on, whatever is most comfortable for you. And then I'm going to go ahead and share this lovely meditative practice here. So let me know if you all can hear.

This week on Live Awake. Reclaiming our misplaced power. We are born connected to source. We come from the womb, strongly connected to the throbbing universal constellations. We float buoyant in a sea, safe and comforting love that surrounds us from our conception until the time we enter the real world where we take our first breath. We know nothing but love. Give and receive it freely, for we know no other way. Our power is thick and dense and coursing through our veins. We are comprised of a wonderful medley of love and power, beautifully coalescing into form, soft and sweet as a newborn child. As we grow, the world of form presents before us a barrage of different scenarios that dance into our frame, each one inspiring us to exude more of our love or make us retract or withhold. To those we give love, we and them grow more full, creating more of that loving feeling. To those we close and call hateful words, both we and them become small and less luminous. Gradually, without knowing, we give small portions of our power away to each such scenario which has made us feel closed or restricted or condemning in the act of doing so, we unknowingly yet willingly hand to it a small pouch of our most precious gift. And what happens is slowly the more we give away, the more we close. Our free spirits become feeling stuck and unable to enjoy the gifts of our life because something seems to be paralyzing our joy. The conundrum, being, is that while we think we are protecting ourselves by pulling away and closing, we are in fact slowly being robbed of our pure and natural state. We are not aware of all the power we keep giving to others. And that attached to each pouch of this power is a golden thread. And this thread invisibly connects us to the person or thing we have given it to. We become divided and pulled into a million different directions, spread out to different corners of hate and resentment. We end up feeling displaced, lacking and empty, void of something we can't quite put our finger on. And while we felt justified in closing to say the father who hurt us or the mother who wasn't there, or the lover that made us feel small or called us things we weren't, we've unconsciously given them reign over our boundless spirits. We have let them walk away with a pocket of our power without realizing a very, very important piece. They have unconsciously tried to place their pain onto your shoulders because it's heavy and they don't want to carry it anymore. And you have in turn agreed to carry some of their pain and given them a piece of your greatness. Actions become clouded when we have wandered too far from our loving centers, when we have given away too much of our power. Those hurting the most have emptied themselves of their own source and are crying out because they have lost who they are and forgotten the magnificence of their being. Once we begin to see the pain thrown upon us is not ours. How silly it would seem to keep doling out precious pouches of our powerful gift to unconscious souls, trying to get rid of their heavy baggage. Not only that, but we are adding more fuel to their pain. The more we close to someone, the more love we don't give another. The more we fuse their scars, the more real. We make their pain. An animal caught in a trap will lash out if you try and let them loose. For they feel powerless in the face of life. They have become victims of circumstance and are unable to see the same thing that has hurt them can also set them free. And close your eyes. Focus on the air filling your lungs and gently leaving through your nose. Focus on the soft spot in between your eyes. See each breath coming into your body. As your soul expanding into its fullest form. Feel the greatness of your being rising into perfection and strength. Feel it filling you with great power and abundance. With each exhale. Release love. Let it spill from your lungs out into the world. Let it spread over every surface outside. Let it spread over the hurt caused by others and the hurt in the other. Let your own power and strength and greatness fill your lungs and being into complete wholeness. And exhale love. By doing this, everything around you and within you becomes free. This is how you can realign with your greatness, your intended state of love. This is how you can come home. Follow the golden threads back to those dark places and pour light and honey over the hurt and pain of the other. Thank them, love them, and realize that is all anyone is ever searching for. Open the trap holding them hostage and release them into love. The beauty of love is there is no cap. We can give as much as we want. It will always pour into what we see fit. Remain in your own power, even in the face of great injustice and great pain. Stand in faithful, knowing that you are standing in a storm that is not yours. Ground yourself in the only truth that you are always connected to Source. Your power and love are yours to own and live from. I promise, no matter how fierce the storm the others are creating, no matter how many times they try and break you down, if you hold in all of your love and all of your power, they will see no reason to keep rallying against you. The golden thread tying you to the hurt will shatter into a million pieces of light and you will become free as life carries on. Remain in your strength and your love. Reclaim your misplaced pockets of power and see that all of life is a great mystery showering you with unending gifts. Reclaim all that you are born from and all that you have been given. And walk openly into the abundance surrounding you with new eyes and hunger for the splendor that is yours to soak in.

All right, everyone. Slowly coming back from that. I hope that that was relaxing. Maybe eye opening. In some ways, I really love how Sarah Blondin says you know go to those cracks and pour light and honey into them. You know, so often we go back and, you know, we can scold ourselves or shame ourselves for not knowing enough, maybe not doing enough, you know, knowing what to do and not making time for it. And there's no point in looking back and, you know, seeing an. A lesser or, you know, not updated version of ourselves and then putting ourselves further down. And while we should really be giving ourselves that love that we pour into others and, you know, maybe everything else that we do, we deserve that same level of love back. And, you know, while she did touch on a lot of aspects of reclaiming your power, you know, more or less with people or with past situations, it very much can apply to things and, you know, relationships outside of person to person. Like I kind of mentioned, like, your relationship with your body, your relationship with food. That's something that, you know, is extremely common and I see very commonly as well, especially in that initial call that I typically have with my clients and the whole notion of, you know, will this work for me? Will the second I put food back in, you know, in the maintenance phase, will all the weight come back on? And while that's in a completely normal, completely valid fear in my mind, I'm almost. I almost like to just kind of cut the tension and bring it back to the fact that you are in control. And I like to say, you know, food will never spontaneously jump in your mouth. It cannot do that. And so therefore, everything that lands in your mouth is. Is put there on purpose or is put there, you know, maybe on impulse or on reaction. And so these are the wirings that we're trying to, you know, wire in maybe a different way that's updated to your software, to your mentality, to your lifestyle now. So thank you all so much for participating in that with me. And I would love to jump into today's presentation that goes through some of the best practices to focus on after maintenance. So while there's tons to say on this topic, I will be specifically focusing on the nutrition aspect, kind of piggybacking off what Annalisa was presenting last week with her food prepping, her meal prepping. And so the usual suspects, of course, to maintain overall weight maintenance, you know, overall health, hormone balance, low inflammation, everything is going to be a heavy emphasis on the nutrition coming in. Of course, the sleep that we are or not getting, the movement we are or not doing, and slash, maybe are or not enjoying, which is also very important, and our daily hydration. So for today, I'm going to Be mainly focusing on the nutrition side of things. So as you kind of move into the maintenance phase and anybody around that phase and beyond, this is kind of the best way, I find, without being overly consumed, pun intended, with what you're eating and how much you're eating. Following this simple, lovely plate formula is what I recommend for everybody. So that visually, whenever you are creating a meal, you can roughly see your plate and then determine, you know, if I'm lacking maybe some vegetables, maybe there's some color I'm not including, maybe my protein isn't taking up 25% of my plate. So this way it just gives you a great general overall view visually without whipping out your scale, without, you know, going to a family friend's house or event or get together and not feel confident about the portions, especially if it's buffet style, how to choose those things. So what you're typically going to focus on is 50% leafy greens. That's going to be half your plate. It could be a side salad. The more you can stick to the approved food lists, those are again going to be your highest nutrition, lowest glycemic index. And that's super important when it comes to balancing your blood sugars. You want to continue to choose low glycemic food. That's not going to spike your blood sugars. It's going to be a nice, steady, even release due to the carb and the sugar content in that food. And I also find sequencing of food is also very important. So anybody that does monitor their blood sugar readings, even playing around with the sequencing of food. So if you notice that your blood sugar readings are tend to be a little bit higher when you eat carbs, even though you eat them seldomly, you don't have them all the time. Maybe it's just once or twice a week. Maybe experiment with having your leafy greens first or your protein first. That way you have a lot of great fiber that maybe the carbs will then need to travel through, and that will help stabilize your blood sugar readings. When eating that exact same food that you were eating before, you're just switching up the sequence in how you're eating them. So about 50% leafy greens, you know, the leafier the better. If you can include some watercress, that's amazing. It's very, very nutrient dense. But any and all from the lists that we've provided of the free vegetables are going to be fantastic to continue to include, of course, continue to include any and all vegetables. Vegetables are always going to be your best friend versus you know, flowers and versus other things that could be more inflammatory. But of course see what is uniquely resonating with you and your body and the maintenance phase will definitely teach you that. And there's also amazing tests as well that exist that I know Deepa has touched on in the past when it comes to too and myself as well when it comes to the DNA report and also the food inflammation test. Those are going to give you some great really granular insight and really high tailored to you, which is also helpful but again not completely necessary. You know, if you do the reintroductory phase, if you are very honed in on your intuition, if you are tracking, you know, your weight and how you're feeling and the way that you're sleeping, you can decipher those things usually for yourself. But of course that high level overview might, you know, might the results can choose something that maybe you weren't aware of was creating an inflammatory reaction in your system. So for different purposes, you know, those different methods are great. So all in all to say the plate formula is a great catch all for any and all of those plants. So including like I said, 50% leafy greens, 25% of a starchy veggie slash complex carb question I get often is can I rotate or can I use vegetables and complex carbs? Do I have to use one or the other? Can I use a little bit of both? And so to that I say that's where the experimentation is needed. I find that most people can do well with a half portion of starchy veg, with a half portion of a complex carb. Complex carb being something like brown rice or you can do quinoa gluten free oats. You know, any one of those are really great options and it really depends on how well your body metabolizes. And again you might know this from just experience from re from doing elimination and reintroductory diets. Or you could have had some testing that lets, you know, hey, you know, maybe my body is best on running on healthy fats. I have a really great fat metabolization. So you know, maybe something like a keto paleo diet would be more of a hit for you. Whereas somebody that is, you know, lesser run on fats, they use carbs more often for their energy, might need to include more whole grains so that information can make an overall difference. But again you can get really, really granular with you and your body as well with your intuition. And that also also depends on how much you're exercising. So if you're not exercising a lot this week or let's say you're traveling, you know, you're maybe sitting down a little bit more or working in front of the desk. Maybe those extra carbs aren't necessary to fuel you for that time unless it's using a lot of brain power. I always found whenever I was at school, I was always ravishing, so hungry coming home from a lecture because my brain was just firing on all wires. So anytime you're doing mental heavy work, make sure to have a lot of healthy, you know, wild caught fish, grass fed meats. Those are going to be amazing at just fueling and giving you those healthy fats to boost your brain. 25% is going to be roughly a quality protein. If you're continuing to manage your weight and wanting to release more weight, focusing on a lean quality protein, the best option that you can possibly get your hands on is going to be the best bang for your buck. Protein really goes a really long way if you get it grass fed or wild caught. So making sure whatever it is that you're splurging on, let it be the protein source. That is what makes up the entirety of your cells, so much of your muscles, your hair, your skin, everything. So protein is going to be the biggest things to say. Spend, you know, a little bit extra on out of anything and then one to two servings of fat. So again, really deciding how much or noticing how much you feel like you need based off of the amount of activity that you have going on. And we can talk about activity at length as well. Probably need another Q and A in order to do so. We also have a really amazing guest speaker that went through all things activity. It is a little bit old now, it's probably about two years, but it would be great to have her on again and just to go into the different exercises. She shared so many different tips and tricks especially for women hovering around menopause and in those states and kind of how to work out for that time period. So that just gave me an idea. I'm gonna put it down in my suggestion box for our team because I think that would be really useful and helpful. Let me know in the comments if that's something that you all are feeling that would be helpful for your journey. So we can definitely go ahead and see if we can make that happen. And then of course, eating the rainbow, you know, we eat with our eyes. We want to make sure that our plate looks satisfying to us. So thank you, Jennifer for the hearts. I noticed that. Perfect. I'LL be taking that into account. And so, yeah, eating the rainbow. The rainbow has tons and tons and tons of different phytonutrients, different minerals. Like, you know, there's no shock that women tend to crave chocolate right before their cycle comes along. And what's cool about different random cravings is that the body actually recognizes certain minerals that are in that food that your body is actually craving. So sometimes it's not the actual food that you're craving. And for example, when it comes to chocolate, chocolate has magnesium in it. It's also really great because it has, you know, cacao and it has a little bit of sugar. So as you're entering the cycle, it's kind of all the things that your body is craving as a woman, but just as a little insight. So food also gives you really great indicators on maybe what your body could be needing a little bit more of in that time period. And so focusing on eating the rainbow is amazing. And here's this chart. I know it's probably coming up a little bit small maybe on your screens, but it's a chart that allows you to kind of focus in on the different macronutrients for the immune system and all of its different colors. So minerals for the immune system, phytonutrients, vitamins, different fats and oils. So I can share this in our Facebook group since it is quite a lot of info, but it's some really great info in there just to generally, you know, how to pick foods, where to find them, what foods are high in, what vitamins, in case you are lacking or in case you are curious that, hey, maybe I'm craving a lot of, you know, eggs. It could be that you are maybe a little bit low in vitamin D. You know, if you're craving lots of nuts and seeds, it could be that you could be a little bit low in omegas potentially as well. So that's why it's always really great to kind of eat the wheel and to include a lot of different colors because they do satisfy different areas of our taste buds and also areas of our nutrition. And you want to definitely try to stick to the most nutrient dense foods. And again, protein is going to be one of the most important things that you can prioritize when it comes to it. And so some of the most nutrient dense proteins that you can include, of course, are going to be more on an animal based protein diet. So these are going to be your organ meats, your liver, your heart, your spleen. It's super high in vitamin A B12, iron and copper. Your grass fed beef, it's one of the richest in terms of protein, venison as well, which is quite lean. So anybody that can get their hands on venison, that is also an amazing source of protein. It's rich in zinc, which is amazing at boosting your immune system. Iron for ladies, especially if you're still releasing blood or having a cycle. B vitamins which are fantastic. Omega 3s. Same with wild caught fish, salmon, sardines and mackerel. I actually just found a sardine recipe. I'm trying to get on board with eating sardines. It's, it's a bit of a struggle, I'm not going to lie. But they're so good for you. I need to find a way and there's this lovely influencer that created a recipe that I hopefully will be able to try and promote. So I can tell everyone, you know, maybe you can try it as well because, because it's so good at just collagen and protein and you know, amazing omegas, especially if it's wild caught. So including that at least once to twice a week as best as possible. Eggs if you can tolerate them. So again introducing, trying to do your egg white and yolk separately. The egg white tends to have kind of more of an inflammatory response for some people while that yolk tends to be fine. So, so make sure that's good for you. And of course, you know, bone broth, where have we not seen bone broth these days? It's filled with collagen, glycine minerals and it's just chock full of amazing gut health bacteria or gut health promoting bacteria. So making sure you're really putting a lot of emphasis in your protein. Your protein kind of starts off everything and then sticking to some nutrients, nutrient dense vegetables. So again, all the veggies that we've included on the lists from, from the approved foods are going to be foods you want to include in, in more or less a frequent rotation. So your dark leafy greens are going to be just amazing for so many different reasons. One of which is actually really good for your deep sleep. So from leafy greens especially, you know, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, those are chock full of magnesium, vitamin K and F, folate. So those minerals, especially the magnesium is used in that deep sleep state and it helps to kind of just clear your brain head into autophagy a little bit faster and just scrub out everything that your brain deems as waste from the day. So it helps that process along. So I Don't know, Jennifer, if you've been eating more dark, leafy greens, but the mystery continues in that case. Hopefully some of it is contributing to your. Your lovely sleep that you've had. Cruciferous vegetables, especially for ladies, make sure that this is cooked because of the different phytoestrogens that can be activated sometimes with broccoli and cruciferous vegetables past the age of 40. But including at least a serving of these is really amazing at just removing excess estrogen that the body could be storing. Sea vegetables such as kelp nori are amazing at iodine, trace minerals, B vitamins, you know, they're amazing for anybody that is on a vegan diet especially as well. You can find a lot of trace minerals that you can't find, you know, in other foods in sea vegetables, such as kelp. And a lot of great omegas in there as well. Same with avocados. Berries are fantastic. High in antioxidants, lots of different colors in those, and those are always low sugar, which is amazing because they taste pretty sweet, especially in season. So making sure you stock up on a lot of berries, fermented vegetables, kimchi, sauerkraut, those are fantastic. Even just doing like a probiotic is amazing kefir for any or kefir for anybody that enjoys dairy as well. Making sure your nuts and seeds are sprouted, so that allows just a huge increase of nutrients from the actual nuts and seeds. It kind of help opens up the pod a little bit, and it makes a lot more of the nutrition actually bioavailable for your body to take up, and it breaks down some of the compounds that can create a bit of indigestion or stomach discomfort. So whenever you can, if you do see that something is sprouted, it is of higher nutrient value than its competitor that is not sprouted and just a little bit easier for your gut because, again, it does not have teeth. Our gut does not have, you know, unstoppable forces to bust open some nuts and seeds. So this process just really helps it along. And so whenever you are cooking, try to stick to healthier fats when cooking. And depending on, you know, the type of heat that you're using, the oil that you're using to cook that food can change. So oftentimes I see, you know, on the intake form that many people use olive oil as their primary cooking oil, which is not necessarily the worst option, but there's definitely options that are better that are just going to help you retain more of that nutrient value inside the actual oil. So olive oil is huge in polyphenols, so many amazing antioxidants. But when we heat it, especially on high heat cooking, it denatures and breaks down a lot of those cells. So we feel like we should be getting a lot more nutrition, but we're actually kind of flambeing it in the whole process of cooking. So I find that olive oil is best at very low temperatures, you know, very low levels of cooking. I honestly don't even use it for cooking because I love just its, its organic content as it is. So just drizzles over different things is what I like to use it for. And especially salad dressings. Fantastic. Or even doing like a little shot in the morning. I've been trying to do that every so often. It's just a very intense flavor. So that one's a slow burn. But it's amazing at just healthy fats. Amazing for your skin, amazing for just juicing your brain in the morning. But if you want to do any sort of high heat cooking, switching to something like avocado oil or ghee or even beef tallow, those are going to retain majority of their nutrient value even when cooked at the very high high heat settings. So that you know that you're still getting the healthy omegas, you're still getting the healthy oils and you're not eating kind of of just dead, dead food, if that makes a, if that makes sense in a sort of way. And it's really easy to even make ghee and beef tallow on your own. So I've been looking into different ways actually this morning to make it for myself because that's my next weekend project. So I'll keep you all posted once I get that sorted. But it's really cool you can, you know, create a lot of this stuff yourself. It takes a little bit of investment to have different oils to choose from. But over time, especially if you love cooking and you enjoy making foods at home, this is a really great, easy and healthy solution to other cooking oils. So if you have anything else at home, I'm never a fan of completely throwing things out unless it's like absolutely terrible for your health. Use what you already have and moving forward, purchase something that is more of a high quality. I know that Costco has really, really huge packs, bulk packs of avocado oil and they're fairly priced as well. So for anybody just starting out, some stick with that. It's a great catch all. It's amazing for dressings, salad dressings, and also for high heat cooking. So if you want to Just keep one. I would recommend the avocado oil. Another question I often get is, what about breakfast? Should I be including breakfast? You know, I feel really great on fasting. Will, you know, all of the results go away once I add a breakfast? So you're definitely welcome to add a breakfast. I would say. Most people in the maintenance phase and beyond tend to follow a Monday to Friday routine. So if the 8:16 fasting is working well, you feel energized, you don't feel deprived at any part of your day, definitely go ahead and continue that. If on the weekends you had a little bit of extra time, if you wanted to, you know, sit down with your family or host a friend, or, you know, just enjoy some extra time with yourself, cook yourself a nice breakfast, you are more than welcome to do so. So the general rule of thumb is again, focusing on how much activity you have during the day and then keeping a good quality protein and a fruit in each of your meals that you're choosing. So if you are having a breakfast this day and including a fruit, you don't need to include one for the dinner if you have one with lunch as well. So it's up to you where you wanted to enjoy it. As I know a lot of people like to have fruit for dessert or sorry, for breakfast as well, which can also be kind of dessert like, which is really nice. So recommending something like one grain, one protein, one fruit, and a coffee or tea of your choosing. Reishi, of course, is always going to be highly beneficial as well. So couple of options that kind of satisfy all three of these that make really good breakfast options is doing something like scrambled eggs or even scrambled tofu or, you know, baked beans if you wanted to as a vegan or a vegetarian with cauliflower, rice and berries on the side, which would be fantastic. You could do paleo turkey sausages with sweet potato mash. If you have not tried sweet potato mash, you are missing out. It is so delicious. It's, you know, it's just, it's fabulous with egg yolks as well. I had it on the weekend as well and it's just so good. So much better than your regular spuds because it adds that little bit of sweetness and it's lower on the glycemic index and full of carotenoids, which are amazing at just boosting vitamin C in the body too. And alongside that, apple slices. So something to kind of go with the turkey, go with the sweet potato mash, which is really good if you like breakfast or More of a dessert breakfast type of person. If you enjoy the sweeter side, doing something like a chia seed pudding, they are fantastic. They taste so good. You can put in, you know, a healthy milk such as a coconut milk, which is high in great fats. The chia seeds are amazing protein and omegas. And then on top of that, you could put in even some almond butter for added protein and some berries or whatever other fixings you have on the side. My personal favorite, I love smoked salmon. So on the weekends, if I have extra time, I do smoked salmon with cottage cheese, avocado and cucumber. Little bites. And they're so good, so filling. I'm more of a savory type of person. You put in different spices, whatever you're feeling that day, and it's just so it's, it gets to this, you know, it hits the spot. I feel energized throughout the entire day. And there's no more of that kind of crash or slump. So I find if you do see that you are, you know, crashing, or when you have carbs, you feel like you're tired or you're moody or whatnot, maybe try rotating out those carbs or maybe try omitting them all together and see if the other components of the food is satisfactory enough. For so long, I thought I had to have bread or I thought I had to have pasta or a cereal or a rice. And then I started swapping it out for different things and I found that I just had so much more energy throughout the day and felt so much better and was much more stabilized. So really picking those things out for yourself and see what works. And so that takes you to grocery shopping. So then, you know, the issue begins of, great. Now I don't have the release phase when I'm grocery shopping. It's kind of free reigns. So here are a few tips that I find are really helpful when you go grocery shopping. So you don't over buy, of course, and you, you try to choose kind of like the healthiest options and you're not tempted by some of the maybe junkier things that you can find. So staying in the parameters of the store is most important. That's where you're going to tend to find, you know, all of your whole foods. That's where your produce is going to be. That's where your meats and cheeses and usually the deli or the butcher is going to be. That's going to be away from any sort of packaged and processed products. Usually when you're in those Parameters. And it's in the aisles that I find we get lost and we get tempted. So, I mean, first, actually, first and foremost is never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. It does not work. You buy things you would have never picked up in the first place, and nobody knows why until we've eaten. So do yourself the favor of, you know, being satisfied before you go and eat with your eyes in a grocery store. Staying within the parameters as best as possible. And if you need to go in to get, you know, a specific sauce or a specific seasoning, get in and get out. Don't really look at much else, because that is where the temptation can come from. But if you do want to look at new products, you know, definitely don't be scared of it. I definitely recommend inspecting the ingredients thoroughly so there's no foods that are necessarily horrible. But let's say you have, you know, let's say you really love burgers, and burgers is something that you're not willing to let go of. And the burgers you were buying weren't necessarily the cleanest burgers. So the next step would be, where can I find a cleaner version of this burger? At least, at the very least, with ingredients that I can fully understand. None of it is a chemical or scientific name. These are all things that I can find in my home, in my pantry, or in Farmer Joe's store, I like to say. So the closer to Farmer Joe's quality you can get, the better. And sometimes that is the next step when you're choosing healthier foods. Choosing locally grown, of course, supporting our communities is amazing. Getting familiar with where the food is coming from. Often, if it's traveling for a really long time, it's losing a lot of the nutrient value in transition. So you want to buy foods that didn't take too long, that were picked at close peakness and that were supporting your local farmers because that was also grown in the soil that you are familiar with. And so that soil is going to have a lot of gut microbiome bacteria in it that is going to help either promote your gut flora or maybe take away from it a little bit. So locally grown has multiple different benefits. For that reason, organic and whole food as best as you could get your hands on, of course. Consulting EWG, Dirty Dozen and Clean15 to see where you can splurge on some of the organic foods, where you can get away with buying some of the conventional foods is important. Ingredient inspection, of course, really, really important, especially when it comes to sneaky sugars getting in. I did A post a couple weeks ago now, about 75 different names of sugar and how it's kind of concealed in product labeling these days. Because, you know, whenever we see or read sugar or honey or any of those options, we of course know that there's sugar involved. But it's when they use some of their broken down, you know, substrates like dextrose, fructose, sucrose, that's where it can kind of get lost in the descriptions. So definitely making sure you're reading all of the labels. It's super important, helping to bring your own canvas bags as well, not using the plastic bags that they have, A, for reusability purposes, but B, why have your food touch plastic if you don't need it to shop in season? Things are always going to be much more affordable when we shop in season. So making sure you're keeping up to date. And that'll also help you eat the rainbow naturally. It'll help you to, you know, be more cost effective. It'll be way more nutrient dense if you're shopping in season. And it'll also give you that variety that maybe we're not including on a, on a month to month basis because we, you know, get really close with the foods that we like. We like to stick to those and we don't tend to venture off. So maybe try a new, new veggie, new fruit that you haven't experimented with in a while. And also buying frozen, frozen is fantastic. You know, oftentimes people, whenever you're freezing food, they flash freeze it when it's at peak ripeness. So when you receive that, you know, whether it's berries or veggies or whatever, it's also great at just keeping in the fridge and not going bad for a little while. So if you travel often, that's a great, just a tip to have. But also it's, it's very high in nutrient value as well. Since it is frozen, it retains all of it. So I love my wild blueberries frozen because it makes it so much more cost effective and wild blueberries specifically are much higher in antioxidants. So buying frozen, you know, don't be scared of buying organic frozen foods. They are great when you're in a pinch and much better substitutes than fast food or takeout. And so you want to start choosing whole food swaps that are actually healthy swaps but that still give you the satisfaction of having those indulgent foods or maybe having some of those meals that you used to really love. And so I made a post about this as well, in the Facebook group. But I really love how, you know, you can still enjoy nearly the exact same dish by just swapping out the vehicle in which you are shoveling it with into your mouth. So, for instance, anybody that loves tacos, you know, choosing maybe a Boston lettuce wrap or a romaine lettuce wrap like we have in the program and maybe sticking to that instead of having your traditional taco knife moving forward. Or maybe it's rotating it with cassava shells, which are low glycemic, which are not and are anti inflammatory and they are much less calories than your typical flour or corn tortillas. You know, swapping out maybe regular rice with cauliflower rice. I even really love broccoli rice. So anything riced, if you have a ricer, it's very, very easy. Even if you have a box grater, you know, start experimenting with ricing some of your whole vegetable vegetables that you have, especially some of the root vegetables. Some of the vegetables we don't always want to touch or don't always know what to do with. They might be so much better in rice formed. And there's a delicious edamame recipe in the guide as well. I believe I posted it on Wednesday. Where you use the cauliflower rice as like the stir fry base edamame on top, or you can use whatever protein it is that you enjoy and then throw in all the free vegetables that you can possibly handle. So my personal favorite was I loved bok choy, I loved red onion. I loved lots of peppers as well. So it's a meal that is super satisfying. You don't crash after you feel amazing and all you've eaten was vegetables, which is fantastic and good quality protein. And of course, zoodles. You know, zoodles, you can use zucchini noodles in place of regular noodles. Spaghetti squash noodles are literally fantastic. Made maybe 40 calories for half of a zucchini squash, which is unreal if you ask me. So there's plenty of ways to create the same feeling when it comes to a dish. Just choosing out healthier swaps. And so, you know, I use this example often, but, like, nobody can tell me twice about potatoes. I love potatoes. Potatoes will never be out of my life for the foreseeable future, but I like to experiment with different ways of making it healthier. So for instance, whenever I'm making mashed potatoes, similarly with, with my family, I like to sneak healthy swaps in it. And so I'll put half a portion of cauliflower of boiled cauliflower into the mashed potatoes and I mash it all together and nobody can tell the difference. And just like that, with that one simple hack, you're able to cut that carb load nearly in half. And so. And it tastes exactly the same. So glowing reviews. You know, have your pet or have your family be your pet guinea pigs when it comes to testing out new yummy, delicious, but also healthy recipes. They do exist. They are here. We do try to share as many as we can find too, so we'll keep those coming as well. But it all starts with making an agreement with yourself. You know, it's so easy to say, okay, you know, I want to eat healthier. Okay, how? There's so many ways to eat healthier. And so that's where I find making your own personal agreements are so key. For instance, you know, one I've mentioned before is instead of saying to myself, what can I take out of this dish to make it healthier? I ask myself, what can I add in? How can I make this more nutrient dense? Or let's say, you know, for instance, if I'm, you know, going out to an event or there is, you know, food being served at a birthday or, you know, get together or, or whatever have you, I'll either eat before going if I know I'll feel tempted, or when I get there, I'll have a big free vegetable salad. So I know all that fiber is getting in. I'm giving myself the gift of nutrition, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and then having some good quality protein. Once I've satisfied myself nutritionally, then I allow myself maybe one or two indulgences if I even have space at that point. So that way it's never a no. Like, I never have to tell myself, no. I say, okay, but first this, and then you can do whatever you want. Which satisfies my inner rebel and it makes her go completely away, funny enough. So find what those agreements are for you. Keep those as if they are, you know, your word, because that's what's going to help you keep on track even outside of the program. You have to really find things that are going to work for you specifically, see where the weak points are, see where you are craving or where you do find temptation. Because often that's going to be the next step, to unblock and have more confidence, have more consistency when it comes to your eating routines. And so my final note is I would love to know what some agreements are that you're making for yourself. You know, are you agreeing to get outside every single day? Are you agreeing to, you know, spend five minutes every single day doing positive affirmations around yourself, around food, around the future? Are you, you know, making a healthy swap and saying, no more gluten for myself? I'm finding alternative ways to enjoy gluten, or maybe I'm just cutting it out altogether. Choose what works for you. Choose what is unique and is actually going to be fun to keep up with. I'm a creature of creativity. I need to have freedom. I need to have creative flux. And so the questions of how can I add more to this? Or what can I do to help myself in this allows me that kind of vision of what else can I do? Instead of telling myself, oh, this was wrong, or, you know, maybe I did too much of this, I should be ashamed, or I'm not going to eat enough later. That's not what's actually going to get me to a healthier space. That is, you know, that is kind of scolding myself for a decision that you want to make very confidently, very, you know, clearly for yourself. So give yourself grace. Have fun with the process. Make agreements, you know, maybe have one or two agreements fail. Maybe that wasn't the agreement for you, and that was supposed to happen that way. So that is my presentation for today. Thank you so much, everybody, for tuning in for listening. I know I tend to ramble sometimes, so I do apologize if you. If you've just been hearing my voice for the last hour, but I would love to hear any and all questions or any comments from anybody, whether it's what we talked about or not. I'm happy to chat about anything. Oh, yes, Lisa, love to hear what your questions are for today.

Hi. Hello. How you doing? I was wondering, I have a lot of people going into the maintenance phase now, which is pretty cool, right? But they have a lot of questions about, like, what they can and what they can't eat and, you know, questions in reference to the amount of carbs and how they should start to introduce foods. And when I did my maintenance, I kind of kept the same diet, but just added oils back in and didn't really add the. The other foods in. And. And another question is how to do maintenance without still losing weight, because I have several people that reach their goal during the release phase and they don't want to lose any more weight. So if there is a strategy for helping them to still continue to eat healthy on the maintenance plan, but not to continue to lose weight as they do that.

Yeah, definitely. Great question. So, roughly, for maintenance and beyond, you want to focus on about 40% fat, 30% carbs, and about 30% protein.

Okay, so the 40, 30, 30 diet, okay.

Yes. Yeah, more or less. And then when it comes to clients continuing to release weight, adjusting how many carbs they're including. So instead of it just being the starchy vegetables that they're including with each meal, make sure that they're also including a portion of carbs. If that is still not maintaining their weight, you can add in another portion of fat to see if that helps to stabilize it. It usually does. And if not, they can introduce a third meal.

So. Okay, so I want to make sure I'm clear. So, so when they're, when they're starting, when, when they're, when, when they shift and they're trying not to lose weight, they, they can add the starches back. They should add the starches back first or second? I. I'm not sure if I was.

Yes, first. Okay, so this is them in. In the maintenance phase, correct?

Yes, yeah, in the maintenance. And. And having had reached their weight weight loss goals and, and afraid that they're going to continue to lose weight.

Got you, got you. So of course they're going to start adding fats back in. First and foremost, yeah, that, that. I didn't mention that because I just assumed that goes without saying. But first and foremost, yes, the fats go back in. And then if they're continuing to release weight, which often does happen actually in the maintenance phase, whether people want it or not, it's kind of funny that way. Including an extra serving of fat at that point. And then when they start including the carbs, having them continue to include them and maybe maybe include the carbs a little faster, even though it's in the fat category phase towards like the first week of them introducing foods back in, if they're releasing weight, I would still add them back in.

Okay. I know that there was a form that, that they originally added into the Facebook group. I think Natalie added it in for people who were doing a reset but didn't want to lose weight. And it sounds like similar to that. Is that similar to the same plan that you just mentioned?

Ish. So people who want to do the program, you know, from the start and not want to release any sort of weight, then there is a full different protocol that we even begin with in that sense. But if somebody has reached it earlier than the six weeks, they can move into a faster maintenance so that you're not continuing in that. Or if they wanted to still get the healing benefits of continuing to Take the spray. Following the protocol, we can add in modifications such as adding in carbs during their process.

Got it. Okay, so. And during the process. Okay, so this is slightly different, but I'm, I'm. They're going to be really happy about and the starchy carbs back, I bet.

Yeah, everybody is.

Everybody's always happy about adding the starchy carbs back. But really it should only really be one serving. Right, Matt?

Yes. Ideally in the earlier meal of the day just so their body can kind of process it throughout and it doesn't mess with the balancing blood sugars.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Oh, and I always have the crazy questions like the okra and this and that, like the, the different vegetables. Are there any restrictions in the, of the, like the greeny kind of vegetables or any restrictions in maintenance?

No maintenance. There's nothing in terms of restriction. That's every food you are curious about getting a reaction from. Those are going to be the things you want to introduce. So any and all those crazy things, that is your time to test the waters.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

My pleasure. Thank you for your questions.

You're welcome.

Oh, looks like Becca has some sardine recipes I would love. I would love to try it. I'm desperately looking to enjoy sardines at this point. It's just such a great, great nutrient dense food. So please send them my way, Becca, if at all possible. I would love that, Barb. Yes, it possibly could. I'm not entirely sure, you know, especially with your sister's in exact case. So it's hard for me to say, but broccoli can be beneficial. It's just dependent on the woman's age again. So I wouldn't necessarily follow that of course alone, but it's something that we can look into to see if you're. It will benefit your sister, including more of those cruciferous vegetables for sure. And Becca, okay, let me get you the Facebook group link here because you should be getting those posts for sharp. So I'm going to type it, I'm going to get it into the comments right now.

Go.

Yeah, I like that quote too, Nikki. Thanks for, for writing that. Yeah. Never say no to yourself. Just satisfy the inner rebel with a healthier swap. Exactly. We all have that inner rebel and so we need to, we definitely need to honor her, you know, if she's there or we have maybe another little character that lives inside of us. Who knows? I am definitely one that enjoys rebelling for sure because I love the freedom. So I have to work with myself. I can't say no. I have to figure those things out. And maybe, maybe this weekend will be a great kind of a Runway for you all to see what character lives inside of you. Like, what is that internal dialogue? Where does he or she take you to mentally? What does he or she think? You know, in different scenarios? Really get curious with that inner voice because that is often such a cool gateway into more of a deep version of ourselves. And it could give you a lot of answers, which is really fun. Excuse me. My voice is now saying, I've had enough talking for the day. Awesome. Bye, Lisa, lovely to see you. Enjoy your Friday.

Thank you.

Any final questions from anybody coming up before we end off for today? Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Nikki, for your wonderful comments. Hi, Barb. Lovely to see you. Welcome on the call. Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Enjoy and we will see you all on the coming Friday call. Take care, everyone. Bye.