Meal Plan Intro - by JMS

So, before I get into the ‘food’ and ‘meal’ aspect of this plan, I want to make sure you realize that you can follow this plan to a ‘T’, which you will probably do, because you are good at following directions… And you will eventually begin to lose weight because that’s what happens to our bodies when we consistently cut calories. However, if you are looking to gain the highest benefits from this meal plan and achieve long term benefits from it, then you will need to pair it with a consistent exercise program!

I’m totally serious about that!

If you follow this meal plan and do not exercise, your body will continue to get used to eating fewer calories, and therefore you’ll continue to reduce the rate at which your metabolism burns calories! Thus, in the long run, this meal plan will do more harm than it does good because once you stop this plan, you will gain everything back and then some.

Now, when I say you need to exercise, I don’t mean that it has to be intense; it just has to be something. For example; every night when you get home from work, whether it’s hot or cold, rain or shine, go walk around the block 10 times! Make it a habit! Take the dog with you and do this everyday for a month to start with and just focus on creating the habit!

Don’t focus on the weight loss right away and don’t even focus on walking fast or anything like that yet… Just focus on making it happen! Don’t let anything get in the way of these walks! Don’t allow yourself the pleasure of sitting down to watch TV or to read until you first take care of business and take care of you! Also on these walks don’t think about ‘stressful’ things. Don’t think about how many calories you are or are not burning and don’t think about things that are negative, stress you out, or make you worried. Think about positive things and things that make you happy. After a month of walking around the block 10 times, your whole neighborhood will probably start to refer to you as the ‘crazy lady’ who walks around and around and around the block, but give no ear to them my dear as these losers also the same people who will be whistling at you under their breath once you’ve reached your goal!

I will also give you a list of stretches that you will need to do every night before falling asleep. At first the stretching may seem ridiculous and you may feel awkward doing them, but I promise you that if you stick with them you will not only look forward to them but you will see and feel the results. The one thing you don’t want to do while stretching is to think about how much you hate your body! This is the last thing you want to do, and I know it will happen because you’re a woman, and like us all, we tend to find the things we don’t like about ourselves and focus on them. But when you stretch, think about things that make you smile. This is the time to love yourself from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet and just relax. The benefits of stretching are many and I have personally experienced them. As you learn to relax and learn how to release tension in your body, your body in turn will begin to allow extra fat in your body to be flushed out. Basically I believe that our body holds onto fat because of stress. When we don’t find a way to release that stress, we stay fat!

Something I’ve witnessed is something we all tend to do as human beings - we tend to set goals for ourselves and never achieve them! We’ll say, I’m going to go to the gym, and we don’t! We’ll say, I’m not going to eat that piece of chocolate, and then we eat it! We say one thing and we do another and therefore we become accustomed to ‘setting ourselves up for failure’. We say, I’m going to stay on this diet even if it kills me, and then we fall off it the first piece of chocolate cake that comes our way! We get in the habit of constantly set goals for ourselves and not achieving them and as a result we get stuck in a cycle of failing. Most of us are creatures of habit and sadly our biggest habit tends to become the ‘habit of failing’. This first month of your ‘mp’ I would like you to focus on reversing the cycle of failure that you’ve experienced through different diets and exercise programs in the past and focus on creating a ‘habit of achieving’. I want you to find success in this meal plan and lose weight and also keep it off, so be prepared to embark on a ‘season of change’.

So, in a nutshell, your first set of goals is as follows:

Walk everyday after work when you get home and focus on creating a habit that leads to success
Stretch every night to help your body relax so it can begin the process of fat flushing
Keep the meal plan to yourself and just smile when a little other people’s comments come around
Don’t focus on food, focus instead on breaking the cycle of failing that might exist in your life

Memorize these goals! There will be a test on them later so I want you to have them memorized. Write them on the tablet of your heart (or in your blackberry) and aspire to achieve them. Once you feel comfortable with these goals and feel you can handle some more, let me know and I’ll send some more your way.

Ok, so you’re probably wondering about that shopping list. I will give you a list of foods you can eat, and a list of foods that you cannot eat and I expect you to stick to it. If you find that you are totally famished at any point or feeling like you need me to switch things up at any point, then feel free to call me or text me at anytime. So, that’s it lady! When you’re done reading this and can make a commitment to yourself to follow the first set of goals, let me know and I will send you the shopping list!