Day 1 - Let’s Get Started

So, you’ve got your journal; you’ve captured your starting point; you’ve figured out your why; and if there was any doubt about your physical readiness to start the 21 challenge you’ve checked in with your doc. Let’s get started.

I’m going to ask a favor.

Go “all in” for 21 days, starting today.

No grains, no sugar, no industrial oils, and no added garbage. And by no added garbage I mean no artificial sweeteners, no partially hydrolyzed this, or artificial color that. 

I’ve included a Primal Approved list of food that should make this pretty easy. And I’ll go over it in more detail tomorrow but let’s get started.

We’ll use breakfast as an example.

Eggs—however you want to prepare them—scrambled, fried, boiled, whatever turns you on. Use either butter, clean (uncured) bacon grease, pastured lard, ghee, avocado oil, or coconut oil for scrambling or frying.

Add a half of an avocado, a piece or two of bacon (uncured is preferable) and some type of veggies.

I’ll either sauté some spinach or mixed greens or I’ll go for fermented veggies like kimchi or kraut as a side with breakfast. I use Farmhouse Culture fermented veggies—Whole Foods carries their products.
Fermented veggies are a great way to get a helping of gut-healthy probiotics.

If you’re having to eat in a hurry try this: boiled eggs, some celery sticks, some cut up bell pepper and grab a piece of bacon on the way out the door.

For lunch, I frequently make my famous Big Ass Salad.

I use mixed greens, cucumber, red bell pepper, a half of an avocado, a boiled egg, some blueberries.

I add some goats milk cheese or feta (if dairy works for you any kind of full-fat cheese is good), some pumpkin seeds and some type of protein (salmon, chicken thigh, steak- whatever calls out to me).

For a dressing, I keep a container of 1 part vinegar (apple cider, balsamic, or white wine) and 3 parts olive or avocado oil and a squirt of Dijon or full grain mustard. The mustard helps keep the oil and the vinegar from separating.

For dinner, it’s some form of protein and a couple of veggies.

Maybe it’s roasted or grilled chicken thighs, some mushrooms sautéed in butter or ghee and some roasted or sautéed asparagus or broccoli.

And occasionally splurge with a desert – a few frozen cherries, a tablespoon of almond butter, and a tablespoon of coconut flakes.

That gives you an idea of what a day of meals looks like.

Tomorrow we will talk more about the overall food palette you can use to create your meals. But now let’s talk about two other pieces.

Today’s assignment:

First one – Move. Today. Go for a walk. The goal is to do this every day, but let’s start with today.  I may be throwing a lot of stuff at you, but you can thank me later.  Minimum 15 minutes, but 30 minutes is better. Take the stairs. You’re bright—start looking for opportunities to move more.

Second one – make sleep a non-negotiable. We’ll have a separate section on sleep but that BS about only needing a few hours of sleep a night is taking years off of your life.

Make sure you’re getting 7-8 hours of quality sleep a night.

You’ve got this. Let’s start building A Balanced You.