Diet Challenge: More Fiber Less Starch

Jul 3, 2012 by Tatianna

 

Hello my Darlings,

Few weeks ago we did ” No Sugar Challenge ” which I really enjoy if I may add :), so this week I though it was time for another one. Today I asked your opinions about the challenge on my Facebook and most of you agreed that this week we should focus on lowering the amount of starchy carbohydrates that we consume and I wanted to add more fibrous carbs. The reason we do these challenges is to create better habits and change our eating approach over time instead of all at once.

When we take drastic measures in our diet such as changing the way we eat all at once we are setting our selves up for a fail, but when we slowly learn how to eat better our body has the time to adjust as well as our mind.

 

Now for this week’s challenge

 

This week we are going to focus on adding more high fiber vegetables and fruits every time we eat and limiting the amount of starchy carbs and grains to only one meal per day, your post workout meal.
Each meal you eat except for post workout meal must only include high fiber vegetable or fruit or both as your source of carbohydrates.

 

This is what your plate should look like every time you eat:

 

One-Two-Three

1 is Fat, 2 is Protein, 3 is High Fiber Carbohydrates. This is the ratio for all of your meals except your post workout meal.  The reason I wanted to give you this ratio is just a reminder of how we should eat.

In your post workout meal you can add a starchy carbohydrate of your choice but not a refined carbohydrate so it will still have a lot of fiber in it.

 

Now,  your post workout meal will look like this:

 

Zero-Two-Three

0 – is Fat ( the reason I marked it as a 0 because after our workout we want to keep the fat as low as possible or none at all. Fat slows down digestion and after our workout we need the nutrients to get to our muscles as fast as possible. 2 – will still be Protein, 3 – can be a starchy carb of your choice.

 

Here is a list of High Fiber vegetables which you will add to all of your meals as a carbs:

 

• Kale
• Collard
• Spinach
• Avocado
• Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts
• Carrots
• Garbanzo Beans ( not canned )
• Sweet Potatoes

 

List Of Fruits

 

• Apples
• Bananas ( ripe banana )
• Berries
• Guava
• Kiwi
• Orange
• pears

 

Carbs that you will only eat as you post workout meal

 

• Oats
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Buckwheat
• Any whole grain bread
• Regular potatoes
• Beans ( not canned )

 

Foods That You Should Avoid At all times during this challenge

 

• Anything refined or processed

 

Guys, we are only doing this challenge for a week and maybe 2 weeks if you wish, so everyone is gonna live and there is no need to panic. We are not doing any crash dieting here, we are just learning better habits.

If you are worried to not have enough energy for your workouts don’t be, to give you that great amount of energy make sure to have 1-2 bananas and a handful of mulberries as part of your carbs for breakfast, if you want to take it to the next level then I suggest drinking a cup of Yerba Mate Tea before your workout, that will give you wings right up :).

 

PS – if there is something you feel I should add to this challenged speak up :).

I also decided to add challenges section to the site.  Now in the Exercise & Workouts section you will find ” Challenges ” section, I will soon start to add fun exercise challenges in there.  In the Nutrition section I added ” Diet Challenges” page and this is where all of our diet challenges will be.

 

Have Fun with this challenge!

Tati